The final day we had a gray day with a high layer of cirrus clouds, we drove out to take off and set up after waiting for a while. Cumulus clouds were building and we got a task of flying straight back to Brasilia, 72 km. I took of quite late, as the conditions were slow to be waiting for the start gate for one hour. I took the first start with what seemed like everyone else, quite a sight when 110 gliders go on glide together. Conditions were slow but reliable, we got some weak lift and I stayed with my gaggle until the forest. Most pilots went to the left of the course line, while I went to a good looking cloudstreet to the right with a few other gliders. We got up and stayed under the clouds until the end of the street. We caught up with a few other gliders 30 km out from goal, and I got stuck there for a while in zero lift. The leading gaggle caught and passed us there when they got good lift to the left of us. Coming up on goal it was very weak conditions, we had to stop and thermal a few more times. A few other gliders were 100 meters above me and a little in front, when they went on final glide my instrument said I would make it, but I stayed to gain more altitude as I was not sure there would be more lift. Nils Åge was on final, but I could not get any info about his glide on the radio. As the glide came down to 13 /1 I went on glide, and of course got lots of lift when I did not need it anymore. I got to goal at 58. place, 10 minutes after Nils Åge, Olav came in 10 minutes after me. Johnny got low and landed after 13 km. We actually got some good flying out of a crap day, very nice to get to goal on the last day.
Manfred won again with a good margin, Robert Reisinger also had a solid 2. place, while Antoine hung on to third by a few points. None of us did well in the overall results, I’ll summarize later on why and what we learned.

The prize giving was great with more than 1000 people at the party. We gave up at 03:30, while some pilots came back at 07:30 this morning.

We pack gliders and equipment, Nils Åge, Olav and Fredrik travel back on Tuesday, while Johnny and I have to wait until Thursday.