Köping – Day 2 and 3

On day 2 We got a 84km task to the South, back north past Köping and back again. The weather was a little better than the day before, with less winds. Still it was clearly going to overdevelop, so we all got ready early. I towed as number 4, but had to release just after takeoff to avoid a lockout. Then I was in the back of the line, and waited for more than 1 hour to get back up again. Jon, Olav and Robin was well away on the task by the time I got my second tow, and the sky was full of showers from collapsing cumulus clouds.

I got a nice tow by Kai to over the golf club, and released into a weak thermal that got me to about 1300 meters before it started to snow from the cloud above. I went on glide towards south, and found a nice 4 m/s thermal from 300 meters above the ground just where I thought it should be. I got to about 1800 meters before it started to snow, but at this height the snow was dry and did not stick to the glider so I got above 2000 meters before I went on glide. The path ahead was crossing under a cloudstreet that had overdeveloped and I could barely see through the snow. I aimed for for some sunny fields ahead, but could not find any useful lift. I searched the area for some time as it was pointless gliding on with no sun ahead. I slowly fell through, and landed just 20 km out in the task 9 km from the first TP.

Robin landed at the first TP, Olav made second TP, while Jon made it almost to goal. Only Johan Dalquist made goal with a rigid wing. Arnt, Bjørn and Johnny could not get away from the field.

Day 3 was even more unstable than the day before, and we decided it was pointless even setting up. Jon and Robin flew, but did not make it far. The forecast was bad for day 4, and we packed up to go home.

It was a nice comp, Köping is a very nice flying site that has potential for some really good tasks. One pilot set a new swedish record from Köping a few weeks before with a 245km flight, he landed almost in Norway.