Manilla 2010, last day

Out and return’ish task, to Barraba, back via a few turnpoints on the west and south site of Borah, and to goal at the Manilla airfield. Conditions were tricky at lauch, with tailwind and cross, but some launchable periods now and then. The forecast predicted North East so Grant, Niel and I went down to the NE launch, after waiting around a bit on the west side.

Conditions there were good while we set up, but after the first 4-5 pilots had gotten off we got stuck in tailwind for 20 minutes while the first gaggle with Johnny, Dave, Scott  and a few others got up and away. When a thermal cam through we quickly got out, and had a bit of a struggle to get up. Conrad and Niel landed at the bombout, while Grant and I got up with Atilla just above us. (Atilla was freeflying and did the same task as the comp)

Nobody got off any of the other launches while we got up and away, I wish I had taken a photo of the hill with gliders on every launch, and all the windsocks showing tailwind.

I found the thermals to be broken and weak, and this continued the rest of the day for our little gaggle. We almost glided to the deck on the first glide but got up in crap lift under the clouds, and spent a long time getting to the first turnpoint. The clouds did not work for us, and every thermal was a surge and then nothing. It will be interesting to look at out tracklogs and see where the gaggle behind found better lift, and if it was timing or courseline that did not work.

Going back towards the second TP we met the gaggle that started 45 minutes behind us, so it was very clear that we were in the shit and just had lost any chance of a good score that day. Atilla got ahead to the second TP, where we got to cloudbase for the first time, but when Grant and I got there he was low and struggling in the hills. We just kept on getting weak lift never getting high again, but finally got to goal after being passed by another gaggle just before the last TP.

At goal we were just laughing about the day, what a struggle. Dave Sieb did an impressive flight and won the day by a huge margin. Johnny won overall, Conrad second and Scott third. I got fourth place overall in the end. Full results here;

http://soaringspot.com/nswhgstatecomp/results/flex/total/day5.html

Manilla was a good comp, after two days of rain we got 5 days with some really good flying conditions, Monica and her minions did a good job of running the show, and the pilots seemed happy with the flying. Lars Olav did a great job as our driver, and we had no dramas getting picked up.

I’m heading back to Sydney today, as we finally have a place to live there, and we move in on Monday. The next competition here is in Dalby in Queensland in 3 weeks.