Dalby 2010, day 2

The grey skies broke up at little, and we got a task of 77 km direct to goal at Chinchilla airfield. It was a bit more windy than yesterday, and with more overcast conditions it looked like a difficult task.

I got a great tow straight into a nice thermal and got to cloudbase donwind off the airport, where I pushed into the wind to get upwind on course when starting form the startgate. It was gray to the east where the wind came from so it was a balance of staying over somewhat sunny terrain, while not drifting too much off the courseline in the 35 km/h winds. I had an OK run about halfway, but soon found myself under some very overcast conditions and no good clouds ahead. I got down to 500 meters, and were going downwind before I finally found a very weak and broken thermal that took me up to a 15.1:1 glide to goal.

The glide varied around the 15:1 angle all the way in, and I would not have made it if I did not get a small bit of good air just as I came in over the end of the runway, it gave me 50 more meters and enough to get into the 400 meters circle and land.

So a bit better than yesterdays disaster, but I was still slow today. It was a pretty nice flight despite the windy conditions, I hope we get some more sun tomorrow.