Worlds 2013, day 4, task 3

Yesterdays task turned out to be a good day of flying, blue thermals and not much wind made it a good task. We all got away and flew around the startgate waiting for the time to pass until first start. I was on the edge of the start circle with around 30 other glider at the first start gate at 14:40, I wanted to wait until the 15:00 startgate, but it looked like the whole gaggle I was with took the first gate so I went with them.

It was slow going at first, but conditions turned on near the first TP after around 50 km. The lead gaggle from the next startgate caught up with us just before the second TP, but I made a mistake loosing the TP thermal and lost the gaggle there. I got low on final glide and had to spend a long time getting up in weak lift before Icould glide in to goal. Olav Lien Olsen, Johnny, Nils Aage and me made goal. Tormod landed near the first TP. Olav Opanger had instrument problems, landed and relaunched, and the instrument failed again before the first TP. Looks like it was defective batteries, even though they were brand new Lithium AA’s. Massive stroke of bad luck for him, and not good for the team scores.

Todays task is a bit longer, 200km dogleg into the eastern hills. Conditions similar to yesterday, but with more winds from the NW.