Good Golly Miss Molly...a gliding contest that only cost me $50....
The last day was a roller coaster ride of up's and down's and the odd sideways lurch..
Would we task or not?? We didn't really know until 15 minutes before the 1.30pm cut off.
Off tow and into a sky with a 2500ft cloud base with weak broken thermals and the start gate area blue'ing out.
Off we went, starting at 2700ft. Top up at the Cambridge Hills, followed by the now common dive into Maungataurai at low level. Rough climb to the top and then dive over the back into the best thermal of the day. Vario decided at this point to under-read by 3 knots...so you would be climbing with the gadget making the "going down sound"...
Low level tip toe into Tokoroa. Arrived at 600ft above ground, found a weak climb (despite the averager saying 2 knots down). slow climb back to 4000ft. Back towards Atiamuri...and then an easy run home.
Surprisingly, second for the day and second overall. I wrote out a cheque for $550 (tows, aero-retrieve from Tokoroa, entry fee etc) and received a cheque in return for $500.
A week that really never had any great days, mostly low level, difficult weather. I never got higher than 4500ft for the whole week. I guess it demonstrates what can be achieved in a glider on days that you would usually give up and go home.
The overall winner and the club class winner were the best pilots for the week (so the contest achieved it's aim), the rest of us were also ran's.
It was a week where we got to watch the new Duo in action. My little Discus appears to out-climb it in a thermal although my wing loader was a little less. If anyone was serious about entering GXT in a contest I'd suggest we take the engine out for the week. It add's to the workload, and more importantly the decision making drama when you get low. The 3 low saves I managed during the week (all at about 7-1000ft above the ground) would have caused a Duo turbo pilot a problem...you are still carrying all that weight and when to do start the motor. Take the motor out, use lots of water ballast and accept the likely hood of landing out...ie take the trailer over.
Thanks to the organising team...especially the contest director who claims this is his last contest (time will tell...would he CD a Worlds in Omarama???)
