For myself, with another very good competitor just 20 points behind me and first place maybe within grasp, I decided to throw caution to the wind and take an unusual track on the leg back south. Bad idea...resulted in a very slow and low struggle to get back in the game. Yet again I found myself at Tahuna below a 1000ft AGL ruing a missed opportunity...however you live and learn.
I think for the top 3 places in the standard class it was a fair result. Last year in the club class (which where essentially the same pilots in this year standard class) I ended up second, this year third or forth...I'm not sure. Update...I ended up fifth...out of 15...given that they scored the ASW27's in the same class...more practise required...
The mighty JS1 suffered a similar outcome with the local pilot under pressure to beat a past world championship place getter...
With no more 15 meter gliders being produced (except maybe under license and in Eastern block countries) I think the long term outlook for the Standard/15 meter class is time limited. The last real new purpose built gliders in this class were the ASW27 (an outstanding glider), Discus 2, Lak 17a, and LS8 (also very good). A few of the later 18 meter gliders had removable tips but really the glider had been designed for the 18 meter class.
This means one of two things...either the class will remain highly competitive as a flash new model won't detract from the outcome, or the pilots will slowly migrate to the 18/Open class....we will see.
If the class gets too small it may go the way of the PW5/sports class in NZ...which is really struggling for numbers...which is sad as I started my contest life in a PW5...4 or 5 times. Ahhh, those days of gliding off into the blue hoping to make the next cloud...and if that cloud failed to work you were on the ground 10 minutes later...still it developed stick-ability, and plenty of out-landing practise. I've now met 40 different farmers...albeit one chap twice...and I've landed on our own airstrip twice so do I count Lesley as a chap...or chapess, or, or ???
However I have digressed again...a good week and a half...slightly weird to finish on a Wednesday. I still think that the day that was cancelled after we had all started was a wee glimpse of how things maybe moving in the future...the days of everybody landing out might be over.
NZ won the Trans-Tasman...will done Tim...well done indeed. You beat me on 2 or 3 days, we can't have that...time I picked my game up a bit. The Aussie competitor was an outstanding bloke as well...
But I've had enough of gliding for the meantime. Off to walk the Hollyford Track in 2 weeks...not a glider in sight...and no blokes in funny white floppy hats...
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