Woohoo!

http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day7.html

Another 40 degree day in Benalla, and we finally got clouds. Just not the sort we wanted. They looked very wavy, so we all had thoughts of climbing to 10,000 feet before starting the task.

Turned out the thermals were tricky to use near the hills, probably because the wave above and ground winds were different directions and the day was still heating up.

I had a good day, not getting too low and finding climbs when I needed them. Due to the cloud build up, we had to fly to the sunny patches on the ground, or where they were 10 minutes ago. Although not cumulus, it was a good change to have something to fly to.

I had a good glide back to the airfield, finding climbs on the Warby hills to top up to get home, while many others spent time trying to find a thermal.

Ian made a mistake today, and missed the last turnpoint. On some days (AAT tasks) we have a 3km circle around it, today was a 0.5km circle (Racing task). He turned at the 3km mark meaning he never reached the turnpoint, and was marked as a virtual landout. So I'm now 165 points ahead, with one day to go.

We're not sure if we're flying tomorrow, it sounds like a front is coming through bringing showers, wind and possible thunderstorms. Tomorrow night we have dinner and prize giving.

What the flarm looks like while flying with lots of other gliders. It's not as busy as it can be. I was taking photos after all...

Wave over the mountains just as we were starting. The open class gliders managed to climb up into it to start, at 10,000 feet

On track half way around

It's like living in an aviary around the airfield

Yes, today we flew into the hills. I won't say mountains, as there are some big mountains nearby where they ski and everything, however today was just into the hills.

I really enjoyed today, great scenery, not as much sink around (for me at least), and had other people to fly with. Unfortunately we were still too slow, and only achieved 99km/h compared to the day winner of 114km/h.

Todays Results:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day6.html

My points: 735 Total: 4495
Ian McCallum: 785 Total: 4901

Now 406 points difference.

Looking at the forecast, Friday was 90% chance of rain, down to 60%, so people are thinking we may fly now. Which is good, so we have 2 days to catch up 406 points.

High cloud tanted us before launch

Who says Australia is flat?

Our tracks today, I'm the red line if you can make it out.

Goodness, valleys? Water? Hills? Trees? All we need now are some cumulus...

Yesterday was a good day of flying, although didn't get quite as hot as predicted. Cloudbase was around 6000 feet max.

I managed to get out on track alone, which was my first mistake. I did meet up with Bryan Hayhow in his Discus CS, and we had a good run to the second turnpoint. From there though I pushed on, and missed a climb right when I needed one, before crossing a river south.

I ended up low, down to 1700 feet above the ground, which means much slower climbs. It is just essential not to get low, otherwise your average speed is greatly reduced. I stumbled along low for a while, and just as I was getting back up to a decent height, there was a sight to behold. 20 gliders at various heights coming straight for me. I've never seen anything like it. And I couldn't do anything about it, except climb up and join them.

After that it was simply a matter of cruising with the gaggle until home.

Yesterday made clear just how imprtant competition tactics are, and today we will not be going out alone.

There's a lot of talk about single start line vs multiple start circles here. One argument against a start line is we end up with these giant gaggles like we did yesterday. Everyone sits behind the start line waiting for someone else to start. The problem with starting before the gaggle is it's easy to miss one climb, and get swallowed up by it, just like I did yesterday.

My score for yesterday was 799 points, with Ian McCallum on 916, so I lost a bit of ground. Two days to go, with 356 points to catch up. Friday looks like it will be raining.
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day5.html

I'm completely flabberghasted, but I actually won a day.

Maybe those years grovelling around between 2000 and 5000 feet in Matamata finally paid off, as I don't think we were above that all day. Low for the Aussies, normal for us?

We finally got a final glide pretty much bang on, without ending up with too much height at the finish line. It helped there were other gliders coming in at the same time, and a very good flight computer in the Ventus. My confidence in it for final glides is growing.

One low point, down to 2000 feet above the ground, but again saved by someone else who found a good strong thermal next to the crappy one I found. Flying with others is just so important on a blue day with no clouds.

Ian is now 224 points ahead of me in the total scores for the Tasman Trophy. He was just 97 points behind me today.

Some stronger days coming by the forecasts, 8000 feet predicted for tomorrow. Thanks everyone for all the messages of support.

Results here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day4.html

Task here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/task/day4.html

The secret to a cold drink. Giant icecubes from plastic cups. Also been trying the sports drink powder. It works well, I like it. Add apple juice as well for taste.

It was a rough weekend. Raining yesterday, so we went for café tour into the mountains.

Well done to the guys who flew in the Omarama Multiclass Nationals. Congrats to Alan for third in the 15m class. Final results are available here:
http://www.glidingcomps.42.net.nz/nat2013/ 

Also I see Dave is selling his Discus CS after the contest, details on his blog:
http://discuscs.blogspot.com/2013/01/made-it.html

We are flying today, and looks like a good few days of flying ahead.

Bailey's winery near Glenrowan, where Ned Kelly made his final stand

Andy and Brian enjoying a cycling café in Bright, an alpine town popular for mountain biking.

Weather was pre-frontal high cloud today, so no heating, and rain tomorrow. Things look good again from Monday. Today we enjoyed the sights and sounds of Wangaratta, about 30 mins drive north of Benalla. A winery for lunch, followed by a movie. Drive up to Mt Buffalo tomorrow.

Until Monday...

Another 40 degree day today was forecast but didn't quite make it on the ground.

Todays goals were to not make mistakes, not get low and bogged down, and keep up with people who knew what they were doing.

The task was set to be an AAT between 262.3km and 603.6km with 3 hours 30 mins to do it. We had a good start with a few other gliders and tried to choose our climbs carefully, only using those that were strong. I flew with the class points leader through some of the softer areas of the task, and that was very interesting seeing when he left climbs, and which climbs he ignored. He also flies very smoothly, which is good as it reduces drag.

We managed to make one big stuff up, and that was coming back 5 minutes early. In an AAT task, if you come back before time is up, you are scored as if you took the full amount of time. If you come back too late, then a smaller percentage of your flight is final glide, so the goal is to come home just after the time is up. What I should have done is used the 5 minutes to go into the 'keyhole', the final turnpoint and that would have improved our speed.

The task can be seen here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/task/day3.html

And results here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day3.html 

311 points behind Ian McCullum, our Tasman Trophy archnemesis. Actually for an archnemesis, he's a really nice guy.

The grid. Again. Much like other grids.

They have water in Australia. Most of it isn't very deep, and with trees in it.

The mighty Ventus C. Again. One day I'll figure out some original photos to take.

PS. If anyone is interested, my SPOT page is available here, something should show up once I start flying around 1:30pm tomorrow (3:30pm NZ time):
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0A22JxOZH5zbv2PqH8Ys1UfrHWRqxHzOX 

Well, we didn't do very well today. Amazing how back home getting around usually guarantees a lot of points. Not here. We were just too slow. Managed 12th place with a speed of 78km/h vs the winners over 100km/h.

Only flying around 3000-5000 feet today.

Lots of lessons today,

Another 40 degree day today, which should push the thermals higher. Looking forward to it!