Another day in paradise, with a tricky day, which had a couple of minor casualites.
A could of entrants, Ross and Adam have departed due to other commitments and a pesky cold.
We also had two incidents to aircraft. The first was Taupo's pawnee going into an airstrip for a retrieve, and having an undercarriage collapse (not the same way as our tow plane).
The second was damage to the wheel hub of the Lebelle going into a field.
Both are hoping to be fixed today, with spare parts available from several sources.
Overall we had 4 from the club class get home, with Steve Wallace winning the day. I managed second place, after getting stuck in a hole at Atiamuri (again) for half an hour. When will I learn to stay out of there?! It took three climbs to get out, but the clouds kept disintegrating on me.
Once we were back on track things improved, but it was easy to miss a needed climb and end up in lots of sink. So staying high was the goal.
I'm amazed at the RASP how accurate it was yesterday. For example, those who flew down the ranges on the west of the lake didn't have much luck. There was better lift between the range and the lake. Which is exaclty what the convergence predicitions show.
Today should be better, with much more steady thermal strengths everywhere, although could be blue around here.
Results http://www.soaringspot.com/nzclub2013/results/club/daily/day7.html
