| Open | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TD | Tony Van Dyk | 1,887 |
| 2 | XS | Graham White | 1,856 |
| 3 | LK | Robert Laskey | 1,730 |
Well it would have been nice to end on a boomer day, but it turned out quite difficult. The forecast was for good conditions in the area from Norsewood north, however the westerly wind was stronger at lower levels than forecast and sheared off the thermals and blued out the Takapau plains.
The conditions after launch were good with 3-6knt thermals to 5500ft, and for the start of the first leg to Kereru similar, but with some big gaps. Then it got progressively harder, although getting down to Norsewood wasn't too difficult. By then the sky was largely blue except for a long way to the east. Some pilots went that way, but the faster? finishers went directly on track and found a few reasonable climbs to get north again. The next leg south to Ormondville was a challenge, with just enough lift about in the blue to get us there and then a final glide around the last turn and home. All that effort for a 73km/hr flight when it promised to be 100+kph task when we launched.
Quite a few finishers in open but neither World class went enough for a day, although they tried.
Tony Van Dyk took home the open trophy and Robert Laskey the club class, with Richard Keir holding on to the world class trophy again. Congratulations all and a big thankyou to all the volunteer help, next year the central districts will be held in Greytown in the Wairarapa so come and join a friendly, relaxed contest. Start planning now.
Cheers GW
A no contest day today with the clearence coming too late for a task, but about half the feild flew and took advantage of some good wave. As met man I thought I had better fly as I had called a clearence and useable wave from 2pm local time. It was closer to 3pm but the wave was there and strong too - 8-10knts at times with 6knts average. It was one of those days when the sky east of the Manawatu gorge was clear and allowed me to fly south to Featherston and return, an olc distance of 452km at 1...
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No fly again today, lots of wind and a bit of rain. Tomorrow? maybe if the front clears early enough. Cheers GW
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No fly day today with high cloud, wind and then rain. It is raining steadily here tonight and there are showers forecast for tomorrow. Clearing on Friday maybe early enough for a task? We had a BBQ again tonight and thanks to all the helpers for a great meal following a wine tasting. Hugh de Latour showed a video of his air safari through southern africa. Cheers GW
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Another good day today with an experiment with task minimum time, which didn't achieve what I'd hoped, however some good conditions to enjoy. I'd like to post the results but soaring spot is telling me I have an outdated version of seeyou, well it was only downloaded two days ago, and there aren't any updates. Oh well, I will try again tomorrow. Cheers GW
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Another good day at the start with high cirrus coming over the task area after the launch. It looked pretty hopeless but there were good thermals marked by little wisps of cumulus. Just as it got a bit difficult mid task, the cirrus thinned out and good cu's developed. So again most pilots back, but not without a challenge. I still have some loggers to download, and some issues with three files, thanks to the start going through the change of date with UTC time. It looks like continuing NE winds...
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Today turned out better than yesterday with a slightly larger area to play in. The scores are there with the international script and may change when i update it. Thermals started late, as they do when there is complete cloud cover until about 10.30am, but picked up to good 4-5 knts in places. The resident convergence set up in the mid afternoon to allow most pilots to complete. The day was complete with a tasty BBQ in the evening, and everyone went to bed smiling, except myself as my scoring p...
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Today was hot and humid with an easterly wind. Thermals popped a bit after 12 and most gliders had launched by 2.30pm. We had a short task for the day but most pilots elected to fly around the general area for a look see. Vaughn Ruddick had a pleasant flight over to Mt Ngauruhoe in the central north island, quite an adventure from here. Tomorrow is supposed to be similar conditions, but depends on the track of the tropical cyclone to the north of us. Late afternoon overdevelopment looks like bei...
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