Auckland Soaring Championship

Final report.

Saturday practice was initially looking OK then it rained so all gliders were put back to bed.

The forecast for Sunday, Day 1 wasn't looking much better, but the possibility of a few blue spots opening were encouraging. 

The task was to collect bonus points at Hotel DuVin, Matamata and Te Kuiti, extra bonus points were on offer for flying over the sea.

The conditions were very good just south of the field with honest clouds most of the way to Matamata, whereupon conditions deteriorated dramatically with 8/8ths cloud cover. Most made it out to the north and back into some sun and excellent conditions for the ride home. No one went south of Matamata or anywhere near Te Kuiti.

John Robertson and Tim Bromhead took the clouds running across Mercer and then south west to Raglan, John running over the Raglan entrance to get the sea points. Tim was being overly enterprising and gathered sea points at the base of the Firth of Thames and again over the west coast, the scorers saw through this cheap trick and only gave him one set of sea points. This was mostly academic as Tim won the day with John a close second.

The usual land out specialist did complete another safe land out at Bombay only 9.5kms from goal.

The forecast for the rest of the week was only getting worse so the comp was called off on Monday morning with prize giving Monday evening. Simone Gault cooked Pizza for everyone, which was well received and that was that for another year.

Winner, Tim Bromhead, Second John Robertson and Third Conal Edwards.

Special mention to Keith Macy, who gained a number of PB’s in his first competition and a 7th place.

Thanks to all the helpers who give their time without reward, especially those who came from the south island, either compete or be meet director in Geoff Soper’s case.

See you all next year

Cheers Anton.