NZ Sailplane Grand Prix 2019

Matamata, New Zealand,   December 27, 2019 – December 31, 2019

Champions

Sailplane GP
1 XB Brett Hunter 22
2 OB Mark Tingey 15
3 VR David Jensen 14
F1 GP
1 VC Steve Care 34
2 BA Tim Bromhead 33
3 XP Tony Davies 28

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Day 4 - Waiting, Waiting, Waiting ..... Waiting ... Go Go Go

The ridge still isnt clear of cloud, but there are some blue gaps appearing and we can at least see the trees on the ridge.

We've called a short task, with launch delayed until 2pm. We will make a final decision then.

Update: Looking better. Still waiting on a 2pm decision.

Update 2: Looking fantastic, considering the forecast for today. We're underway.

Written by: Rob Lyon on December 29, 2019 at 11:45 PM.
Edited by: Rob Lyon on December 30, 2019 at 2:24 AM.

It's Blowing 20kts from the west. I wonder if the ridge is working .....

OK - day 2. Looks like its a westerly, looks like its going to be a ridge day. In other news, water is wet. The challenge with ridge days is always how to get the gliders off the ridge to provide some challenge without dumping somebody in a paddock north of the swamp somewhere. Todays tasks managed that aim pretty well. First lesson from yesterday, the start gate max height needs to be lower. We fixed that issue dropping the max height down to just a little above ridge height and pushing the gli...
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Written by: Rob Lyon on December 28, 2019 at 10:17 AM.

Day 1

A hectic day 1 is over.   Day one is always madness for the contest organizers. Nothing works right, the briefing is twice as long as normal and it always feels like the contest director (that would be me) has no clue what he's doing. However, things usually come together, and lauch started just after 1pm and went reasonably smoothly from there. Weather-wise, things turned out slightly better than forecast, with some clear cloud markers at the start of the day and throught the day. As expected a...
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Written by: Rob Lyon on December 27, 2019 at 4:54 AM.

Grand Prix Racing is On the Menu

Sailplane GP racing is a fast demanding and highly competitive race between beautiful and highly developed sailplanes using only the suns energy as their power source. Grand Prix racing in sailplanes is the most competitive, exciting and exhilarating form of sailplane racing, it requires great concentration and skill to seek out and make the best use of the available energy in the air and at the same time employ tactics to gain an edge over the other competitors. The easy to understand format ma...
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Written on December 21, 2019 at 2:41 AM.

Latest winner

1. Brett Hunter 165.51 km/h
2. David Jensen 162.56 km/h
3. Adrian Cable 161.91 km/h
Updated: 12/30/19, 5:47 PM
1. Steve Care 152.66 km/h
2. David Johnson 147.15 km/h
3. Tim Bromhead 147.73 km/h
Updated: 12/30/19, 5:48 PM

Latest task

Task 4, Dec 30, 2019
Task distance: 179.90 km
Updated: 12/30/19, 12:26 PM
Task 4, Dec 30, 2019
Task distance: 144.90 km
Updated: 12/30/19, 12:56 PM