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 gliders directly into wind away from the ridge for the first turnpoint. The aim was to get everyone back by about 800 to 1000' feet which we managed pretty well. From there its a fast run north to Thames and beyond for both classes.

On the way back, pushing both classes out over the Waitoa dairy breaks up the usual Milk Run around Te Aroha and makes everyone think a little before getting back on the ridge for a fast zoom down to the Golf Ball.

We're still working on getting the last of the kinks out of the cell-phone based live tracking. But a small crowd enjoyed the race live from the clubhouse - mostly by screaming at the screen " No No not that way ! Go faster !!! Woo Hoo !!!"

Overall, a good fast day in mostly blue conditions but using the Kaimai ridge to its best saw speeds over 130Km for the fast class and around 115Km for the F1 GP guys.