08 Januar 2013

Worlds 1st Day: 157km dogleg

Check out yesterdays results here! More photos on the DHV website!
A hot day with strong northerly winds, low base and no clouds led to a 157km dogleg task. The window opened at 2.15, most of us took the 2.30 window and we ended up in the gaggle of horror - everybody going into any kind of direction... just so glad that Im on a small glider that I can quickly turn around!
To go fast, you had to stay with the gaggle though, we only got up to about 1600m for most of the way (about 1300 above the ground), and with that strong wind the thermals were broken, it was easy to get low. I don´t know how many times I had a look at landing fields, but I was lucky and got up. Before goal, I slowed down and got really high, as I didn´t want to land in the strong headwind towards goal.
Christian Ciech won the day ahead of Alex Ploner, but Scott Barrett would have won it if he didnt have a flat gps, and his reserve had set his time back some seconds. When Christian got the day prize, he said that actuall Scott Barrett was the winner of the day.
Big congratulations to Chisato Nojiri from Japan - you see her on the photo in the row behind Francoise - she won the women´s score ahead of me by 3 minutes. Also Françoise and Kathleen made goal, so half the women got in. In these difficult conditions a really good start for the comp, as about half of the whole field got in.
Jörg from our team helped us a lot by calling out the lift, as he was always a few kms ahead of us. He, Christian and Gerd landed almost at the same time in goal, Lukas got there a bit later, then I made it. Roland landed 23km short and warned us of the strong headwind and the difficult, broken lift down low.
Today we have a rest day as it is blown out, it´s gusting up to 50km/h at the moment at the airfield, with even stronger wind up high. The trough should move through today, and we expect cooler air tomorrow, blue sky again, wind from the south. Looks like flyable weather for at least 5 consecutive days, so we have a rest today and catch up with the internet work. Sorry if Im late sometimes, but the access at headquarters seems limited, and only at the Mezzanine Cafe we have a faster wireless internet. Please check out my Twitters and Facebook for updates on tasks and results!


Keine Kommentare: