I was back on my trusty Aspen 3 today, so it was more difficult to keep up with everyone else. Task today was 119km triangle, since it was "light" winds aloft and high base (about 12,000').
I had a heck of a time getting high after tagging the first TP, and grovelled for about 1 hour since I had to cross no-mans land between Farmer and Mansfield, and didn't fancy landing out there. So by the time I got high enough to make the crossing, I was super-late and had wasted a bunch of valuable flying time.
I met up with Ty in the middle of no-mans land and we were able to get up from about 500' over the ground back up to 12,000' in one thermal, with dust devils breaking off all around us. Then onwards to Leahy and that was a tough one to get too.
Flying back upwind to the soccer field was very slow...a bunch of us worked together to get high again about 11,000' and then it was on glide, hoping to find something else. But I was unable to find anything and ended up landing after 88km. Most of the other pilots in my group landed nearby or maybe 1-2km further on. Tracklog is here.
I was very tired after 5 hours in the air, pushing speedbar for most of it. But it was a good day and good task-setting. Less hassle with retrieve compared to yesterday (not so far to find people). But the clouds we were hoping for didn't materialize for the most part (except in isolated areas). I think they are predicted for tomorrow though...light winds and nice clouds means we'll have another epic task I'm sure!
No comments:
Post a Comment