50:50

Date: 12/08/07
Flight: http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1487122943
Stats: 101FAI Triangle, 71.56km/hr; 2.2kt avg climb (39% Climbing); 32.3:1 L/D for 8.1km glides = not very impressive...

However, had a nice day out. Was a fairly straight forward sort of flight, however was challenging enough to keep me on the move.

Jo, Richard and I all crossed the start line together at approx the same height. I had a really good run up the first 33km. Again it was a blue day, however only light and variable winds for a strange change up to 3,500AGL. Nothing spectacular to talk about here, however, after 2 climbs I arrived at Dalby after doing 96km/hr!

Unfortunately, it turned pear shaped from there. I turned Dalby @ 2000AGL and went looking for my next big climb. At this point, I should say that there was thick higher level cloud in patches. So although a semi warm day, you still had to be careful to stay out of the shaded areas..

Anyways, I pushed on from Dalby and couldn't have had a worse run: 26:1 for 11km. It was from that point on that I lost out on big speed points. I grovelled from there on really, took me 15min to get out 640' up to 2000AGL again before I felt like I could press on.

Unfortunately, I never did connect with the big climbs that others were reporting again. This was a problem for me, as even though it was a fun club weekend, I still wanted to push on and go faster. Driving myself lower again, 2 x under 1000' saves I finally climb back to 3000AGL again. The last climb I forced myself to take high, as some major shadow was cast in front.

A couple of weak low down climbs later, and I was on a marginal final glide - so marginal that I rolled across the line! But I will explain how that happened, it wasn't that bad... I finished at 80kts on base leg, made a 90* left hand turn onto finals. Made a normal landing and rolled off to the hangar side of the field. Later on, I analysed my trace, and if I wouldn't have gone towards the hangars, I wouldn't have finished!!

For some readers, Sorry to get your heart rate up!

WPP

P.s. The subject is 50:50, as it's now the 2nd out of 4 tasks that I've completed! So who knows what'll happen next weekend...