Monday, February 05, 2007

Manilla Day 1

The comp is looking good with a few internationals pilots here and the weather shaping up for a good week. After a easy drive up the new and improved 2 wheel drive road to Mt Borah we set up and then got the latest weather reports from Godfrey. The task comittee being myself,scott and Bruce decided on a downwind task to Moree of 151kms. The winds were supposed to get upto 25knts at 10,000ft so our original out and return task was cancelled. Window opened at 12.30pm and it was not untill about 1pm the first pilot launched. I launched around 2:00pm and climbed out for the 2:15pm start gate. I did a 25kms first glide and soon found myself low and scratching in the leighside of a hill, umm not real smart but I hung in there as I watch the others fly over me high. I knew it was a long task so I just needed to get high and then try and catch up. The weather was starting to get good and I soon found myself at 3,700m with the leaders now lower in front of me sinking out bad. I took a diferent line to th east and bypassed nearly all of them except for Atilla. We were now about 65kms out from goal and nearly on final but we stopped at the 49kms mark and topped out. After all I was with atilla and he was not in the comp so I did not push to hard and was doing between 120-150kms groundspeed for the 49km final glide. I made the task in 1 hr 56 mins averaging around 75kmph. There was about dozen pilots in goal and many happy pilots with some doing their personal best in more than one way. It was abouta 2 hour drive home and many pilots arrived back late after spending time finding team mates in various places. Today is looking good so hopefully the comp will be great.