Competition day 6

AAT of 3 hours. The weather was blue and the thermals not so good.

We waited a lot. I saw WG going by himself and thought about going with him. But I stayed. The group was going and I went right behind them. I was on the far south end of the starting line. With a northerly flow not optimal, but it was the best place to stay. I winded up with some open class gliders who were going to the far south side of the first sector. Again not optimal, but the other choice was to go by myself in some difficult weather. There were three other standard class gliders with me and after the flight they told me they had the same thought as I had. A lesson learned: I was too conservative, the other standard class gliders would probably have followed me (or I them). The second leg was bad. Bad thermals and they were very hard to find. The open class was going to the east side of the second sector and this time I decided to go by myself. It was a good decision, because I saw them coming low near the hills. I just touched the second sector and took things slow. A bit too slow maybe, because there were still thermals of 1-2 m/s. I was just too afraid of coming below 1200m where thermals were not the best.

I think I made the best out of the wrong decision on the first leg. The winner just touched the first sector and the far end in the second sector. Apparently the weather was better there. That’s flying AAT over unknown countryside! 17th place of 54.

This night I had a very good and long sleep. I think I needed one. The rumor was that’s today was going to be a very good day. I was ready to go and up for a very fast flight, but unfortunately a cold front is coming too close. A very short task and a short usable time for flying. It takes them 1,5 hours to take up all the gliders and standard class is last (I’m even in the last line!). Let’s hope for some flying. If not: the car is ready to drive to the beach :)