Day 1 highlights: the Deep end

First flight in Finland, first flight in different glider, first competition day of the Finnish Club Class Nationals.

I took off on runway 30, between the trees and over the lake at the end of 12 (where all the cool photos are taken). Up over the trees and all you can see is green. Everything for the 50km around you is all tree top. And you can't even seen the airfield as you are being towed directly away from it..

From what 1000' it starts looking much better and not to far related to flying in some areas in QLD. At 2000' I released off tow and followed the glider ahead of me into a broken but steady climb.

Before start the day picked up and we had good climbs to 3000'. One thing that I haven't experienced since the Junior world's last year is the gaggle flying. The pilots here are not shy. They are more than comfortable to fly super close to other gliders if maintaining a great separation would feel like a disadvantage in a gaggle thermal.

The 10 km ring around Räyskälä has almost no landing options. This will mean faster and more conservative final glides especially for me while I'm still very new to the area. Further afield and I don't see that I will be having much trouble with the terrain. It is something to be constantly aware of but that is the same flying from home. It is just a much lower thermal height here that means taking routing options that don't put you in a low position with nowhere to go.

A bit of logger trouble yesterday that separated my flight into two files with a 2 minute break, counting as an outlanding at 3000' 50km away.

I did eventually outland, but back at the airfield where quite a few did. This was on track crossing from East to the turnpoint out to the west. Approaching the field there was no sun on the ground and the sky was completely over developed. No climbs and 10km ahead of unlandable terrain.. Down to 850' and I dropped the gear and turned in for a nice landing back on 30.