Day 4

After a long and uneventful day of rest today listening to the rain fall I have been able to process what happened yesterday... I've narrowed it down to three major sections of the flight where it all went pear shaped; my start, middle and final glide.. Well not quite that bad. It was a 320km Racing task, I started with a cirrus and 10 minutes behind Adam hoping to catch the small group that he was with. Into the first turn and I was already close. So were lots of other gliders. Quite a gaggle was forming around Adam and his starting group. They had a good climb out of the turn, I came in underneath with few others though I was still a few 100ft below them and just couldn't make sense of the climb. The core I had was at least 2kts weaker then what Adam was calling 2000ft above and I was visibly dropping away from the few that were just above. I missed the bubble. I searched around and found a better climb a few km further along and took that to about 3500' and set off to the next climb. I snagged a good climb and rocketed up to cloud base at around 5000'. Through the second turn the swarm of gliders Adam was with was a solid climb ahead. Obviously they'd had a good run too. I pulled into a ripper thermal just under two 20m class gliders and again rocketed back up to cloud base. I was hot on the heels of the gaggle.

Organised Chaos..

We were running a very nice convergence line now but quite a way off track and had to jump across to a smaller street with a band of showers to fly through. The gaggle made the jump but I wanted a climb right to base before I would do the same. And to spice it up the terrain up here is getting gnarly adding to my reluctance to get back on track. I'm now in a scrappy climb with Standard Class gliders near their turn point and I follow them across to the next street and back on track for the Club Class turn point. This deviation cost me heaps of time and I was now well behind the gaggle because they found a very good climb on the other side of the rain.. Still with Standard class guys I take a very good climb a I'm back to base. I split the gap between two showers and head to the third turn.

The way back and now heading for the fourth and final turn point was a little soft but i had to play it conservatively.

This was actually an attmpted photo of a rainbow but you can see what the country is like..

The turn point was inside a heavy looking shower and I was 10 km behind Adam and the gaggle. Adam called entering rain at 4600' and losing height fast. I took a good climb up to cloud base on the edge of a wide blue hole right where I need it knowing I wouldn't get a climb before being spat out the other side of the rain. best L/D across the hole and into the rain at about 4800'. Through the turn point still in rain losing height fast I headed to the nearest area of sun following Adams advice and clearly the best option. I had a reasonable climb there and used the bug wipers to wipe most of the water off. I headed for home along the street and right at 49km struck a ripper thermal right where Adam had left it. back to cloud base I ran the street until it started bending right and looking dark, showery and over developed. I decided to jump off the convergence to newer looking clouds more direct on track to find my last climb before the airfield. It wasn't as good as I wanted but it was the last option before the airfield so I hung on until I had enough height for a comfortable glide home.

So the big lesson for the day was about when you should and shouldn't be scared of the dark clouds, when to just go with it and not worry about the water falling out of the other side.

Quite a slow day, I know where I went wrong and what I need to do to fly that flight better.