Before launch opened a couple of smallish dusties blew through all the wings, followed by a big one about 200 meters away. I was ready 20 minutes after launch opened, but everyone else had moved their plans forward too, so there were only around 20 pilots left on launch. At this point the wind switched; it varied between 90 degrees cross to straight over the back. We all baked in the heat, watching all the other pilots climb out, worried if another dustie would appear, wondering if we were going to get off the hill. A pretty stressful, unpleasant experience. There were a couple of ‘dodgy launches’ in little lulls and, just after the race had started, we got a decent cycle and got off the hill.
Like yesterday, we struggled to climb out; like yesterday, I found some lift away from the hill. A few pilots followed me but most seemed to stay kicking the treetops. Straight up over the peak, I climbed to 11,500 ft pretty quickly as the main gaggle came in below me, already back from the start. A couple of gliders had flown off a bit earlier, I was by myself and could have got a little higher but I saw a couple of fluffy clouds on the route to the start and decided to head out.
Slow going into the wind, got the turn-point, back to the main LZ with maybe 600 ft of clearance and slowly climbed out in weak lift. I headed South on the main ridge; a few pilots were following the ridge back North. It’s hard to accurately judge the position of another glider, but it certainly looked as though some gliders were going over the back of the ridge very low; I’m a wimp and stayed out in front.I got the turn-point in the South, and had a choice of coming back up the ridge or flying directly NW to the next turnpoint. There were enough little clouds that I took the direct route. Lots of bumpy convergence, with my vario making very strange noises, led me to the next turn-point. At this point, I should have flown to a peak over the lake but I was pretty tired. I’ve flown four days straight in pretty strong conditions and today seemed like hard work. I headed back to the main ridge with plenty of altitude trying to decide whether to go on or to ‘throw in the sponge’. When I saw goal, it seemed to suck my glider towards it, and I landed there, missing out the last 3 turn-points.
To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a ‘bad-weather day’ tomorrow – but the forecast is excellent. Damn! I’ll see how I feel in the morning, but the idea of a nice, relaxing hike is pretty attractive.
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