Today is practise day 2. The wind is pretty strong, enough to blow tent doors open and there was some concern at briefing as to whether the tugs could launch safely in the cross wind on runway 33.
The Task Director set an Area Assigned Task (minimum distance 118km, maximum 220km) from Arboga to Fornaboda – Sura - Gunnilbo – Arboga. Directly after briefing we had a GB Team briefing at which Brian Spreckley gave all the pilots some very useful advice on coping with the flying conditions. The briefing then disintegrated a bit into more chit chat and I was becoming more anxious that I had still not placed the glider on the grid, marked or studied the maps or programmed the instruments. An Area Assigned Task needs quite a bit more planning than a racing task and I was feeling decidedly unprepared. In the end I left the meeting to put the glider on the grid and get myself sorted out, as it turned out in the end, rapidly followed by the others.
I had just enough time to programme the glider and scribble some thoughts on the map and I was airborne.
The thermals were much stronger than the previous day and the cloud base a more pleasant 4000ft. Ayala and Liz still had not launched half an hour later and I decided that I would have to start the task alone. I still had problems with the LX7007F in that whilst I was in the Start Zone, it started the task without me prompting it to do so. I re-set the task once more on the LX until I was ready to go.
I flew up a developing cloud street turning where necessary and then crossed at 90 degrees to the next street upwind. This gave me solid lift all the way towards the first area and it felt great to be heading where I needed to in lift for a change. This was not to last long because as I neared the place where I landed out yesterday, I began to lose height. Down at 2200ft, I joined another glider and climbed back to a reasonable height, headed back into wind to ensure that I was inside the first area, before departing Eastwards on the second leg. The clouds looked more broken and once again I found myself having difficulty in finding any good lift. Circling in 0.5 – 0.8 knots, I was drifting downwind which was taking me across pretty unlandable countryside. I made a decision to turn further Southwards which took me across three large lakes. I became lower and called up base giving my position in case of landout. I pushed further South and East just trying to stay airborne. Eventually, I made the decision to abandon the task altogether – after all, this was just a practise day and I really did not want to land out yet again with the potential for damaging the glider. If it had been a competition day, that would have been different and I would have persevered.
I found a 3 – 4 knot climb and took it to 3500ft, this now gave me the opportunity to head back towards Arboga Airfield. A check on the instruments showed that I could now easily glide home. I took the opportunity to check out the finish circle and practised a circuit on the East side of the runway and a long landing on the grass runway - my first landing back at the site.
I was back safe and sound, but I had aborted the task – something I very rarely do, and as it would happen, the majority of the other pilots completed the task, so the ‘results’ for the day showed me to be particularly low down which is a terrible shame.
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