2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 1, Task 1

Today looked like the nicest weather to fly in. The forecasts talked about almost no wind, no chance for overdevelopment and nice thermals. We decided to launch from the north take-off on Chabre and set a task flying zig-zag along the edges of the valley. Should have been a task to get many people in goal.
The reality was that there was a serious south wind blowing at Sisteron, which decked many pilots, because we had to get the Gache waypoint. Many, including me, were flushed down in the lee winds.

I did have a good start thought and was racing with Carl Wallbank and Malcolm Brown. But that of course doesn't help you when you land out... Thanks to Mitsubishi, we had to do some off-road driving today to get my glider. 4WD works well :-)

Luckily, only Carl made goal and many, many pilots landed near Gache. I should not have lost too many points, we'll see. Many thanks to Jamie for the pictures.