The weather predictions for day 2 called for weaker conditions and almost no thermal activity in the valley. So we thought a rather short 80 km task would probably be hard enough. The predicted SW winds also meant that we needed to take off rather soon, to avoid being lee side later in the day and not being able to take off. So we ended up with a long launch window.
Turns out that the conditions were quite a bit better than predicted and most pilots immediately went to cloud base after launch. For me, it was quite a struggle and I worked for 1,5 hours to get back up from low. So I was lucky with the late start...
Since I had messed up yesterday's task, there was no point in holding back, so I went for it flat out. And of course, it's not a really good idea to do that right from the start. After 25 km I glided out on a bad line and lost quite a bit of time in a lee side thermal which was completely broken up. After that, it was a low and slow struggle to get through the shaded valley.
Once on the other side of the valley, there was a bit more sun which resulted in a long final glide at 15/1. Well, it was nice flying, but we definitely undercalled the task... which resulted in many happy faces at goal.
You can watch a replay of the task. A bit of a shame that only 15 pilots had activated their phones.
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