Results in

The lead points don't make up for the lost time at all. A mere 8 more than day winner Zippy. Puts me in 43rd for the day. Must say that I hoped it would have been a bit better.

19th HG Worlds - Day 4 - Task 3

A 130 km triangle was set today. Light winds were expected and lift was not expected to be very strong, so the 130 km seemed like a good enough task. Indeed it started that way. I had nothing but sink on tow and it was my first tow in Forbes where I didn't release before I was being waved off. Actually, I wasn't even waived off today, the tug pilot just raised both arms, signalling that he was sorry, but that I had to get off the tow. I was in sink indeed and it took me a while before I found a thermal. I managed to get to the start circle just in time (way back in the standings now, long wait before I'm towed up).

I had my doubts whether the 1st start gate was too early to go, but hey, they didn't predict very strong lift today, so despite the pretty weak lift I had until then, I decided to go for it. It looked like the 130 km was going to be quite a task in those conditions, so I didn't want to waste too much time. What a mistake!

We flew a bit off course, looking for lift and had low and slow progress for the first 30 minutes. After that, the day turned on. It was one 3 m/s thermal (or more) after the other. Racing those with Gerd and Conrad was good fun, but I realized that the later start gates wouldn't have had the slow conditions we had in the beginning. Indeed, at the second turnpoint, we were caught by the 2nd gaggle. They already had us in sight for quite a while.

From there on, it was a fast race back to Forbes with loads of gliders in the sky. Close thermaling it was, luckily the nicely organized thermals allowed it. We won't have won the day, nowhere near, but it was a great recovery after yesterday's disaster. And I do hope the lead points will make up for some of the lost time. Bring on tomorrow!

Not to be forgotten: a big thank you to all the volunteers working to make this happen. Look at the activity and everybody's focus. They really do everything they can to get us in the air as efficiently as possible:

Hottest ever?

Monday is expected to be the hottest day ever in Australia. Central Australia is expected to reach temperatures up to 54 degrees C. Luckily that won't hit us, we'll be getting some cooler air and maybe some rain on Monday. But 40+ degrees are predicted for Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be hot again!

19th HG Worlds - Day 3 - Task 2

Lots of wind today. Pilots struggled not to drift out of the start cylinder due to the 35 km/h winds at 1500 m. I launched late, because I didn't look forward to another long fight in a turbulent start gaggle. My position for the first start gate wasn't too bad, but I was still 3 km from the cylinder, so I decided to wait for the next, conditions were probably improving anyway.

However, we had to fly quite far against the wind for the next thermal and after another 20 minutes, I was again in a bad position to take the start. That sucked. The same out-of-sync scenario for the 3rd start gate. By that time I should have decided to go anyway, but instead I headed for Zippy a few km away. From there on, it was a slow descent to the ground. Some strong, short-lived cores in between, but it didn't work out. A really bad result for the day. I can only hope I will fly some decent tasks now and get at least somewhere again in the standings.

2013 Belgian HG Open and Catalunian Cup

The Belgian championship will this year be organized in cooperation with the Catalan Cup. The championship will be held in Ager, from July 28th until Aug 3rd. For those of you interested in combining a few comps, this could be very interesting, because the Dutch Nationals are held the week before in Laragne (there is a day in between for travelling, no problem there) and the British Nationals are held the week after our championship, also in Ager.

So, we're expecting quite a mix of participants in our comp: Belgians, Catalunians, Spanish, British pilots training for the week after and Dutch guys having an extra comp after their own nationals.

The entry fee will be 80 euro when pre-registered, so that shouldn't stop you from coming! CU this summer!

19th HG Worlds - Day 2

Day 2 was canceled due to high winds. The predictions for today, day 3, are for moderate to strong winds, low ceiling (4500 ft) and strong lift (3,5 m/s on average). Looks like we'll get another start gaggle from hell.

19th HG Worlds - Day 1 - Task 1

I had a rather difficult day yesterday. Some of the flying days, I am sure that you must be able to go a lot faster, but I simply cannot find the strong cores which must be there. It all seems out of sync, always flying in turbulent thermals, but not being able to find the sweet spot, although I'm searching for it. I felt the same last year during the first task of the Belgian nationals.

So, my day yesterday was pretty low and turbulent, while the top guys flew from one strong thermal to another. I lost half an hour on them, that's quite a lot. But, nothing's lost, I made goal and the score is still decent. I will have to fly faster though to move up in the rankings...