Australia

Bunch of tasks were cancelled due to an accident, then a day of
respect/safety overhauls, and then one more for wind. Task comittte called
a lollypop course with the last legs crosswind, then headwind. Lift at the
start was very tricky. Getting above 2 grand in over the paddock proved
VERY difficult. Winds were 15 to 20 on the ground and there was an
inversion around that 2k point. Low save after low save I struggled to get
established. It didn't come together until I got more aggressive about
ditching a thermal as soon as it got choppy. With the inversion so low,
thermals were easy to find, but didn't last long and were very rough. The
gaggles didn't form up the way I expected and with sloppy conditions I took
the third start (45 minutes after the first groups left). Thankfully on
course the lift got better but I didn't have more then a few pilots to fly
with at any given time. Lift varied from 200 you had to take, to 700 nasty
tip chuckers. The upwind edges were some of the nastiest I have ever seen.
Falling out the front was actually scary as well as extremely costly in
altitude. At the last turnpoint before turning into the major crosswind, a
group of about 5 of us found a nice one to get high in. Once on the cross
wind leg we were immediately suffering. The wind was actually a quartering
head wind and drilling us. 5 whittled down to 2 and we caught a nice one
that had some 800 in it. Next slow glide and he landed. I got lucky and
found one at 800 feet. This boomer turned on past the usual 4,500 ft
inversion. Above that point 700-800fpm. It didn't help much because the
higher layer had about 20kph of extra wind velocity. My STF out of that
layer was ridiculous. Barely making any headway with at least 50mph
airspeed. Below 4,500 I made decent progress again. Flying solo I set my
goal on getting the last turnpoint. I squeaked around that sucker and
caught a good line to make another 5k. Gliders were scattered everywhere on
those last 2 legs and no pilots made goal.

Kev C