Worlds Day 2

It was a good day on course today. Strong southerlyish winds for a long
down wind task again. Almost the exact same task as yesterday. They added
one more turnpoint and moved the start entry circle. I got high in the
stack before the start sitting pretty comfortable. I got faked out when
everyone went to take the second start clock. I thought pilots were going
to wait for the third. No such luck and I was flying back and forth wasting
attitude. The leaders got far ahead but I just flew my pace. The next
thermal was a strong one. I joined a group circling in 600fpm. A little
hunting, some slowing down on a tip and I the vario was singing to the tune
of 900+. When it mellowed to 350 I left. The fast climb got me closer to
the main pack so I used them to pick a good glide line into the turnpoint.
Dozens of gliders were marking the sky ahead and there was definitely a
pattern to see. Pilots would get low and scratch in a freshie, not climbing
to spectacular until it really switched on. Then they would sky fast before
it mellowed back out. Timing was the key there. Each small group I caught,
I would find a stronger core, take that for about a minute, then leave when
it dropped below 400 fpm. Crazy that I snub my nose at 400. By the second
turnpoint I was well established in the lead group. Things got more
efficient, we picked better climbs, found the cores sooner, and flew through
more soft lift. The air on course was at times edgy. I flew with my hand
on the VG line, ALWAYS. There were very recognizable patterns to the air.
Big thermal areas with multiple cores. Anytime I got stuck with only 400 I
went into flat turning mode and tried to find a stronger core. It was
usually hiding between 2 well spaced groups but on a few occasions it was
just off the edge of a big group. Throw it up on a tip and grab an extra
200fpm to make up ground. That worked well for me all day. 10 miles out we
got a little slow. Goofing off in slow climbs setting up for final glide.
Some mistakes got me lower in the pack so Curt and I charged on. The 5030
said I had it by about 200 feet. I just flew fast and hunted for the
boomer. Curt and I got in it quick before the rest of the gliders caught
on. I think that one screamed at close to a thousand because the instrument
told me to climb very high for a faster speed ring setting. The dash into
goal had speeds around 60. That was about the upper limit given the
roughness of the air. We were getting chucked around hard. Guido Gehrman
(past world champ) left early and had to fly into goal slow. Curt and I
passed him barely 10 feet before the finish line. My upper harness zipper
got stuck on some shorts threads and the goal line wingover didn't leave any
spare time to sort it out. Just flared prone and plopped in on my belly.
That works really well by the way.

To put the racing into goal into perspective, I would guess that 25 gliders
landed in about 2 minutes. That's a lot of racing!

Kev C