Task Two

The forecast for today was for a chance of thunder storms in the high mountains late in the day and west winds. The task was a 126km out and return down the valley to give pilots a chance to stay out of any possible over development. Cloud base was forecast to be 2500m and turned out to be 3000m.

I didn’t get a great start and headed on course five minutes after the first start. Taking the extra height turned out to be a good idea as the strategy for the day would be to stay high. I found a couple good climbs on my own and soon started passing pilots struggling low. I teamed up with a couple other pilots and we were going not bad. We were keeping just a head of a gaggle charging hard from behind us. It is so cool to see an armada of gliders charging up from behind while climbing out above them. The fast gaggle was catching up but I pushed out to try and stay a head. I ended up on my own at 600’ over the ground when I finally found strong lift to get me back up. I would flounder around for a long time with many other pilots trying to get to cloud base before heading out into the blue for the turn point. I finally got back to cloud base and headed to the second turn point 14km away. I found some strong lift out in the blue and topped up to make sure I stayed high. As I approached the turn point I watched two pilots, one head on course and one head back to the clouds we just came from. Both were much lower and neither was doing great. I decided to head down the course line and hit the dirt.

I need to try and stick with other pilots as it can be really hard on your own.