Saturday 29 December 2007
The first day of the 2008 SA State Comps. Entrants to the competition were David Pietsch (AS W20), Haidyn Dunn (Pik 20), Gavin Wrigley (LS-7), Peter Paine (Discus), Craig Vinall (Mosquito), Nigel Zimmermann (Astir), Andrew Horton (Mini-Nimbus) and Graham Parker (AS G29).
With a forecast temperature of 42 C and light winds, a temp trace flight to 5000 confirmed conditions would be suitable for a competition task. At Briefing, a later start of launching at 1300 Hrs was scheduled with an AAT task Waikerie – Copeville – Merribah – Waikerie, 20 Km to the turn-points with 30 and 40 Km circles on Copeville and Merribah respectively.
A sniffer flight indicated strong lift to good height. The day proved to be much better than anticipated – with several reports of strong lift (12.5 on the averager) to heights in excess of 13,000.
Preliminary Results placed David Pietsch 1st, Craig Vinall 2nd and Haidyn Dunn third. Given the conditions, the day’s task was under-set – but it made for some great discussion.
Peter Paine in his first competition flew anther 300 Km – his record of the 3 days being 300 Km, 500 Km and another 300 Km.Several other gliders flew – including Keith Willis, who flew another 4 Hours 53 minutes in the PW5, landing close to last light. A new WGC member and student – Kenji Kusano with Cath Conway enjoyed a flight of 1 Hr 54 mins in the Twin Astir on a short cross country with climbs to around 12,000 Ft.
Waikerie Happenings 2
December 30, 2007
