Day 7 for Clubbies. Day 3 for the Open Class.

An interesting day yesterday.
From an organisational point of view - not one of my proudest moments.
Chose to launch with a slight tailwind as expecting a wind change which didnt arrive.
Wont do that again:-)
Didnt give the pilots the Task B as early as I could have.

The Task B Out to the North East then to the South and back was an AAT of 2 hours 15min.
Some rocketed around, others had a struggle.
See the open Class results
http://www.soaringspot.com/msc2013/results/open/daily/day2.html

Club Class results
http://www.soaringspot.com/nzclub2013/results/club/daily/day6.html

Interesting that two gliders (XT & TK) ended up with a skinny glide back to the field and chose to land runway 22 with a tailwind while everyone else chose runway 06/04 in to wind. An interesting moment with two gliders on finals from opposite ends  of the airfield.

But we love our gliders and wouldnt want to see them damaged.

Some still having the odd technical problem. Whether it be getting SPOT's registered on the Taupo site, forgetting to switch them on....or even getting a scorable GPS trace out of the glider with the help of a lubricated boffin.

Todays task will be the 7th at this Nationals.  The last Nationals at Taupo only managed 6 scored days over the the entire contest. The weather synopsis says fine weather for the rest of the week.

Today has the fleet tasked to Kaingaroa, Pureora, Rotoaira, Pohipi and return for a 3 hour AAT.

279km point to point,  194km minimum, 369 km Maximum

The open class go a little bit further with their 3 hour AAT.

296km point to point

209km minimum 388 km maximum

And now its off to briefing

Day Seeks

Its also the second day of the Matamata Soaring Centre comps.
Check their scores at http://www.soaringspot.com/msc2013/

A change of Task from the Task A an AAT based on yesterdays task.
To a B Task which send them out East instead.
The forecast weather didnt quite pan out by 12:30 so we called the change with a 30 minute delayed start to 1:30pm.

A slight tail/cross wind had the grid team on their toes. Small delays due to a tailwind gust were required.
But all were launched without major incident.

The B Task is a 2 hour 15 minute AAT task for both classes.

NE to Waiohau 70km leg with  20KM circle
South to Waipunga 86km leg with a 20km circle
Back to a control point at Teawa Camp with a 10km circle

Point to point 216.9 km
min 136.1km
max 309.4km

Launch was completed by 14:20
Check glider progress at  (select Taupo)
 http://www.soaringspot.com/msc2013/

We should see first gliders home around 16:45, just in time for "'tea and medals"'

Keep it up
Roy

@#$%^&*(    Computers

For some reason we cant seem to get the final results on Soaring Spot. (wORKING ON IT)

In Summary:

Club Class Day points
GX 773
KT 703
TJ 574
NV 490
KM 463
PV 450
XP 424
ML 200
DF 166
CS 147
LL 145

Open Class (Matamata Competition)
OP 1000
TD  663
ZM 577
xt 553
ZO 535
TT 498
GB 479
VR 451
TX 141

Keep it up
Roy

Character Building Day.

The launch went well with 20 gliders launched in 70 minutes with 2 towplanes.
oops a slow second leg. 3 landouts.
Even with a Turbo you are not immune if the engine doesn't start!  GTX.

The day did not perform as forecast.
Only GOP completed the task.
Others abandoned the task and slithered home.

As predicted by yours truly, the Club Class competitive guys "flew in to the ground". No quarter asked, no quarter given in the race for points.
Lovely to see two Youth Glide members driving off to retrieve Mr South Island. A longish retrieve to Kuratau and they wont be back before dark and after the club dinner.

With new technology we are getting SPOT pings, and txts to keep us up with whats happening and where gliders have landed.
GKT & GGX landed on a strip. When I asked about the condition of the strip this pic txt arrived.
We sent road retrieves:-)

Dont land here for an Aero tow!!!!

The good news is....nobody hurt....nothing broken......

Day Five

Another 10 gliders join us as the Matamata Soaring Centre Competition 302.8 KM
Today they share the racing Task for the club class
Goudies
Wharepapa Sth
Rotoaira
Poihipi

To Save you looking at a map.  First leg  23km to the East then Northwest 91km
Then South 99km back north 59km Then Home

But its off to the grid for me with a launch timed for 1pm. Today we are limited to 2 towplanes
Tomorrow we should have 3

Flyday!

Your Contest Director was very proud of "his"pilots yesterday.
A challenging Day with pilots making great decisions. Whether it was the decision to land back or the decision to landout after a long day, all were well done.

Yesterdays task hailed a first for your scibe. The first time I have had to contact Airways to extend the Controlled airspace requests. In this case  to extend the request to 7pm from 6pm.   The Duty manager was very helpful.  The last glider landed at 6:51pm.

With the gliders getting out of radio range in the Matamata valley, Ralph Gore offered to be a radio relay point. He talked to the gliders and then sent txts to me to record progress.  Its moments like this that SPOT messengers are invaluable for contest organisers knowing where their "flock"are.  There is a case in my mind to make them mandatory in contests.

After such a great effort by KT in finishing the task, it was a bit disappointing that the scoring system  did not give him many points more than a competitor who landed out.

Before the launch we were visited by the lady reporter from the local newspaper, her attention was drawn to the tall young man and recent Transtasman Trophy winner, Tim Bromhead.   Tim must have decided that media attention was a good thing.  On his landout more attention. This time not only two young ladies arriving with the retrieve crew but two fire engines and two police cars.

Read more about Tims adventure on the Piako website.  http://www.glidingmatamata.co.nz/news/

Todays task should be in a more cloudy sky!!

Task is a 2.5 hour AAT.
Matahina Dam (20k circle)
Waipunga (20 k circle)
Teawa Camp (10k circle and control point)

147km to 322km with point to point of 229.3km.

Tomorrow we are joined by gliders entering the Matamata Soaring Centre competition.

Excitement here at Mission Control.

On this blue blue day.

We had one finisher at 18:39 -  4 hours 16 on task.
Steve Wallace (KT) put his money where his mouth was (it was his task setting) and did the Thames return task.

Having extended the airspace requirements from 18:00 to 19:00 (Thank you Airways) the last glider landed short (At Atiamuri at 18:51). We have 4 gliders landed out in the Atiamuri Area about 25-30 minutes drive from here.

3 gliders cruised into Tokoroa Airstrip including Race leader (GGX). They are getting an Aero Retrieve.

4 Landed back and didnt start the task.