The morning started with optimism of a good day, the previous night's forecast being quite promising, although it has to be said that the view out of the tent first thing in the morning was...very grey. Gliders were duly rigged and the competition checked out, with two JS1 Revelations among them! Fewer teams turned up than expected, of the seven local leagues only five had said they were attending, of these only North Hill, Long Mynd and Husbands Bosworth actually turned up.
Briefing dampened enthusiasm a little, with the forecasts having changed considerably overnight. We were each issued with no less than six tasks, a clear indication that the competition director had no real idea what was going to happen! Primary tasks were set with no indication of what the backup would be. First launch was declared to be 1230, this was subsequently pushed back to 1300, and when nobody had launched by 1330 an on-grid rebrief was issued, task number seven was given to everyone and this was declared to be the final option. First launch now 1400. 1400 came and went and still nobody opted to launch, the sniffers having taken off and landed again, with only the EB28 staying airbourne, just about, and reporting local cloudbase to be 2300'. At 1445 the Novices were scrubbed and released to enjoy local circuits (soaring still being too optimistic a word). At 1455 Russell Cheetham decided to take a launch in his JS1, this caused a small rush to the grid comprising the second JS1, the Discus, our DG505 and me in the Cirrus. The Pundits were dragged well towards the remote start at Leighton Buzzard NE, I bailed out under a vaguely less bad-looking cloud closer to home, and attempted to thermal whilst keeping in line with Dunstable's incredibly complicated airspace arrangements. Soon after I saw one of the JS1s scuttling home, and it didn't take me long to hit circuit height and follow him in. No sooner had I landed than I got a call to say our DG505 had landed out at Leighton Buzzard, having been taken out of gliding range by the tug and not found any lift to get home again. It ended with no score for either the Intermediates or the Pundits.
Outlook for tomorrow - currently similar, but with more hail in the morning, clearing late afternoon. We'll see what the forecast says in the morning, and may even hang around for briefing, but it's quite likely we'll be home for lunch I think. - Muggles
