Condor Racing
The regular Sunday task for the Condor group was a local navigation task to check out map-reading, so no pdas were allowed, but the weather was set good with a light northwesterly wind, good cloudbase and plentiful thermals and a variety of K6, K21 and Blaniks, 10 in all, were lined up on the grid at North Hill.
New to the North Hill task were John Borland, David Cottingham and Mike Willmott spectating, but they quickly developed the technique of taking photographs as they turned the turnpoints. Those in VR who hadn't thought about taking a map that they could see (and had failing memory) were at a distinct disadvantage.
And there were a lot of turnpoints to navigate round in a zigzag course- 114kms NH2-CCX-MUD-CRE-EGG-WHD-OKE with a landing at Brentor.
Dan and Simon were away quite fast with Chris starting the task (until the rugby started), Oscar, John D, John B, Geoff and David Cot were in the next batch, and Stewart offered encouragement while Jill struggled to find the right button to take the photograph of the start - (ending up with penalties for airway infringement after Q was pressed twice by mistake!)
The next challenge was to find Cadbury Cross - elusive sometimes even in real flying and while Dan and Simon raced away, the rest of the pack had some serious road chasing to find the crossroads. Most had been to Mudford Gate before but the Chicken sheds weren't showing up particularly well from the south.
Then back south again to find Crediton and pick up the railway and road northwest to Eggesford. Another leg to the south to find the A30 and then the dilemma - was it left or right to Whiddon Down? Jill ended up trying to take the photograph of Okehampton before Whiddon Down and had to double-back to take the turn in the right order losing about 9 mins (according to Official Observer Pete!)
Then it was get round the corner of Dartmoor without infringing the Active Danger Areas that Stewart had carefully modelled, and find Brentor to land.
Dan whizzed round the task first in 1hr 20mins at 84kph and then came back to help Stewart shepherding the rest, with Simon coming back to escort Oscar round Dartmoor. Mike spectating, was also able to assist with navigation as Stewart and Dan dashed off for briefing of their next AAT Condor World Cup Race. - Great learning points all round, great fun and great socialising. Come and join us. - J&P
In the evening, the AAT task in the mountains - 240 km (min: 117 km, max: 373 km), 1 hour 45 min for the Condor World Cup #Day10, was a challenge with Dan 39th and Stewart 40th out of 140 competitors with speeds of 148kph for 343kms. With plenty more races to count (best 17 out of 24), both are well placed in the top half of the field.
