Mon 5th - Fri 9th April

 Condor Racing

Monday. A chilly Bank Holiday in the UK saw 5 DSGC Condor pilots on a warm SW France -Northern Spain joining the mid-day task from  169kms Biarritz to Bilbao with the Condor cafe. Wind was light from the northnorthwest and the Atlantic thermals looked promising but, typically, turned out to be disappointingly only adequate.
The usual suspects  got off to an early climb and start while I, after spending too long on an orientation flight, turned up late again and followed in my newly acquired JS3 allowing David to point out some useful climbs on the first leg. The comms chatter was its usual wave of relaxed banter punctuated by thermal concentrating quiescence, especially from myself as I became more familiar with the JS3. Thanks to all those who gave tips and advice on the way.

 After TP1 the course ventured south and inland across higher terrain which gave little assistance in the light wind so the thermal-hunting continued. Listening on the comms, I realised that the thermals didn't improve much inland so I chose a climb to base after TP1 and this proved a shrewd move as I scudded passed David on the 2nd leg. It was about this time that comms chat revealed  an unfortunate 'mid-air' had occurred  with subsequent lost points (and a little pride) for two of the lead group making me think that a late start and keeping clear of the gaggle was not such a bad thing. After a couple of short climbs to TP2 It was a straight run from here to Bilbao with no top-ups needed and I realised that I could've got away with flying a little quicker between thermals and could possibly have finished a few places up the table in my now well-liked slippery JS3. Well done to Stewart who was 4th overall and the fastest of DSGC pilots. - Mike Wilmott

On Tuesday, 5 DSGC  Regulars who had managed to download the Peru scenery joined the Condor cafe flight for 159kms. 

 The task setter had been rather generous with the weather conditions and a thermal climb to 18,000ft before the start meant a fairly easy run along some ridges where more occasional strong thermals could be found.Stewart was fastest overall in just 37 minutes! - J&P

Wednesday was a standard lunchtime Greece task in Condor cafe for 6 DSGC Regulars, 309kms into Albania with conditions that were much more challenging than in Peru. Clouds were fairly sparse  and were needed at critical times and it would have been easier if you had taken an EB29, but DSGC were flying JS3-15 or Ventus18. Well done to Dan who was fastest overall out of the 14 finishers. 

With the planned return to Real Life flying next week, another refresher training session was organised for Friday, this time on launch failures at North Hill. Pete gave the Instructor brief and then using the new United Kingdom scenery with improved graphics, everyone took a turn on a randomised launch failure scenario (this involved Pete shouting NOW - and watching the handling pilot on Condor Spectate - release and complete the landing). Everyone agreed it was a really useful exercise for getting back up to speed for flying. - J&P