With a fairly good day ahead, the grid opened at 8am, with Dan placed one row from the back. The briefing was at 10am, with an optimistic 175km task set. As always, the pilots then had a long wait for the flying to commence. A 12:20pm start was announced, and launching commenced, Dan got his aerotow at 1:07pm, with the start gate opening at 1:30pm. An impatient Dan was fifth to start at 1:59pm!
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| Waiting on the grid (Sally Hender) |
The first leg of the task was downwind and fast, with Dan holding his own to the first turnpoint (Littleport). The second leg of 71km (Kettering South) was directly into wind, and much more of a challenge. Dan managed to lead the pack midway through this leg, but after successfully getting a top up to 4000ft, he hit 8/8ths cloud cover and lost the lot!
We watched Glide and Seek with bated breath as his height reduced foot by foot until we knew we needed to hitch up the trailer!!
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| Nice field (Dan Hender) |
Another great field selection was made by our intrepid pilot, with a double gate, easy access and apparent buttery landing!
We made it back to the Gliding club by 6:30pm, passing numerous trailers heading in the opposite direction on the way!
29 of the 40 competitors landed out, 3 did not fly, and 12 got home, Dan achieved 23rd place with 396 points, with the winner getting 856 points.
An interesting start to the week!!! - Sally Hender
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Results on Soaring Spot
