Monday, August 19, the 6th competition day and launch had been delayed a couple of times already. On Saturday I had out landed 1,200 m short of the finish line after a flight of more than 500 km. It was not that I cut the final glide too fine, I had simply been too slow earlier in the flight and the day had died.
On Sunday I made sure not to let that happen again and came home indeed, everybody did the same and I flew so conservatively that I landed on place 49 of the 50 A-group pilots. Therefore I suffered the disgrace of relegation to group B together with the other 9 pilots placing 41 to 50.
I had spent much of last evening and this morning to think and analyse why my flying was below par. The weather had been great; similar to a good Australian day, albeit with more moderate climb rates and lower cloud base. Despite this I had not enjoyed my flights greatly. I was nervous before and tense during the flights. Chasing the British pilots, who we shared the team frequency with, as well as the fellow Aussie’s Tom and Toby resulted in decisions I would not have taken on my own. They weren’t all bad ones but some of them resulted in low saves and associated slow downs.
For today I had made a firm decision to fly my own flight, very literally. After opening of the start gate I waited for 20 minutes, until 15:20, only in order to have the air for myself. The task was an AAT, first to Leibertingen in the Neckar valley, with a circle of 40 km, then Dobel (20 km circle) in the northern Black Forrest and down south to the highest Black Forrest peak, the Feldberg with a 35 km assigned area. After announcing my start time to Colin I turned the radio off.
The flat area between the Black Forrest and the Schwaebische Alb was pretty average as usual. Leibertingen is smack in the middle of this quiet region. After only 20 minutes slight doubts about my strategy surfaced. I wasn’t desperate but had to take a 2 kt climb to stay comfortable. I didn’t like it and turned just inside the assigned area to return to the beautiful Cu’s, which had formed 40 km away above the northern black Forrest.
My track brought me back above Musbach where a comfortable 3 knotter assured my arrival under the Cu’s. Here my world brightened considerably. 5 knots to cloud base at 2,400 meter indicated, about 1,900 meters or 5,700 ft above the beautiful Mountains of the Black Forrest. Today the strong thermal activity creates a continuous “chimney” of warm air from the western side of the mountain range to stream up the slopes, creating a line of stationary cumuli.
The flight takes my north towards Dobel now, for 15 or so km no height is lost, I fly some ten or so km past this thermal plant and turn back, 2 km short of the centre of the assigned area. The mountain range is unlandable for a large part; I want to make sure that I can make contact with the Cu again. I still worry too much; the chimney is just as strong and reliable as before. I can relax, the core is big, the scenery spectacular. Below me countless peaks and valleys, densely forested with dark green firs, interrupted by scars torn into the landscape by a tornado, yes, they do exist in Germany, although rarely. To the west the Rhine valley, although visibility is excellent by European standard I can’t make out the Rhine in the haze. The western, leading edge of the cumulus line forms almost 600 ft below the glider. I fly under the higher base a little east of the feed in area in moderate climb or sink at 80 kt. It is so good that it can’t last and indeed, it doesn’t. The central part of the Black Forrest is blue for about 50 km, the southern area around the Feldberg beckons with a similar convergence line along the rise from the Rhine valley. The blue works, I use one 3 kt thermal in the middle to make contact with the south.
On previous competition days I had been as low as 600 feet above ground in this area. We had been given the coordinates of out landing fields, some safe, some of them marked as difficult. Today I never got any lower than 2,500 feet above the general terrain.
I’m relaxed, enjoy the ride entirely for the first time during the competition. I had seen no more than 2 gliders at a time until now and that was an hour ago. To enter the climbs under the now pretty big, partly overdeveloped clouds I move to the lower “chimneys”. They work absolutely marvellous again and in less than ten minutes I’m running under the now almost continuous cloud base, which still carries the glider at good speed. 10 km short of the Feldberg I emerge into a blue gap. A big, overdeveloped Cu sits above the centre of the assigned area. 45 more minutes left before my time runs out, a quarter to six PM and a return to home will avoid a 20 % penalty for out landing. I could glide toward the thunderstorm, gamble on a return through the blue in the dying day. After just five more minutes the LS1f banks into a 180-degree turn to retrace the track north. Even though it’s a touch late in the day, the overdeveloped cumuli still work close to cloud base. I need only a few more turns on my way home to get final glide. In the end I arrived at the finish line 4 minutes early but still get 900 points for my flight. I had a great flight, the best so far.