HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 5 July | August 2019 It wasn’t until after the main competition briefing that the entire team was able to meet. We quickly established who was missing and who had arrived last minute, in order to balance all our five-pilot crews. Following this, we segregated the experienced Ace pilots from the low airtime Newbies to eyeball how balanced the team was. It became apparent that we had only seven experienced pilots to mentor and guide around 30 low airtime pilots, with the balance occupying the Sportster category. As if an event of this magnitude for a new pilot is not daunting enough, the level of anxiety amongst both the Funsters and the Aces just rose a notch. This was going to take a monumental effort from everyone if we were going to pull it off. With such a high calibre of experienced pilots on the team, I reassured them, “We’ve got this, Team!” With that, the crews were introduced to each other and any anxiety was quickly replaced by enthusiasm for XC! Conditions throughout the weekend saw most pilots taking off from the east launch. Light winds presented some new challenges, especially for those more used to flying coastal sites and conditions. A new concept of having to ‘run’ off the hill and finding a thermal to stay aloft became tricky for some, resulting in many pilots landing in or around the LZ. The great thing about Mt Borah as a venue is the short drive back up the hill to have another go. Most pilots seemed to connect with a climb, if not on their second flight, then on their third. Pilots who managed to fly XC over the weekend were reporting cloudbases of 2400m ASL, steady 3m/s climbs, reaching distances around the 90km mark (not bad for mid-April). At themorning briefing on the final day, the team scores revealed that Queensland had a commanding lead. The game plan for the team was to just do more of the same, and get our Funsters off the hill State of Origin sky Sunset magic All photos: Tex Bec