HGFA Skysailor Magazine

12 SKY SAILOR March | April 2018 T here was also a solid group of regular competition pilots and about seven keen Sports class and fun pilots. Gulgong once again proved to be a top venue with top of the line facilities, a huge empty hangar the whole field could park their gliders in, a great club room for briefings and scoring, a fantastic covered kitchen and eating area and good toilets and showers. Many pilots chose to enjoy the free camping facilities there. There was lots of model plane and drone action in the mornings from Billo, Mat and Foxy to keep us all entertained. Pilots were trike towed up each day by perennial tuggies Ian, Pete, Mat, Billo and, this year, Don (Doggie) Cramer even dragged his trike down from Queensland. Steve McCarthy, Judi deGroot and Mick White ran the launch, while Billo again did a great job on the scoring. Meethead Karl Kindle did a fantastic job canvassing the town businesses for sponsorship. He secured gift vouchers for day prizes and ran raffles to raise money to donate back to the Town Museum to generate goodwill. Again, the comp also enjoyed great support from Moyes and Airborne. Tasks were set as far away as 230km. Three of the tasks were around 77 to 115km (optimised) triangles returning to the Gulgong airstrip. I won Day 1, a 230km race to Nyngan via Tomingley, receiving a very welcome 1000 points. The conditions were low and slow for the first 20km, then came good, but after 90km the clouds disappeared and it became a lot harder in the blue. Only two pilots made the full distance in the trying crosswind conditions. Vic Hare came in 17 minutes after me, leaving me a good lead on the first day. Rob DeGroot, who I’d flown to the turnpoint with, landed only six kilometres short. The second day was a cracker and saw strong thermals to a 9000ft solid cloudbase. The course passed over Tomingley again, with goal at Forbes airport – a distance of 200km. Fourteen pilots made goal (half the field), not a bad roll up for a 200km task. Tony Armstrong smoked it, winning from Trent Brown. Rory Duncan and I had a great race of our own until we hit a huge overshaded area with me getting through in front to come in third. The rest of the field got ‘Geckoed’ by Jonny in fourth. Central West Classic 2017 The 2017 Classic competition ran from 19 to 25 November at the Gulgong airstrip and saw 28 pilots compete. The field included some big names: World’s No. 1 Jonny Durand, No. 24 Josh Woods, No. 29, myself, Guy Hubbard, No. 30 Olav Olinson from Norway, No. 48 Tony Armstrong, No. 57 Rory Duncan, former Australian team member, Trent Brown, and WA Champion Vic Hare. by Guy Hubbard Dubious skies over the strip Billo in front of hangar and clubhouse Rory Duncan ready to go