HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 13 March | April 2018 John Spencer landed just short and John Harriot achieved a PB of 126km. Day 3 was a triangle course to Urabry, Dunedoo and back to the strip. A great day with light winds, good clouds and base over 8000ft. With 11 in goal, all had taken the first start gate, the day was won by Olav Olinson, ahead of Trent, less than one minute behind, with Jonny third in the Gecko, 19 minutes later. Damn that Gecko! After not gaining a good position for the first start gate and getting low, I recovered to salvage eigth place. Everyone in goal enjoyed parking their gliders in the hangar, ready for the next day. This happens a lot at Gulgong. Another triangle course on Day 4 of 95km saw good high clouds and racing conditions with 15 making goal. With 12km to go, I thought I had it won when Trent and Josh caught up with me in the last thermal before goal. Josh had caught a rocket at 1200ft/min the previous climb, heading for outer space, but went after me instead. With a headwind final glide and the three of us at the same height, it was a cat and mouse game as to when to leave. After inconspicuously pulling on my VG, I went for it with 7.5 :1 with Josh slightly above and on my hammer. I lined up a cloud forming ahead and eased off the speed a little as the vario screamed, then pulled it on again. Arrival height was dropping fast, but I knew the other two were just behind me somewhere. With three kilometres to go and the bar stuffed, I looked down and saw a shadow on the ground creeping up on mine. I could feel the wind on my legs from a partially open zipper. Shit! More speed. Hands in the middle of the bar. The shadows were neck and neck now. Pointing my fingers, I squeezed a little more to hit 125km/h. The ground was coming up fast. At tree top height I levelled out and reached down to open my harness, then let off the VG as the 6030 announced I had crossed the line. The windsock gave me its blessing and I landed straight in, 150m inside the circle with a long walk to the hangar. Josh had beaten me by 40m (I’m blaming the open zipper), but I was so pumped after that final glide in, I didn’t care. I had extended my lead overall over Vic in second place. Trent, who had tried a straight line final, was one minute behind us. Peter Garrone in his Gecko did a brilliant job to make goal late and landed into a gust front. Well done, Pete! With a lead on the final day of 641 points, my plan was to just make it around the 115km bowtie course and the trophy would be mine. I found himself following the three contenders for second place, Tony, Trent and Josh. They were out in front and pushing hard. After the 25km/h headwind 40km second leg, I let them go and went into cruise mode, taking a slow climb, only having to make goal to easily win. I headed to a nice cloud, found a good thermal and climbed to cloudbase at 10,000ft. With a blue hole in front, I took a long glide to the next turnpoint, only 17km from goal. To my surprise (and theirs) I had overtaken the other three just before the turnpoint. They sped up to join me. With one more climb to gain height to make goal, the four of us split into two pairs, with Josh and I getting the climb at the turnpoint and the jump on Trent and Tony. Josh and I then repeated the final glide from the previous day, but with 50m separation between us at goal. This time I didn’t try to contest it. I was happy to be Josh’s wingman and take second. Tony Armstrong crossed third to take second place overall and Trent Brown, who’d led out all day, crossed fourth, taking third place overall. Ten pilots made goal, including Jonny on the Gecko again. Not a bad effort (on a Gecko) with a 25km/h headwind for 40km of the second leg! After losing two competition days at the start of the comp to strong winds, Gulgong turned it on again this year with five great flying days. Everyone will be back next year. It really was a great comp. Jonny made four out of five goals on the Gecko. Peter Garrone took out Sports class (another Gecko). Vic Hare was the well-deserved winner of the Adam Parer award. Vic made goal every day and held onto second place up until the final day. And I was happy: I finally won a competition! Epic skies at launch All photos: William Olive The open class podium (Trent, Josh and Tony) with meet head Karl