HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 7 March | April 2018 yet to hear if she has made all four possible records this week, she sure has put the effort in. Day 6: Task 5 With many pilots not returning until the early hours of the morning, the next task briefing was delayed by a few hours to give pilots time to rest and recuperate before flying again. A shorter dogleg task of 155km via one turnpoint was called with landing at Wellington airstrip and starting at 15:00. This day was the polar opposite of the previous – no clouds and slow climbs. Many pilots dropped in the first hour, struggling to find climbs. Once at the turnpoint, conditions seemed to improve, but we had a strong crosswind for the final leg. Some pilots landed short after drifting too far downwind, making for a difficult final glide. Ollie Chitty managed a second consecutive day win, again followed closely by Jonny Durand and Guy Hubbard. Only nine pilots completed the task. Day 7: Task 6 Finally, a day with less wind! Task 6 was called as a rest day for the retrieve drivers. We would fly a closed loop triangle of 166km. Pilots started to look noticeably fatigued after five back to back long tasks (including a record task!), so the towing was slow to get going. Fortunately, there were good clouds in the start cylinder and everyone had plenty of room to pick their start. Almost everyone took the first start again at 13:50 with only a few pilots choosing to gamble on a later start at 14:10. The shorter first leg of the triangle went fast with a slight chasing tailwind, but some pilots got low and had to take slow climbs from the foothills at the turnpoint. Heading north-east into the second turnpoint, the day started to blue out and become a little more tricky. It was here that the fast first starters had a slight time advantage over the stragglers and didn’t waste much time getting out. The wind had picked up slightly, making the final leg of the triangle more difficult as pilots headed over high ground with minimal landing areas. Once out onto the flats, we were back to good climbs and long final glides of over 30km! Jonny won the day with a time of 03:33:59, closely followed by a consistently well-scoring Rory Duncan, and Jason Kath took out third place, just 30 seconds behind. Good music and plenty of margaritas were handed out in goal as pilots and retrieve drivers celebrated a task without a five-hour drive home! Day 8: Task 7 The final task! Seven straight competition days had the field of competitors looking and sounding very Vicki with Sports Class winner, Peter Garrone Photo: Sasha Serebrennikova Photo: Ruta Pleike