Saturday 15 February 2014

Day Seven – Saturday 15th February

The weather played ball today with a RASP forecast for high cloud base and good thermal strengths. It didn't turn out quite as good as the RASP predicted but thermal and convergence distribution was accurate.

An AAT task was set of between 110km minimum and 366km and maximum. The northern turn point allowed for some use of the high country while the southern turn point was out towards the south coast with a good amount of friendly terrain in between. The pilots were given some pointers at briefing about the possible location of convergences and the advice to stay on the hills and off the flat Ruataniwha plains.

The convergences weren’t in the best places for high speeds but by following them later in the day, pilots were able to complete the task. Jason Price and Alaine Marcuse, both in LS4s, were 1st and 2nd for the day in the club class and Graham White and Trev Terry 1st and 2nd in the open class.

Overall, the Open Class was won by Graham White with Trev Terry 2nd. We missed the presence of Tony van Dyk who couldn't fly but hope he'll be back next season eager to make amends. Ross Taylor came third flying Discus PV in his first trip to Hawkes Bay.

Club class was won by Alaine Marcuse from Wellington with Jason Price 2nd and Team Wellington in the 18m DG 1000 3rd. Martin Cook and George Rogers flew the DG with different pilots from the Wellington club and made that glider go pretty well. We couldn't get a trace off Michael O'Donnell's GPS otherwise he would have scored more points.

Vaughan Ruddick and Ross Anderson turned up for the last day and elected to soar the Kaimanawhas and rather than do the task in Manawatu's DG 1000, they were rewarded with a pleasant trip over to Turangi and return, a trip Peter Lyons and Graham White have done many times but which is not suitable for a regionals task.

Gliding Hawkes Bay & Waipukurau club captain Mike Richardson, who has been flying for just over a year, set off before midday in the clubs PW5 and achieved his five hour duration and Silver height gain of 1,000m.

Overall we had four flying days but only two days in the contest due to the unseasonable weather. However, those two days were good and everyone left with a smile on their face including Hugh de Lautour who had to miss the last day to go flying his other toy - an Air NZ 747-400 - some have it tough.

Thanks to the sponsors – Centralines, HBS Bank, Pask Winery, Trev Terry Marine, the support crew on the ground (contest director Neil Faulknor, rope and wing runners, grid master etc) - without all that effort the contest can't function. Thanks also to met man, task setter and scorer Graham White.

The winner of the Trev Terry Marine Yamaha water vehicle free for the day prize was local pilot James Forman.

Scores and task details are available at http://www.soaringspot.com/cd2014/results/open/total/day2.html

We hope to see everyone back next year and some new faces as well.

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