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.
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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