By now you will have read your emails - yes I jest of course!!! :-)

So for those who's taste is a blog rather than mail this is for you!!

Watangi Day 6 February 2013 - we are having a thermalling contest - Bill's Aussie rules apply - should he be allowed to enter? See survey below for your vote on this!!

Then we are having a barbie after - Dave Muckle is setting the rules on this one but the rumour is $5.00 for a Bills Beaut Butchers BBQ Pattie and stuffings in  a Big Burger Bun - bring money for this and the bar, and a wife or two would be most welcome - its a fun day people - join us.

It has been great to be flying in the valley again after the Raglan "fiasco" and haven't the thermals been a treat? Lets hope Wed in 10knot Southerlies after 2 wet days is really superb. Well we could run the thermalling contest on the simulator - but Bill built it so that would be rigged as well............ I am sure it will be fun whatever we do!!

SEE YOU THERE!!!!

Click here to vote if you think Bill should or should not be allowed to enter the thermalling contest - remember he flies a LAK ............

Keep clicking ........

Ah it's great to be back in NZ, at work, and in temperatures that are less than 43 degrees.

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who helped during the contest in Australia:

• To everyone who sent me texts, emails, facebooks of help, advice and support.
• The Mike Rix Trust for helping with airfares to Australia.
• The racing committees in NZ and Australia for all their help organising.
• Ian Grant for the use of his glider, and the days spent crewing for me and helping out.
• Ian McCallum, for being such a great opponent.
• Benalla gliding club, for their support, letting me use the airfield cars and sorting out accomodation, and help with all the competition paperwork.
• Bryan Hayhow, Andy Smith, and the Maddocks crew for all their help, and keeping me entertained on non flying days.

Today I learned I should have left the trophy in Australia, as it will be flown there again next year, and that would have saved shipping. Doh! So if anyone wants(!) to take it over to Aussie, let me know.

I'll be doing a write up for the next magazine.

MetService rural weather forecast charts coming back soon

MetService have updated their website, and the rural weather lost it's great little temperature and rain charts. I really like these, they gave a good indicator how stable the day will be, and how fast it will get hot. Good news, they'll be coming back soon.

Club Class Competition & MSC Comp in Taupo

Final call for anyone entering the NZ National Club Class Competition, or the Matamata Soaring Centre competitions. Early bird entries must be in before the end of January. Enter here:

http://www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:cpsc-2012-newsletter-entry&catid=2:competition-detail&Itemid=9 

Current list of entries are as follows, we currently have Brett, Edouard, Bob and myself going from Piako:

http://www.soaringspot.com/nzclub2013/pilots/
http://www.soaringspot.com/msc2013/pilots/

Today ended up a no fly day. Which means... dum dum DUM... we have won the Tasman Trophy for New Zealand. All in all, I'm rather chuffed. This is the third time a NZ pilot has won in Australia, which evens it up, as it's also three times also an Aussie has won in NZ. Final scores:

Tim Bromhead 5495
Ian McCallum 5361 

Today we waited around for a long time. After an hour or so from our start time we sent up two sniffers. They both came back a short while later. We waited another hour. The 15m and standard classes were placed at the front, and they cancelled the open and 18m classes at the back. Then they switched our class to the backup B task which was shorter. Then after 3 hours the whole thing was cancelled.

We then had a mass derigging of all the gliders.

The final dinner and prize giving tonight was great, with 116 people total.

I was given a big round of applause for winning the Tasman Trophy, while one of the organisers John waved a NZ flag in a rather depressed sad way as I walked up.

I have a huge list of people to thank for making this trip happen, which I'll follow up with soon! Right now I have to vacuum the cabin, as we're off to Melbourne first thing tomorrow morning. Yes it's a glamourous life at a gliding contest...

40 degrees with 20 knot winds, and no lift!

Ian Grant helping put VTM in the trailer

The awards table. Some very impressive trophies.

A great bunch of people, who I hope to see again soon.

I think I finally saw a snake in the wild!

I have no idea how to fly it yet, but we have a task, we'll be out on the grid soon. There is a cold front coming through sometime today, so we just don't know what will happen really.

Task is a 2.5 hour AAT, you can see here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/task/day8.html

I'll have my SPOT tracker operating, you can see here:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0A22JxOZH5zbv2PqH8Ys1UfrHWRqxHzOX  

Scores will come in after we land, and be available here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day8.html

Thanks for all the support from everyone, I'll post an update after our dinner and prize giving tonight!

Woohoo!

http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day7.html

Another 40 degree day in Benalla, and we finally got clouds. Just not the sort we wanted. They looked very wavy, so we all had thoughts of climbing to 10,000 feet before starting the task.

Turned out the thermals were tricky to use near the hills, probably because the wave above and ground winds were different directions and the day was still heating up.

I had a good day, not getting too low and finding climbs when I needed them. Due to the cloud build up, we had to fly to the sunny patches on the ground, or where they were 10 minutes ago. Although not cumulus, it was a good change to have something to fly to.

I had a good glide back to the airfield, finding climbs on the Warby hills to top up to get home, while many others spent time trying to find a thermal.

Ian made a mistake today, and missed the last turnpoint. On some days (AAT tasks) we have a 3km circle around it, today was a 0.5km circle (Racing task). He turned at the 3km mark meaning he never reached the turnpoint, and was marked as a virtual landout. So I'm now 165 points ahead, with one day to go.

We're not sure if we're flying tomorrow, it sounds like a front is coming through bringing showers, wind and possible thunderstorms. Tomorrow night we have dinner and prize giving.

What the flarm looks like while flying with lots of other gliders. It's not as busy as it can be. I was taking photos after all...

Wave over the mountains just as we were starting. The open class gliders managed to climb up into it to start, at 10,000 feet

On track half way around

It's like living in an aviary around the airfield

Yes, today we flew into the hills. I won't say mountains, as there are some big mountains nearby where they ski and everything, however today was just into the hills.

I really enjoyed today, great scenery, not as much sink around (for me at least), and had other people to fly with. Unfortunately we were still too slow, and only achieved 99km/h compared to the day winner of 114km/h.

Todays Results:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day6.html

My points: 735 Total: 4495
Ian McCallum: 785 Total: 4901

Now 406 points difference.

Looking at the forecast, Friday was 90% chance of rain, down to 60%, so people are thinking we may fly now. Which is good, so we have 2 days to catch up 406 points.

High cloud tanted us before launch

Who says Australia is flat?

Our tracks today, I'm the red line if you can make it out.

Goodness, valleys? Water? Hills? Trees? All we need now are some cumulus...

Yesterday was a good day of flying, although didn't get quite as hot as predicted. Cloudbase was around 6000 feet max.

I managed to get out on track alone, which was my first mistake. I did meet up with Bryan Hayhow in his Discus CS, and we had a good run to the second turnpoint. From there though I pushed on, and missed a climb right when I needed one, before crossing a river south.

I ended up low, down to 1700 feet above the ground, which means much slower climbs. It is just essential not to get low, otherwise your average speed is greatly reduced. I stumbled along low for a while, and just as I was getting back up to a decent height, there was a sight to behold. 20 gliders at various heights coming straight for me. I've never seen anything like it. And I couldn't do anything about it, except climb up and join them.

After that it was simply a matter of cruising with the gaggle until home.

Yesterday made clear just how imprtant competition tactics are, and today we will not be going out alone.

There's a lot of talk about single start line vs multiple start circles here. One argument against a start line is we end up with these giant gaggles like we did yesterday. Everyone sits behind the start line waiting for someone else to start. The problem with starting before the gaggle is it's easy to miss one climb, and get swallowed up by it, just like I did yesterday.

My score for yesterday was 799 points, with Ian McCallum on 916, so I lost a bit of ground. Two days to go, with 356 points to catch up. Friday looks like it will be raining.
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day5.html

I'm completely flabberghasted, but I actually won a day.

Maybe those years grovelling around between 2000 and 5000 feet in Matamata finally paid off, as I don't think we were above that all day. Low for the Aussies, normal for us?

We finally got a final glide pretty much bang on, without ending up with too much height at the finish line. It helped there were other gliders coming in at the same time, and a very good flight computer in the Ventus. My confidence in it for final glides is growing.

One low point, down to 2000 feet above the ground, but again saved by someone else who found a good strong thermal next to the crappy one I found. Flying with others is just so important on a blue day with no clouds.

Ian is now 224 points ahead of me in the total scores for the Tasman Trophy. He was just 97 points behind me today.

Some stronger days coming by the forecasts, 8000 feet predicted for tomorrow. Thanks everyone for all the messages of support.

Results here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/daily/day4.html

Task here:
http://www.soaringspot.com/ausmulti13/results/15-meter/task/day4.html

The secret to a cold drink. Giant icecubes from plastic cups. Also been trying the sports drink powder. It works well, I like it. Add apple juice as well for taste.