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
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