Volume 1, Number 6
12PM, Friday, January 11th, 2002
Back Seat of the Dodgy Four Runner/Hay Caravan Park, NSW
"Gordo, I have a feeling we're not in Wylie anymore."

Drugs in sport

It's starting to warm up. 10/1/01 saw the mercury rising to about 35 in the paddock. And just to ensure there was an endurance component to the event, they stuffed up the tow direction - twice. In the end we towed from the same position as the day before.

Bomber and I did the carry from the East end to the North, seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect the Nausea and light headedness should probably have been expected. I had 3/4 of my camelbak left by the time I launched (Had already finished my auxiliary 2 litres). Oh-and we had to change a tire on the four runner as well.

I've started on the chemicals now - it took me about 6 days of flying last year before I started hitting the "Over 30 pilot's little helpers", and I think I've done well in lasting this long, this year.

Iboprofen {eye-bo-pro-fn}, n - A combined painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug.

You can understand why the class 2/rigid wing market has taken off in the USA. All those 40-something's with too much money and not enough cartilage.

We landed with a guy flying a Stalker on the first day at Deni - apparently they take almost no physical effort to fly. After a 5 hour flight in a high performance flex-wing, your body generally lets you know about it. I've got my harness set permanently heads down (though not far), and haven't yet figured out a neat way to adjust it up/down for thermal and glide, so most of my discomfort comes from thermalling in this position. That and craning my head skywards to see where everyone else has gone.

Day 3's task was a 115k O & R, first leg east then returning to a paddock near Hay. The slight angle meant the return leg was near/along the Murrumbidgee.

After the pfaffing around with the tow strips the launch window finally opened at about 2:30pm and the first start gate was sometime after 3pm. Way too late. The guns were straight on course - A sure sign that it was a late start. Phil towed first and managed to get pre-selected for the first gaggle. Bomber landed a spot in the second, and Gordo and myself were with all our mates (i.e. pretty lonely).

Almost half the field left in the first gaggle. It looked pretty amazing from the ground, and Phil said it was equally so from the air. I towed up 3rd not long after, but long enough to miss the early group. Climbing slowly over the paddock, the drift was slight, but cross-wind to the task.

I meandered off on course with a few others. The lead gaggles had shot off and there wasn't a whole lot of activity in the distance. After 2 thermals we'd established a smaller group of 4 and were looking good to continue on. I was generally losing small amounts on the glide (100-150') over the Litespeeds, but making it up if the climbs were good.

We've noticed that most people turn really flat, in my opinion way too flat for punchy 700fpm. But this technique works better for broken lift. It's something I really need to work on. When the vario starts really screaming I tend to climb pretty well, and on several occasions I've caught other plebs in better gliders by doing this. Of course it could be that I've jagged a bubble coming up under them - But I prefer the other explanation.

At this stage I was showing 20 miles to TP and heard Bomber call in at 31k, I was surprised I couldn't see them - Phil was a little further in front. Obviously we'd caught up. Talking later to Bomber it turned out he was a little further north.

Soon, however, we encountered weaker lift and I was a little peeved to watch them climb away from me. What I should have done is settle in for the climb, and let them find the next thermal for me. What I did was spot a dust devil 2k to my right (upwind), and go after it. 3 minutes and 800 feet later I got into it, and it was pretty broken and crappy. After another 4 or 5 minutes I finally found the good stuff and blasted back to 5grand at 600fpm. But it was really lonely now.

I'd now traversed a large irrigated area (I figured the guns went around this, or the course-line wasn't over this - but there were tracks for retrieves.). I took a stab at where the turnpoint was and noticed another such area near TP. But between me and there was open ground. Also as I had moved south of the course I hoped to run into the gaggles coming back from turnpoint allowing me to speed up and catch the slower groups.

It wasn't to be, and though I saw a few groups the climbs weren't overly great. It appeared the day was shutting down, and I generally settled for what I found myself, which was 200-300 with only occasional spurts of 400fpm.

Over the next irrigated area, less than 5k from turnpoint, and a crop swirl (corn) showed me a climb, which I never quite centered, and took 15-25 minutes to climb back to about 4200'. Hoping to circle into TP I was a little hesitant but glided in anyway. I aimed for a supposed intersection but was surprised to see the route indicator pointing to a paddock 1k north. The GPS wasn't lying though and I closed in until it read 0.0 miles. I'm hoping the Aircotec people will do automatic switching once within the TP cylinder. I'll add it to my wish list, along with including a course line.

Around TP and heading back to where the crop swirl had been I started the dance all over again and slowly climbed in broken lift to about 4500. I saw Gordo land underneath me, he'd flown well to catch up. One more low save from 800' back to 3500 was all I had left though, and I landed next to the road, about 45k from Goal, at about 7:20pm. Another 4hrs in the office.

As I was gliding in Bomber called in at 20k from Goal, 1000'. He Managed to boat for another 5 K or so and landed 13K from Goal. Another good effort. Phil had landed a little earlier (25k out) and Bomber flew over his head.

We all agreed it was a tough day (made each other feel good).

"Nah mate, it never blows like this."

The day started looking like the best yet. I thought we'd be 200+k down the road by the end of it. However the BOM in Mildura reported 20+ knots so at the first sign of roughage the pin was pulled. 2 guys free flew and made their declared goal at 190k, apparently quite easily with only 4 major climbs. The temperature had climbed into the high 30's by the time we packed up and the dusties were pretty impressive.

Phil has calculated that we've only flown 50% of the days we've been here, pretty crappy. If there wasn't the chance of flying 5-6 comp days straight I'd free-fly more, but for now I'm taking it easy and resting for the comp days.

So it was another pool day. While sitting under the shade at the pool a sailplane came over heading into the stiff westerly. He was making 20-25kph headway, yep it's windy.

Bomber and I have been setting our gliders up, nose to wind using screw in dog-arrestors. They're like big cork screws that go into the ground with a handle for tying your dog/glider to. I've found it best to use an existing crack in the ground and did so on this day with no problems. Bomber however didn't, and was about to pull his tension on when a gust hit, the glider looped over his head and landed on its nose just missing mine. He was left with the detachable keel-bit in his hand, looking a little perplexed.

My elastic for the kick stand also broke - through wear. So it was a good afternoon for fixing this. I feel a little left out - everyone is rotating eccentrics, lowering/raising sprogs, re-doing batten profiles, and even installing carbon inserts. Bomber has gradually adjusted a turn out of his Litespeed 4 (Using 5 or 6 small changes, 1 per day) and is now happy with it. Gordo is happy with his glider, and Phil is wrapped with his Climax.

The word is that Oleg has the hot-ship this year. Rohan has been adjusting the Climax and has made up on Jonnie Durand and they reckon Rohan's glider is now going better than Jonnie's. There's a Laminar MR700 here as well, but being flown by a French pilot at the aerotowing - so I don't get to see it.

The French team are fully sponsored by their national association - not a bad job! Apparently they tend to fly quite aggressively, and the lads have adjusted their flying to suit. Bomber no longer uses avoidance techniques, chosing instead to push the bar out and "show the bastards some under surface".

Me - I tend to fly like this even when alone, so haven't had any problems.

OK - Bored now. Actually it can be quite relaxing watching the trees sway backwards and forth. The day was canned without a trip to the paddock today. We sauntered, mosied, jostled and sat - even venturing to the second hand book store in search of entertainment.

It's not only windy today, but cool as well. Out of the sun it's chilly. Most nights I've woken up cold. Bit different from Forbes last year where it was often 32deg when you went to bed.

The camp ground has taken on a familiar feel. Bomber brought the extension lead we purchased last year at Forbes. This runs to Gordo's tent (The mothership) where the central recharging station is. We all have 2-3 man tents, whereas Gordo's is a 10 person with ensuite and car-port.

The smaller dome tents are huddled around the shady areas like smaller peaks in a mountain range. The mothership looms over them like Everest over the Himalaya - or K2 over the Karokorum. The sailplanes have been seen to deviate towards the lenticulars forming over Gordo's tent. We're unsure of any significant altitude gains yet.

It's hard not worrying about the precious holiday time going to waste - this draws the mind to home and the lack of activity exacerbates the homesickness. As I told Suzy, I spent all year hoping I could come to the comps, and now I'm here I can't wait to get home.

I guess that's the desired result of a holiday.

Four days to go - let's hope they're good ones.

Bad luck, you’re stuck with it.

Daryl Speight
speightd@hunterwatertech.com.au

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