2008: Horsham - a Newcomer's Tale

This article by David Meredith was first published in Soaring Australia, May 2008..

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE TRYING TO FIND A MOTEL IN A TOWN THAT YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE AT MIDNIGHT WITH A GLIDER TRAILER ATTACHED TO THE CAR. ST ARNAUD ON A SATURDAY NIGHT CONTAINED THE MTANDATORY NUMBER OF DRUNKS, ALL KEEN TO GIVE ADVICE TO THIS GUY WITH A LONG TRAILER WHO HAD DRIVEN UP AND DOWN THE MAIN STREET FOUR TIMES. FOUND THE MOTEL, HAD A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP AND TURNED UP IN HORSHAM AT 9:45 THE NEXT MORNING IN TIME FOR BRIEFING. SO STARTS MY FIRST HORSHAM WEEK.

The idea of my attendance at this week, was my wife Cathie's. She was browsing the latest copy of Soaring Australia, looking for stories by a Claffey, and noticed the competition calendar. "You should go."she said, I agreed.

Anyway, back to Sunday morning: I drove in to Horsham airport looking for inspiration - it came in the form of a white hat and silver rim glasses - David Wilson told me to park somewhere and get to briefing. So I walked into the Horsham hangar for the very first time, somewhat like the ambiance from the old days of Taroom and Lake Keepit (before the fire), that is a tin shed, asphalt floor and serious men in floppy hats, with long trestle tables and vinyl seats. A quick scan of the faces made me realise I really should try to get to know more Victorian glider pilots.

So I got the briefing, a local tour from Max Hedt, and then down to the business of getting ready. First was rigging, off to the north fence, where I was kindly helped by the guys from the eXON Valdez, my new neighbours. These guys are good neighbours, helped me rig, gave me a hat and none of my pegs or shackles disappeared. So now it was time to install the brand new FLARM - NAV - a requirement for the comp (along with a comp licence, another last minute panic, thanks Beryl). The FLARM surprisingly only took 10 minutes and it worked straight away, I was immediately suspicious - but it worked well all week. Anyway, eventually got to the fight line and took off at the end of the line and blasted off for my first day (which was Day 2 of the comp - anyone can declare a lay day at anytime, first indication that this was a good friendly comp).

DAY 2 (MY FIRST DAY)

Into the air. Whoa! The tuggie started thermalling - just like my days at Bathurst. Up I went - real quickly. With $30 tug tickets these guys were determined to minimise cost. The result was a release at 1600ft and a six-knot thermal to 6000ft, a great welcome to Horsham. Now to the task. I had hurriedly found out the turnpoints on the grid and noted them on my map. With no points preloaded in the Cambridge, it was back to following the map. The day took us NW over some of the most miserable country I've flown - there  were genuine salt lakes and the famed big desert to negotiate. I saw towns with names that were vaguely known. and alter turning at a silo with no railway line, headed NE to Hopetoun then back south to Horsham. Given my late departure, I saw very few gliders on the way, and landed with a miserable estimate of speed. The GPS confirmed a speed of 81km/h, far too slow Then the scores went up, just when I thought it was slow, I realised everyone else in Standard Class had a tough time, in fact I came second - not bad for a map reading, late-coming newcomer. First was Steve Jinks - by a long way as I only got 801 points. So my vision quickly focused, I must beat Mr Jinx (come on, some of you must remember Pixie and Dixie).

There were 34 entrants this year, spread across four classes. The day winners, rewarded with liquid designed to slow judgement and movement, were:

Open: Tracy Tabart
15m:  Steve Trone
Standard:  Steve Jinks
Club:  Jaroslaw Mosiejewski

One outlanding, Simon Browne in his new. Discus 2cx, he had nothing to say.

DAY 3

I went to bed early at the end of Day 2, with Jinks and his henchmen drinking heavily outside his tent - excellent he'll be tired and hung over tomorrow I turn up to the breakfast ($5 continental all you can eat) and there his is. Clear-eyed and wolfing down Muesli - this guy is tough. David Wilson gives us the weather briefing for Day 3 - is there ever a comp where he doesn't do the weather? His prediction: Good cu's and 8000 to 9000ft cloudbase. The good news was that he was right - we had an excellent day My Jantar and I reckoned today was the day, heavier than most even without water (extreme water restriction meant no ballast for anyone). would do us well. Open. 15 and Standard flew 348km. flying west to the SA border then NE across the little desert then south back to home.

The streeting on the second leg was brilliant, with many cruising at over 100kt at up to 10 000ft. In the middle of all this, the the dreaded white Cirrus of Jinks appears, sliding under me in a thermal - my FLARM chirp' happily indicating he is to the right, 100ft below - must... keep... hi... there. 60km further on, the Jantar has failed to get away, 90 to 105kt cruising had not blown the Cirrus away. Damn! Then in the final leg, final glide was picked up 80km out with a steady 90kt home. I land, pull up, and get the car and finally the Cirrus arrives, three minutes after me - hah beat him home.

Brian Wood our scorer is a quiet patient man, who suffers everyone but fools. A life time of gliding in the same club as Garry Stevenson will do that to you. He gets the scores our for Day 3, and (Do you want the good news or the bad news?) I've beaten nemesis by 1.5 minutes not enough, the Cirrus has a two percent advantage with handicap. So today I'm third, but with 971
points - the gap is closing. Fellow Geelong club member Wayne Mackley gets 'loopy (IUD)' - another Jantar, 28 seconds quicker than me (yes, just one turn I know). Day winners are:

Open:  Tony Tabart
15m:  Peter Buskens
Standard:  Steve Jinks
Club: Noel Vagg

Meanwhile Chris'lumpy' Trewern spewed heavily, regretted the night before and slept through rhe best day in many years.

DAY 4

The tent started flapping like crazy last night and we woke to a cool southerly. Most people camp at Horsham - it costs only $6 per day and this pays for the site amenities. We trudge off to breakfast wondering if we will fy The southerly continues and we are threatened with a run task at briefing. Rolf Buelter, comps director, quickly explains the rules for this form of racing and hopes not too many will outland. Dave suggests that we will have cumulus for two to three hours with a base of 6000ft maximum. I reckon he got it right, but the 20kt southerly caused cancellation of the day. We had a pilots' meeting instead and took the afternoon off to tune instruments drink beer and tell tall tales. Most hung around for the evening meal of roast lamb. They charge $12 for the evening meal, it's good value. Catering is done by a dedicated kitchen group under the command of Lorelle Esmore. It would appear to be her kitchen given the 84 endorsements of safe food handling and votes of thanks on the kitchen wall. Beer is cheap too, with the bar person obliged to obey the commands of 'bar bitch' Jan Vagg (others may know her as Mrs Snake).

DAY 1

Yes, a bit out of order but I wasn't there. According to a bunch of runks in the bar on Day 5 evening, Day 1 was:
Stevo: "Too long ago, can't remember"
Caleb: "Good blue day."
Woodsy: "I got in the tug, left Ararat and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."
Ben: "What happened Saturday?"
Leon: 'Jinksy got home, in fact everyone got home."
Jinksy: "Quiet day Brownie hadn't arrived yet.

0pen: Tony Tabart
15m: Peter Buskens
Standard: Caleb White
Club: June Nakamura with Chris Thorpe (gopher and ballast according to June)

DAY 5

More wind, low cloud and misery. A second day missed through poor weather at a gliding comp is a desperate and sad thing. So, many went to the pictures, some to the Grampians and Dave Wilson and I went trekking in little desert - a fascinating look at a unique ecosystem in Australia, all within half an hour of the airfield. There is a big advantage to this site, given its close proximity to a major regional town and some excellent tourist attractions. The highlight of the day was the evening meal - Stephano's chicken and veggies.

DAY 6

The wind was so severe around 5am that I couldn't sleep in my tent. The big dome works well in calm conditions, but struggles in a solid 30kt. Eventually the wind settled down to only 25kt and the cloud thinned and we looked hopefully at the weather-man for good news. The answer: It could be okay, there will be thermals to 6000ft and there will be cu. Okay, that'll be fine, but one hitch, the wind will stay strong. Well after two delays to marshalling, we got out onto the grid, only to be told Day 6 was scratched. So I headed off to Mt Arapiles for a walk and a rock climb. I sat on the top of this mountain and looked out for 100km in each direction at a big blue sky scattered with thin cumulus. So did others back at Horsham, who took a launch behind the recently converted Jabiru and enjoyed a few hours of soaring - maybe if we'd delayed launching a bit later... The interesting thing about the launch behind the Jabiru is that it's only $2 a tacho minute. The average launch to 2000ft takes about seven to nine minutes - you do the maths, that's a cheap launch. So the lesson from today: There's plenty to do in this region and the launches are good value.

DAY 7

The comp director Rolf had that look in his eye. After three days off I sensed that we were going to fly today regardless of the weather. Well we did fly. The task that had been delivered to us at briefing for four mornings in a row was folded up and taken to the glider. Nothing else needed as the nav points had been loaded in the Cambridge for three days now! It was a run task - an interesting idea where you keep flying around a task, as many times as needed, until three hours were up, then you fly home. You loose 10% of your points if outlanding whilst coming home, otherwise it's just like another speed task. The day was quite tough with good cumulus cover one minute and a totally over-developed sky the next, all stirred up by an 18kt southerly. The trick I found was to have a clear idea of what the sky was going to be like in five to 10 minutes and adjust speed accordingly (Yes, I know, good theory, but difficult to execute).

I came home thinking I'd flown far too conservatively, spending much of my flight with Janus'- there seemed to be 20 of them Most of the cars, including Steve ]inks' had left the carpark and I had that feeling that I'd be lucky to get 600 points, no podium finish today. So despondency soon turned to delight when I found his car (with trailer) was on its way to retrieve him! Just to make things easier, Olgi in the LS4 and Phil Volk in the Hornet had all landed out. Wayne Mackly, the other serious contended had only travelled once around the course compared to my one-and-a-half times - so it was an interesting wait for the scores to come out: Just maybe I have created the chance to get on top. So imagine the horror, the despair, the tragedy when I learned that Id failed to correctly turn the first turnpoint. Dreams of glory out the window: Looks like I'll have to come back next year.

Open: Mads Leth
15m: Peter Buskens
Standard: Wayne Mackley
Club: Noel Vagg and Chris Trewern (who kept it in today)

DAY 8

Other commitments prevented me from competing on the final day, however I was reliably informed that it was a reasonable day which started with cumulus, went blue and then back to cu. (Something about the task being set the wrong way - fancy that!) Steve Jinks continued to demonstrate that he was good ar getting out of the blocks quickly, but then staggering home with another outlanding. This allowed him to fall off first place and left the trophy wide open for the rest of the class, particularly those Geelong Gliding Club pilots in Jantars.

0pen: Tony Tabart
15m: Bruce Cowan
Standard: Olgi Szemis
Club: Chris Thorp/June Nakamura

OVERALL RESULTS

(the first six out of 12 placings)

So the race was run, the final dinner held and the champions were handed their trophies, but later the following week scores
were checked and the rules consulted. it appears that ar Horsham Week, things are pretty relaxed and so anyone at the last day of the comp can declare the last day as a lay day (this is not normally allowed at Nationals' level). So gentle reader, guess who had enough points to win? So belatedly, the Standard Class scores were recalculated.

Fortunately the other classes were less controversial. Some interesting results were:

• The old dog in the Tabbart is still faster than the young dog
• Pete Bushens won 15m Class comfortably and
• June Nakamura, our only female competitor came second, not sure who was more in charge during the flight - Chris or June.

This is an excellent regional competition that is ideal for the first timer and also a pleasant way of completing the season for the serious comp pilot. Horsham is a very safe and interesting site with good facilities and friendly hosts. The comp is also cheap - food and accommodation is $27 per day and launches are $30 (and are planned to be the same next year). There is also a variety of tasks to suit all participants. The locals really make you welcome and work extremely hard all week in the kitchen to keep meals interesting and good value.

Another great feature is the compact nature of the club, with everything, including launching, all within a small area. All this helps to create an intimate environment. For someone relatively new to Victoria, I found it a great way to get to know others from my own club and the other Bacchus Marsh clubs. The site has room for over 50 gliders, so please go along next year and enjoy the challenge and friendliness!