This article was first published on Greg O'Sullivan's blog.
We departed Friday the fourth of February 2005 for the Horsham Week gliding competition.
There had been a lot of rain in Melbourne during the week. (That has to be the biggest understatement ever!) The Exford bridge had been damaged by flood water so we had to go via another route which delayed us a little getting to Bacchus Marsh to pick up the glider. We had a lot of trouble getting the trailer hooked on. The jockey wheel was rapidly sinking into the mud. We had to jam some old trailer wheels under the drawbar and jiggle the jockey wheel up and place a board under it.
We drove off into drizzling rain. This kind of weather didn't bode well for the competition. We were trying to arrive early on Friday so we could get our tent rigged and the glider rigged before evening. There was a lack of volunteers to rig Friday afternoon. All the other Geelong club members wanted to rig on Saturday morning. Damn foolish of them in my opinion, but I can understand the reluctance of the Janus guys to rig without more people.
Saturday morning was spent getting the Geelong fleet put together, including that bloody Janus "WQ", which seems to need an entire football team to assemble it. Fortunately briefing was later than usual and it was declared a no fly day because the presence of a low altitude temperature inversion would prevent the safe launching of 30+ gliders. I wasn't complaining. I hate flying after a rigging "party". I'm not the worlds most physical guy and I end up feeling knackered after rigging my own glider and assisting with a few others.
I entered the LS3 in sports Class because I didn't want to fly with water ballast in my first competition.
Sunday Day 1, my first competition day.
Sports Class Task: Jeparit (20 km radius), Beulah (20 km radius), Minyip (20 km radius);
216 km AAT 3 hours.
My first impression was how rushed everything seemed after briefing to get the gliders on the grid and launched. I had my glider DI'ed and ready before briefing and everything else as prepared as I could and I still felt rushed. I noticed a few people still doing daily inspections after briefing! I had some excitement during the launch. My syndicate LS3 only has a C.G. hook. I was gridded on the far right of the strip. The tug lined up on the runway centre line. There was also a bit of cross wind. I was looking like wiping out some runway landing lights, my hand was on the release ready to yank, but fortunately I recovered the situation. I started as soon as the gate opened, no tactics, just my method of trying to avoid the traffic. It seemed most of the other Sports Class pilots had the same idea so I was in company with a few gliders on the first leg. The PW6 seemed to be making better progress than me, then I watched it go down into a paddock prior to Jeparit. I was also quite low here but I got away again. I pressed on right to the first turnpoint and found a useful climb over Jeparit. I was in survival mode for most of this flight and it turns out that surviving on this day was good enough. A weak day, I was lucky to see 4000 ft a couple of times. I was 2nd place for the day in Sports Class. 209.9 km at 64.0 km/h. Brian "Buzz" Bailey in the Janus "A" VH-IUX just pipped me at the post. Silly me, I flew such a wide circuit that I didn't finish till I was on final, wasting about 5 valuable minutes. John Ashford in the other Janus "A", VH-GWQ was 3rd and somewhat surprised I was faster than him.
Rolf Buelter in WQF won 15m Class, 271.0 km at 77.5 km/h.
Simon Brown GSM 3rd Standard Class, 221 km at 70.2 km/h
Wayne Mackley IUD 6th Standard Class, 235 km at 57.9 km/h
Mark Simpson UKA 7th Standard Class, 219.5 km at 56.8 km/h
Monday, a no fly day, although we still had to go through the whole exercise and grid up the gliders anyway. It was Geelong's turn to marshal and chaos ensued because no one had briefed us on what was expected. The highlight of this irritating day was running over one of my own tie down stakes and destroying a $165 car tyre. I should have nominated myself for a Turkey Award for that effort, I was sure someone else would. The Turkey Awards are a light hearted series of fines for people who do stupid things during the competition. The proceeds going to the Joey Fund to support Australian junior gliding. On one day Simon Brown was fined for unseemly attire that gave offense to the ladies. He was wearing some kind of sarong/loin cloth arrangement I gather.
Tuesday, Day 2;
Task: Goroke (40 km radius), Laharum (10 km radius), Marnooo (20 km radius);
247 km AAT 2 hours.
This was an interesting day because all classes flew the same task. I made good progress into the wind to the first turnpoint, which was in shadow. I had a low point while getting back out into the sun again which cost me some time. I didn't go far into the Marnoo area as I was going to go overtime and the last leg into the wind to Horsham was going to be a bit of a hard slog. I was 3rd in class, 205.2 km at 77.9 km/h. The day belonged to Noel "Snake" Vagg and the Beaufort Twin Astir VH IKM. Ross Birch was 5th in WQ, 217.1 km at 68.8 km/h.
Rolf was 2nd in 15m Class, 238.9 km at 96 km/h.
Wayne Mackley 3rd Standard Class, 209.5 km at 78.1 km/h.
Simon Brown 4th Standard Class, 202.2 km at 69.5 km/h.
Mark "Wrong Way" Simpson 10th Standard Class, (80.1 km) at 40.1 km/h.
The Open Class day winner, Tony Tabart, revealed the trick to doing well on this day was to make use of the large Goroke turnpoint area and stay well to the north in the sun. Most people like myself were fixated on flying to the turnpoint and perhaps a bit beyond it, if the going was good. An easier day than day 1, some good solid 4 knot average climbs to 5,500ft.
Thursday Day 3;
Sports Class Task:
Rosebery (40 km radius), Charlton (40 km radius); 311 km AAT 4 hours.
I was simply very slow, 277.1 km at 56.6 km/h for 7th place. The whole flight was hard yakka. "Buzz" seemed inordinately interested in my start/finish times and distance flown. Colin Campbell won the day in the mighty Libelle VH-GBX. This was the first day that was worth the full 1000 points for Sports Class. John Ashford was 4th in WQ, 281.8 km at 64.3 km/h.
Rolf won 15m class again, a pattern that was to continue for the
rest of the competition. 382.2 km at 83.7 km/h.
Wayne Mackley 2nd Standard Class, 310.6 km at 70.8 km/h.
Simon Brown 4th Standard Class, 316.km at 62.2 km/h.
Mark Simpson 8th Standard Class, (253.9 km) 63.5 km/h outlanded at Minyip.
I think that starting early was probably my downfall on this day, a 4 knot average thermal I had prior to start wasn't typical of what I encountered on track initially. Rosebery-Charlton I started getting some good climbs to 5,500 ft, but the homebound leg to Horsham was into a strong headwind and no real speed could be achieved.
Friday Day 4; A speed task.
Sports Class Task: Antwerp, Minyip; 146 km AST.
My iPAQ GPS wasn't working so after getting in a panic and rapidly re-entering the task while waiting on the grid, I flew with the Colibri logger strapped to my leg for navigation.I waited 30 minutes after the gate opened before starting this time. Actual tactics! I think it was worth it, as the thermal strength had picked up a bit. Things got a bit tricky on the Antwerp-Minyip leg when some high level cloud moved in. I could see the cloud shadows racing across the ground, fast! While I still had some height I selected full negative flap and raced for the largest sunny area I could see. I found another climb and pressed on to Minyip, not waiting to be engulfed in the shadow. Minyip was still in the sun and I got another healthy climb. Things were a bit tense on the final leg, I tried a few weak thermals as I was getting lower, but I kept moving on because the wind was driving me back at those low climb rates. I was beginning to doubt if the late start had been a good idea. Finally I managed to core something that was a little stronger and I exploited the performance of the LS3 to the maximum, nursing it home on a marginal final glide into a hefty head wind, while others were still scrabbling for some extra height. My day of triumph! 1st in sports class, the full 1000 points, 146 km at 76.4 km/h. I collected a bottle of Chardonnay as the daily prize the next morning at briefing. Eight people outlanded. I know it's not really a fair comparison because the other classes were flying slightly bigger tasks, but only two open class gliders flew a faster speed than me on the day. It was jokingly suggested at the bar that a swab should be taken, because I must have been on performance enhancing drugs to fly so well.
Ross Birch was 4th in WQ, 146.0 km at 50.1 km/h.
Rolf won 15m Class, 215 km at 73.9 km/h.
Wayne Mackley 2nd Standard Class, 172.6 km at 62.2 km/h.
Mark Simpson 5th Standard Class, 172.9 km 48.6 km/h.
Simon Brown Standard Class, 78.8 km outlanded.
Saturday, Day 5;
Sports Class Task:
Dimboola (20 km radius), Marnoo (30 km radius); 171 km AAT 3 hours.
I flew well, but bad task management caused by better than expected conditions and mental confusion about my start time and the size of the last AAT area, led me home 51 minutes early on what was supposed to be a 3 hour task. 172.5 km at 57.5 km/h for 7th place, bad enough to finish any delusions I might be having about winning a competition at my first attempt. What a pity it wasn't a 2 hour task, 80 km/h would have been more respectable!
John Ashford was 4th in WQ, 189.2 km at 63.1 km/h.
Rolf won 15m Class, 264.7 km at 88.2 km/h.
Wayne Mackley 4th Standard Class, 237.2 km at 78.2 km/h.
Mark Simpson 8th Standard Class, 193.8 km at 61.9 km/h.
Simon Brown didn't fly.
The last day was the best day of the competition and ironically my poorest performance. Abundant lift going to about 5,000 ft and clouds a plenty. At the awards dinner after the competition, I collected the embarrassingly large trophy for the Victoria "on the park" Hotel Achievement Award, being the highest placed novice pilot. It was politely suggested that I should enter the LS3 in 15m Class next year.
Rolf Buelter won the 15m Class trophy by a handy margin.
There was a small problem on our trip home, a trailer tyre blowout which damaged the trailer mud guard. I had to do a little bit of DIY panel beating by the roadside in addition to changing the tyre.
All in all, a fun time. I performed better than expected. With the distributed start points, the competition was no more hair raising than a busy day at Bacchus Marsh. I would urge all pilots who have the requisite XC experience give Horsham Week a go. It is the ideal place to start competition flying. I also recommend the Melbourne Cup weekend Bendigo XC coaching at Raywood. The regatta style format at Raywood is a low stress way to get used to flying tasks with other gliders and the experience stood me in good stead at Horsham.