MNS Pacific 2008

[Icarus]

Results and task details at MNS Pacific on http://www.gliderracing.com

Race 2 Comments:

So it’s now official, the forgotten tribes down south now have a “local” server for Monday Night Soaring races. Eugene Williams (1EW) kindly hosts from Japan which happily keeps us folk down here in the region under pings of 300.

Last weeks race was a bit of a surprise on the local community, so there were only two of us racing. 1EW had a tight spot in the mountains on the last leg home pushing too hard to catch me, and I thrashed his arse to the finish with my more conservative “plan B” racing style. Nice to know it does come in handy at times! With a bit of canvassing on the other local races during the week and some advertising on the forums, 1EW successfully managed to bring 15 pilots to last nights race, about five locals and the others European pilots, a few hot-shots and even the newest member of online soaring royalty, PML!

Looked like a really nice ridge task in New Zealand with Open class ships, don’t need anything too tricky on Monday evening after a day at work eh! It looked to be pretty straightforward, with only one or two spots to catch the unwary or overly hasty out. I don’t much like fannying about at the start, unless of course there’s some good reason to wait for a bit for conditions to improve or you’re not high enough to start well etc. This story of playing cat and mouse in the start area, waiting for a few thermal markers to get out on course is not for me. I like to just go out and do my thing as well as I can, free from distractions.

I started within 10 seconds of the gate opening, and so did about 5 others, only one of which I could see, they must have started in the West side of the start area. No matter, we’ll all wind up meeting on the ridgeline anyway and then the duel will be on….who will be first? I had picked a good energy line all the way to the ridge, marked by a few good Cu, and a few km’s after start flew into a 6kt climb which I took to cloud base. I’d only had a few climbs of 3-5kts prior to start on the plains, so this would set me up nicely….see you guys later!

I crossed the plains well, maintaining 110kts and arrived just below ridge height straight into an 8kt climb, another bonus. One of soaring’s royalty (an older member) had elected to take the absolute direct route on track….bugger the 2km diversion off track to hit the good ridge….and was now mucking about low in the foothills of the ridge, too low to connect. I can’t work out what goes through these guys minds????? Condor always punishes a bad move with time penalties, but unfortunately it rarely punishes stupid moves with outlandings….maybe they could work this into V2? Anyway, aforesaid member of soaring royalty was grovelling like a peasant in the weeds as I left him behind and didn’t feature again in the race. Presumably the track line didn’t yield the expected 9kt climbs when he arrived under them at 400’ AGL?

Ok, enough of that, back to my race…… at cb I took off and ran the next 10-15km or so at 120kts, pulling up in the occasional ridge thermal but slowly losing height over time. I didn’t have another climb on the ridge line and I left it for the plains heading into TP1 – this next section I would need a good climb to stay ahead of the pack! I ran under two Cu until I found a 6kt climb to cb. Looking back occassionally at the ridge now I could see 8 aircraft strung out along the dark rocks, all chasing me down hard. Around TP1 and into wind for a short second leg, slowed to 90kts just maintaining height in the bubbles coming up the North facing slopes; around TP2 in the valley and back onto the ridge……running for a few kms and I deviated a little, tucking into a little pocket in the rocks with a nice looking cloud above the ridge – another 8kt climb! The hounds were closing in now, two aircraft appeared underneath but missed the climb I was in, being too low on the ridge to connect and they pressed on. At cb again, I headed off picking my way along the ridge at 90-100kts and left the hounds behind sniffing the trail….needed to stay high now for a crossing up ahead. Just had enough energy to clear the ridge, flopped over into the sink and the valley beyond to line up on the long ridge section running into TP3 and home.

Still about 70km out from home running the ridge I was still 1800’ under fg. I had arrived in between the cycling…sh*t! No good looking Cu up ahead so I slowed to 90kts to maintain altitude and slowly come onto fg. This was going to cost me! Now the hounds were closing again, MXJ had come from a mid-field start and was now sniffing my tail so to speak…..he’d been cutting through the pack with some speed! Now only 400m behind me I could see he was a little higher as we came up to the last section of ridge before the plains for home…..only one good Cu ahead…..I’m running at Mc4.0 and about 60’ under fg….big decision time…..pull-up and keep going or circle….hmmmm.

So the Mc theory on this one is quite straightforward….no rocket science required; if you can climb faster than your current fg Mc setting then it’s worth taking the climb and finish faster. But, at 100kts you’re covering 50m/s so with a normal or even wide thermal you don’t have more than about 2 seconds to assess the lift and make the decision, then pull up and start turning a big Open class ship around. I’m never quite sure how people in Condor assess lift at 100-110kts….you can’t really do it too well flying in RL, it’s just too fast. Condor has the added disadvantage that you can’t feel any acceleration as you enter the rising air, so you depend on the vario reading only for clues about strength. By the time you’ve waited for the vario to reach the peak of lift strength you are already through the best lift – vario lag is usually about 2 seconds. So either you just turn and hope for the best, make one or two circles, stay if it’s good or move on if it’s not?
6-7kts on the instantaneous vario quickly becomes 3kts in avg climb rate with a bit of mucking around trying to centre the lift. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been left behind on final glides “applying the theory” of taking a nice looking climb. If you don’t centre very good lift in one or two circles you might as well not have stopped at all, you just waste more time....it's a bit of a gamble!

So all of this flashed through my mind in a couple of seconds, I pulled up to slow down in the lift and then accelerated again still in the lift to gain 200’ and kept going. MXJ stopped to circle, ok we’ll see?…..with 10km to go he reappears on the radar, he’s closed to 1000m behind me now…….1km to go to finish he’s now almost onto me……I take the gate first, but he’s the winner for the day.

What a great race it was too, we had a few crashes as always in the hills, but MXJ took a clear race win, followed by AV, 1EW, PML, H9 and FLW filling the next five spots all finishing within two minutes of each other. Perfect entertainment – great task setting by JH, and close racing all the way. Hope we see a good turnout next week. By the way, I’m not a honorary Hungarian….bit of a mix up with the country flags.

H9

[Icarus]

Race 3 comments:

Another great racing day! 12 pilots online; 4 Pacific “locals” and the others from Europe – thanks for the support guys, and thanks to 22 for a nice task in New Zealand.

I think the reduced join time is a success; those who want to race will be there, and we can get on with it asap. Before start I found lift in the 3.5-5kt range on the plains, and got ready for a quick start as soon as the gate opened. Weather was set to moderate lift strength with low variation, so this usually makes for close racing, and the race would probably be won by whoever used the occasional stronger ridge thermals the best, and didn’t get into any trouble. I like going out in front with others chasing, but after my impressive Vne dive and pull-up through the start my selected cloud 5km down track only gave a 3.5kt average….no point starting off badly, so I headed back to restart. A few others started, and by the time I restarted I was about 3rd or 4th off the line. First thermal was a good 5.5kt average to cb and then a 110kt run to the ridgeline where I hooked into a 6kt climb and was well on my way, catching up with the early starters.

I followed the ridge deviating from track a bit to 10km out, took another 6kt climb and headed into TP1, bumping into GP9 all along the way. I’m sure almost all would have followed this track more or less, and about 4 aircraft converged on TP1. GP9 was flying a bit more conservatively than I was, but I seemed to be finding slightly better lift when I needed it….not usually the story of my flying life! I took another 5kt climb on the West facing ridge just after TP1 and crossed the high flat ground, pulling up in the lift along the way. The last high ridgeline before the long beat out onto the plains and TP2 could be problematic, and I arrived a little lower than I’d have liked – about 40% up the slope, so I was forced to divert off track to follow the ridge. I had a bit of luck here and stumbled into a 4kt blue thermal running down the ridge, and as I climbed up GP9 reappeared and passed by me, also looking for a climb.
He was higher up and could make the good looking Cu sitting on top of the ridge, but by the time he centered the climb I was almost level in altitude and after two turns I could see his was really good, so I left mine to join him. We climbed to cb and headed off downwind for the long leg to TP2. I’d found the Cu were cycling a little quicker than expected, so I decided not to chase the very good looking ones from far away…when you get there they are dying already – I’d stay on track, try to minimise distance flown and see what happened. This was a strategic decision with some risk!

I passed by GP9 taking the conservative route climbing in a nice looking Cu about 3km off track….hmmmm, hope I’ve done the right thing! Still it's nice to just go blasting by sometimes Nothing ahead now for the 10km into TP2 and only one or two Cu another 5km after TP2…..hmmmmm, getting that first sniff of trouble now. First to round TP2, and I started taking bigger deviations to test lift….not too much of interest! Eventually, getting a little too low and starting to gamble too much I stopped for a 3.5kt climb; one of those frustrating moments you know is going to cost you, but just how much you pay is still to be decided! Stay too long and you get a hiding from the others as they reel you in, don’t stay long enough and you don’t resume a position of choice about your next climb. With another 1000' in reserve again I headed off - only one more range to cross on the way home now, and I really needed a good climb to cb to make it over and home from 30km out.

Some good Cu ahead forming on the sunny slopes downwind of the range, only problem is I’d arrive low – this can be risky! I headed straight for a nice looking Cu ahead, forming on a small low ridge pushing into a small low valley…..missed that one….sh*t, now I’m headed for a ridge soaring sortie in the weeds. Only 16km to get home and I’m stuck in the lee of the last range, just maintaining altitude on a low ridge….hunting along…..bumped into a scrappy blue ridge thermal, only 2.5kt avg….then improving to 3.5kts as I got up a bit. Nothing left to do, and nowhere left to go but sit it out and climb until I could cross the ridge. Flopped over the ridge and then through the finish for an average of 127.3km/h, which placed me third overall. 1EW took second with a skinny margin over me at 128.2km/h and CN the winner for the day at 131.4km/h.

I really thought I’d have been punished more, but it seems everyone had some trouble on the last leg so I was let off the hook a bit. There were three outlandings on the last leg, a crash earlier in the race, and eight finishers. Perfect race really – a nice interesting task, close racing overall, a bit of drama, a crash, and I was in bed by 22h45.

Pity JJJ couldn’t make it – he would have got his butt kicked

See you guys next week.

[Icarus]

A few shots around the finish:

[Eugene Williams]

Thanks for the report Hank
I 've got over the last ridge on final leg by slowing down to 80kts, so I had not much trouble there. Although I had big time trouble on the second leg ridge. I arrived to TP2 just after the Euro folks left and, I only managed to find a left over 3.0kt dying lift That led me to weaker ridge thermalling and some trouble....

Well, I think there was lots of dicsitions to make in this task and surely a very good task!