Yesterday

Day 2 started late with weak climbs in the blue. Blue means no clouds to mark thermals (climbs) so gliders tends to congregate in gaggles even more. There were two large gaggles over the forest near the airfield, both not going up very much and not going down very much. There was a lot of juggling for position and the flying at times was quite dangerous as some pilots got to close for comfort. I in fact had a very close call with a Czech glider passing less than 20 feet below me. Blue days are like that.

The problem with blue days is the start. Once the start gate is open you can start whenever you want and also come back for a restart. If you start early, you may be marking thermals for later starters who can then catch you up very quickly. On blue days with no clouds to hide behind you can be seen for miles so starting early is like giving the opposition a nice present in the form of 100 points on a plate. The absolute rule is: never start early on a blue day. You can read more about starts here: Starting in gliding competitions

So what happen is we go round and round and round behind the start line and wait for someone lose their nerves and go. Normally once a few leave, the rest of the class will also leave.

Yesterday it was the Germans who left first and we started 5 minutes behind and caught them up after 15 km, which proves the point. After the first leg we got into a good area with cumulus and going into the 2nd turn I was sitting comfortably on top and in the lead. I then pushed on a bit too hard, ended up low and lost the main gaggle. Going in to the last turn point I was very low and it didn't look clever. Luckily Kay from the standard class called me a good climb which put me back in the game and I had a very good finish and fast final glide.

Good result, third on the day and third overall so far.