Dan rigged JDP yesterday afternoon when we arrived, so it was just an easy tow out to the grid this morning. He had been placed near the back of the grid for his first day. Briefing at 9:45am, which set an easy 245km task, most were expecting at least 300km looking at the favourable conditions predicted. First launch was at 12:15pm, with ten tug planes in action, and an extremely efficient set of helpers, Dan took his aerotow launch at 1:15pm.
With easy conditions and such a short task the competitors romped around the task, they could have easily done double the distance.
Dan set off fairly early, and found himself rejecting decent climbs, knowing there were better ones out there! At one point getting to 1200ft after rejecting a 5kt climb, as he could see the better clouds ahead, and gaining a 10kt thermal instead.
There were six turn points for this task and with the longest leg at only 50km, Dan found picking lines to fly based on the next turnpoint ‘horrible’.
He got back at about 3:40pm, and with no land outs across the whole of the Juniors, it was a competitive but devalued day.
At 5:30pm, we had visitors to the campsite, Nick Jones and Jane were at a local afternoon tea, and popped in to say hello, and find out how the North Hill representative had got on!
Dan finished 12th out of 34 competitors, (at a fantastic speed of 116.53 km/h), (but difficult to catch those fully loaded with water!) A great start to the week. – Sally Hender
