A weak, blue day in Tabor. Given all the rain we've endured and the resulting wet ground , it seemed unlikely we'd not see at least some cumulus clouds. In fact, a few were visible to the east before the morning pilot meeting (10:00). But by launch time (11:45) all that remained were a few wisps, and by the time tasks opened, the sky was entirely cloud-free. Tasks were again short, probably in response to forecasts that called for lift to weaken after 16:00.
On such days, the unfortunate reality is large gaggles: The only way to reliably find lift is to be part of a group of gliders that can sweep the sky along the route from one turnpoint to the next: when one finds a climb, the others all join it. The "lone wolf" pilot may succeed for a while, but will eventually miss a couple of (invisible) nearby climbs and either spend a lot of time low attempting to survive, or land. And the way scoring works here strongly discourages flying alone: if the lone wolf finishes while the gaggle comes up short his score will be only slightly better, whereas if he falls short and the gaggle finishes, he'll lose hundreds of points.
But flying in big gaggles is stressful, disagreeable and often unsafe. A dozen or more gliders trying to climb in a thermal that can comfortably handle six is not a pleasant experience. And the gaggling begins well before anyone sets out on task. The ideal time to start is at the end of a stream of your competitors: you aim to catch them, fly in the inevitable gaggle around the course, finish with them and post a better speed due to your later start. This strategy is increasingly popular now that all gliders are tracked electronically all the time: later gliders can view a display of the gliders ahead, knowing where they are and – importantly – where they found good climbs.
Based on the forecast for a day that weakened early, all US Team pilots started reasonably early. In Club class, the gaggle caught them by the second leg. Our 15-Meter pilots were able to overhaul a number of good pilots who'd started earlier, forming a gaggle of roughly a half-dozen pilots – about right for relatively low-stress flying on a blue day. Jared Granzow fell behind the gaggle at one point, then managed to catch up with an excellent climb (best of the day) from low altitude. Mike Sorenson worked his way to the top of the gaggle, then broke away from it near the final turnpoint. His move worked, allowing him to finish well ahead of the others. Jared was just 5 minutes behind. These good tactics didn't yield the scores they might have, as the huge gaggle that started 30 minutes later did not encounter the forecast weakening conditions and managed to close up about half of the time difference. But it's what pilots should do to succeed at a World Gliding Competition.
-John Good