Team USA Report – JWGC Contest Day 7 & 8

Today dawned with the promise of a good thermal and cumulus forecast but with the specter of high and mid-level cloud cover during the day. Aggressive AST tasks of 506km (Club) and 606km (Standard) were set. As the day wore on and the cirrus got thicker and thicker and the sky got darker and darker and the pilots were very busy just trying to stay airborne after the final turn – in the end all our club class pilots landed out (safely) and relatively close to home after 6 hrs. in the cockpit. Tom Greenhill made it round the 604km Standard class task but not without spending 40 minutes climbing in the last very weak convection of the day to squeak home. Only the fastest Club class gaggle made it around before the end of convection. Thomas moved up to 4th place in Standard Class today and within shouting distance of top 3. Today's pilot report comes from David Macmaster…

Today started as the previous two had, with the promise of a big flight. The last two days club class has flown TWO 500km flights and I knew from the moment I woke up they were going to give us a 3rd. The Q was popping before 9am! So we had our debrief from the previous days flight then went right to the hanger for the daily pilots meeting where they announce they wanted to launch us at 10:50 for another 506km racing tack… When the meeting ends at 10:20 that's not a whole lot of time to draw up a game plan. We all quickly got to the grid, and as we had done the previous two days made a plan on the grid.

Jacobs Land out – Fortunately this part of Poland is covered in runways!

High level clouds were thicker than we had anticipated but still thin enough to adequately heat the tasking area, and patchy enough for direct sunlight to hit the ground and cause some crazy good thermals. As such Jacob and I made good progress on the first leg and earned an achieved speed on 98kph (still 6 or 7kph behind schedule) at the first turn Jake and I had caught up to the gaggle and were content to sit with them the remainder of the flight. However, the gaggle was taking a very weird and inefficient line to the next turn and actually started to disband. In the confusion of the 40 glider gaggle Jacob and I got separated by 200m or so. The weather was still decently strong with thermals around 2.5m/s he and I were able to manage roughly 90kph through the second turn. The third leg was over 200k and it had very dynamic weather. After the turn I struggled pretty good and ended up behind Jacob despite this we maintained decent communication and at about 300m agl I was led to a 1m/s thermal that I stuck with as it built to a 4.3m/s thermal to 2100m! (9kts to 7,000ft).

After that I didn't see a thermal above 2.5kts for the rest of the day… the high level clouds thickened directly on course line and I had to really switch gears to sneak into the 3rd point. At just about best L/D I dove into the bleak dark point fully expecting to find nothing but a field. Just shy of the point I lucked into a 2-3kt thermal and stuck with that for as long as I could and dared the thought "I just might make it home after all". On my glide from the 3rd point I caught up to the Dutch, the South Africans and the US standard class pilot Thomas Greenhill. Now that I had company I for sure thought I was going to make it. We scratch and scratched in 1kt for a long while and eventually we moved on, I was still lower so when they caught a bubble of 2kts I found a whole lot of nothing. So I pressed on to the edge of the woods under more clouds and on the sunny side exactly where a flight saving thermal ought to be and I found nothing… so with no more altitude to play with I was forced to land in a field. I made it 485k… With another promising 500k day tomorrow my crew was quick to get me and pack up the glider so we could get back to the airfield and I could get some rest before another monster flight and another monster day. Thus far I have over 40hrs of flying and likely another 40hrs to go before were done.

Today's weather was a relief to all – no high cloud cover, high temperatures, low wind and a cooking thermal and cumulus forecast. The task was a 4.5hr turn area task for both classes. All our pilots made it around with our club class pilots having their fastest day so far in the 100 to 100kph range which was good for 700 to 870 points. Thomas in Standard consolidated his contest some more with 913 points and a move up into 3rd overall after the leader ( a German pilot) had an unfortunate airspace violation and got landed out for the day.

A quick reminder for the dear reader – when looking at the scores, bear in mind that a 700 speed point day in FAI scoring rules equates to an 850 point day in US rules as the speed points are not a 1:1 ratio of speed ratios to the winner.

Today's pilot report is from Jacob. "The days have been getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Today's task was as good as it could get for the day. An assigned area task with a median distance of 543 kilometers. The weather, ever improving here in Ostrow, was forecast to be 4 to 5 knots around the stronger parts of the task area with cloudbase being around 7500 feet msl. As for planning, David and I planned to push as deep as possible into the first turn in hopes of only needing to clip the last two turn points and maybe pushing into the second turn point about halfway. This plan worked for the most part and we were able to achieve a speed of 61 mph around a 4 and a half hour task. Our team flying is improving greatly as we have begun flying in much more manageable pairs rather than a large group of 4. With this change David and I noticed that our team flying has increased tenfold over the last two days. With that being said we know our weaknesses and plan to master them and press on up the score sheet. Thanks to all those at home who have helped us get here and we hope we are doing you proud!"