The US Team once again had mixed results. Unfortunately Michael in Standard Class landed out in the Tisza River valley of death. The Club Class team finished solidly in the middle of the pack, having done nothing spectacular or disastrous on course. This was a strong improvement relative to the previous two AAT tasks. But given all that, we had a very fun day, getting to play around in wave before start.
The weather forecast looked quite reasonable in the morning, but apparently not for the task-setter. When the task is not ready at briefing, this is usually a big worry! By the end of the briefing, they revealed another 3 hour AAT. It looks like they want us to get home today for the Hungarian evening, even going so far as stating it explicitly.
We went out to the grid early to fiddle with the Kobo, my secondary flight computer. It was kind of odd being around 80 gliders without a soul present. They kind of looked like a big herd quietly grazing on the grass.
After we launched, the weather improved quite rapidly. We had no trouble getting established up at 1600 meters, under rising Cu. What a change!
Looking around, it was clear that there was wave working over the building cumulus. In some blue areas there was smooth, weak lift. If we can only connect…
And then under a beautiful Cu and with a big gaggle, we were propelled in front of the cloud. And it worked so well! A solid two knots at the transition point into perfectly smooth air. About 20 gliders had the same idea and we were all ridge soaring the front of the cloud in one big conga line. I have never been around so many gliders wave soaring at the same time!
It is funny watching gliders wave soar. They typically waffle along at minimum sink, with their nose way up in the air. The image that comes into my mind is that the pilots are sitting on their turtle deck, trotting along in their glider like on a horse, reins in one hand and waving with the other.
Being above the clouds, with my team and with a whole bunch of other contestants to share the experience was one of the most fantastic experiences I had ever had at a contest.
We climbed a good 600 meters above the clouds. The start was open and we watched the British team go. We were drifting downwind with the cloud, so if we wanted to use the height advantage we had to do it now. We would be starting early, but man was this tempting or what? We went for the task.
In retrospect, this was a mistake. Even having a height advantage at start does not outweigh the advantages of starting with a group. But in any case, it was really fun crossing the start line above the clouds.
We went chasing after the Brits and the early starters, trying to stay in good air along the way. The wind was vicious, 15-20 knots. The thermals were all torn up early on and we all struggled to keep moving along. We all got down to 550 meters in the first turn, took it relatively early and shot off downwind.
Heading downwind to the second and third sectors worked out reasonably well. We stayed high to milk the tailwind and to stay connected with the good air up high. The lift strength was tapering off at 1600 meters, although the cloudbase was easily 2000 meters. It paid to be higher downwind, taking slightly weaker climbs but taking advantage of the strong tailwind.
Going into the third turn we had a choice; turn early or go deeper down a street. If we got slow going deep, on the way out we would have the gaggle crashing in behind us. If we went fast down the street, we would smoke everyone. It felt like a good gamble.
Unfortunately, the street failed to deliver us a thermal. We had a great run in good air, but then had to turn around low and into the headwind. We ended up getting stuck for five minutes, just staying airborne in a 1 knot thermal. The gaggle caught up. We lost a bit on that one.
But now we had company and this was great news. The conditions were deteriorating ahead.
The whole mass of gliders struggled along into the 1-2 knot thermals and in the strong headwind. And ahead was the Tisza River of death. We had to get high before crossing it.
The herd limped along and we dutifully stayed with it. They were going along the only line of wisps that had any chance of working.
Slowly but surely we worked our way up to a MC 3.3 final glide. On crossing the river it dropped down and we got a bit worried. But then we found a fantastic wind line. The glide kept getting fatter and fatter, going up to MC 5 200 meters over! Many pushed on over and nipped the final turn and finished in a blaze of glory. Instead of burning off the height, we extended up the wind line into the final turn area and made a more efficient glide. I think we easily gained 20 points on this decision.
The three of us were content, but not thrilled with our performance. Strategically, we gave up a lot by starting too early. Tactically, we lost a bit on the downwind run. However, we are happy that we had a respectable performance on an AAT for once. Flying AATs in the Worlds is very different from back home. The typical theory is that AATs split people up such that the gaggle more-or-less dissolve. And that you *should* start near the optimal start time as flying the peak of the day is the right thing to do when you don’t have other people to work with.
However, AATs in the Worlds still have a good bit of gaggling and start-gate roulette. Perhaps with tracking being as sophisticated as it is nowadays it is not possible to disappear into the ether. In the end, the same rules apply as in Racing Tasks; you have to go with the group and stay with the group. Rolling your own is a bad strategy.
Later in the evening, the organizers invited everyone to a Hungarian evening. It was a wonderful event with great food and music. We spent quite a bit of time with our Danish and German friends. The Juniors are very friendly and these contests are really fun. The attitude and camaraderie is very unique.
One especially interesting note that came up in conversation with our German friends is when we asked how they qualify to represent Germany at the Junior Worlds. They said they have to fly a qualifying regional or two to get invited to fly in the Junior Nationals. The Junior Nationals have 80 contestants between Club and Standard Classes. The highest performing pilots in both classes earn their spots to fly in the Worlds.
Quite a different world!
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See my flight here.
See our scores here.
Thanks to all our supporters back home who have given us the opportunity to represent our country at a World competition!
Soaring Economist 