Success at Hunter Valley Championships
I attended the Hunter Valley Championships on the weekend, competing in the Open Class Thermal Glider division, and flew some great flights with my trusty Icon. So much so that I ended up flying into second place, which was a huge surprise!
The day started quite foggy and still, so we had to wait for the fog to lift. It was worth the wait, as the morning was quite still, extremely hot, but the air was silky smooth, with lots of bubbles, lots of developing thermals, but very little sink. It was easy to sky right out without having to travel way downwind.
I flew some great rounds in the morning. Either my flights were just under, or just over, 10 minutes, with under 3m spots. I won one heat, quite convincingly. In the afternoon, the wind picked up a bit, and there was more sink around, but it was still possible to sky out. The thermals were huge, though, and a few of the pilots had “problems” bringing their gliders down!
The last flight of the day gave me second place - I won the heat, landing about a minute after the pilot in second place at the time.
My Icon TD flew amazingly well throughout the day. I had one scare when she landed a touch rough, dislodging one of the flap servos. On inspection over lunch, the balsa riser that the servo is glued to had come adrift - nothing a bit of CA wouldn’t fix. I don’t think that it will come off in a hurry for a while now…
After a great day’s flying, I was awarded second place. Not bad for a new pilot to Open Class Thermal Duration flying!
- bec