Task Week Report - August 2000

The task week was from Monday the 7th to the 11th August inclusive. The fantastic weather we had at the weekend promised a good weeks flying. However, the weather gods had something to say about that!

Monday:

The rain beat down so hard we all went home.

Tuesday:

Tuesday started out with promising looking Northwesterly wave barring the sky. 3 tasks were set. A 300K cats cradle, a 130K out and return to Feshiebridge and a 130K triangle. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to fly the clouds had rolled in and the day was eventually scrubbed. However, we did fly and Robert Tait flying with Ted Murphy in the ASH 25 managed to climb above the cloud to 8000' and made it to Ardersier and back.

Wednesday:

Back to rain which did eventually clear leaving a very damp and still afternoon. Four of us managed to launch each other and a spot landing competition took place. Robert Tait was the winner getting within 6 inches of the mark followed by Colin Haddow who stopped 2 feet from the spot. Teresa Tait was next but did not manage to stop within the marker rings as did John Caithness.

Thursday:

The forecast was a little deceptive in forecasting rain heavy enough to make you head bleed. It actually only rained for about an hour before clearing up. However, everyone had been frightened off by the forecast and the day was scrubbed.

Friday:

Dawned with a layer of stratocumulus covering the sky but with a forecast for it to get blue. There was a good turnout of people and 10 gliders were gridded at the east end ready for launch. A task of 130K out and Return to Feshiebridge was set again but this was reduced to getting round as many bridges on the Spey as possible. Everyone launched and we had all 10 gliders up at one point. It rapidly became obvious that the day was not as promising as it looked although this did not prevent some people having a really good go. Most notably, David Chalmers in the K21 with Jacquie Webster almost made Grantown and I believe getting back was entertaining with one or two low scrapes away to make it home. Others who made it as far as Grantown were Steve Young in the Ventus (The overall Winner) and Anne Burgess in the LS7. A good day was had by all and even the 2 out landings were fairly incident free although I think the locals were a bit taken aback by 2 gliders landing within shouting distance of each other.

The final scores for the day were split into 2 categories to reflect the effort put in by those who did not round many bridges but did a fair cross country. See table at the end.

We will be running the competition next year again and this time we shall try and employ a higher power to produce the weather required! I hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Robert Tait

The final scores are as follows: