Keepit Regatta - Sunday 19th February- Day 1 by Jenny Ganderton

First day of the "comp". As this is a fun friendly event, all the pilots are paired up, one being a leader and the other a follower. The score for both is the slowest pilot's score, so it does you no good to race away from your follower.  I have been designated as a leader for some reason, because I feel I am more cut out to be a follower! And Bob Dircks, my follower, is a very independent person!!

This leading and following business is a skill in itself, and both leaders and followers had a lot to learn. We had a talk about in in the morning, and then into the fray!

Harry Potts was resplendent in Orange Dayglow vest, and did a sterling job of marshalling gliders and tugs at the launch, capably assisted by Peter Shiels, Lou, and an Australian Japanese visitor whose name escapes me (sorry). Harry has such a perfect radio voice. The tugs going, with Phil Anderton towing, then leaping out of his tug and into his glider to take the last launch. Ian Downes and Luke are flying the others.

The task set was Manilla 10km, Kaputar Tower 40 km, Mullaley 30 km and back to Keepit. Bob and I upset everyone by talking too much on the radio, but we did manage to find each other after a bit of leap frogging and flew some of the way together. Todd and Matthew Atkinson had their moments too, as Matthew somehow managed to turn his radio down, and Todd thought he was ignoring him. However they got it sorted out, and then seemed to manage very well. Vic Hatfield flying in LL with Ian McPhee were paired with John Trezise, and they said he was the perfect follower, always there in the flarm radar!  Dave Shorter flew with Phil Anderton, another very successful pairing by all accounts.

The day was not totally straightforward. There were clouds, quite low only about 6000ft max, and not always reliable. There were huge areas of sink around Mt Borah, and huge areas of air containing paragliders and hang gliders - none of which seemed to be in any lift that I could find, but somehow at least some of them managed to go up! Jacques Graells, Matthew Atkinson and I had a somewhat "interesting" time in this area, but we did all manage to get up eventually.

Bob and I did manage to get round the task - just nicking the circles - but it was decidedly iffy on the last bit between Gunnedah and home, as the sky just fell apart. Those who were earlier and faster had a better time of it I think.

I managed to get up to 5000ft in about 1-2 kts near Kennedy's airstrip, Bob did not quite get as high. Meanwhile Jacques had a booming 0.4 of a knot near the airport, which eventually turned into a screaming 1.4 kt thermal.  I managed to squeak over the Carrol range, but needed another 500ft to make it back to Keepit.  I found the necessary thermal over a ploughed paddock, with a nice white glider sitting gracefully in the centre of it. I was able to mark the thermal of Jacques, and climbed up high enough to try to go back for Bob - but he made a miraculous low save just west of the Carrols, and made it back under his own steam.

There was only the one outlanding for the day, and better and faster pilots did not grovel as much as we did!

Jacques is scoring, and he will only take a pilots trace from the OLC. So everyone has to learn to do it. He is being very stern about not downloading traces for people - he says they just have to learn! And they are learning - look how many Keepit flights there were on the OLC for Sunday!!

The day was rounded off by another excellent meal and abundant good company.