Birchip 2018 Flatter than the Flatlands

Good Friday

Easter Saturday

Easter Sunday (by Neale Halsall)

...bleak bands of high cloud very little sun on the ground strongish 15 -20kmh NW winds 63 k task set... gogogo Linda tows Grant first he works microlift to stay aloft as the less experienced drop out for another go.

Car towing hones flatland thermalling skills like nothing else, we typically get over 1000ft on a tow with as little as 4 minutes to practice " low save " scratching all the way back to the deck, hook in again and repeat....repeat. Birchip crews have become such experts at sniffing out a bubble that it's not unusual to have 1 tow per day over the 4 day easter comp, often leaving the paddock on our cross country adentures at 1500ft in a slow climb.

Today was not one of those days for me. Tow #1 typical search pattern didn't work.. no bubbles, keep flying upwind in untested air till you have to turn back, # 2 ... fly along the upwind treeline nothing # 3... the right treeline nothing #4.... no sun on the ground its now total grey no sun looking hopeless, most of the field has gone in flukey cycles but it's later now. Over the past 6 years I have been enviously watching Grant & Beavo have good cross country flights on hopeless looking days so I have to keep going .

Getting ready for tow #4 with Johannes (photo by Tim Little)

#5.. I hook on & Linda gives another perfect tow it's very smooth, nothing, nothing, smooth as, "keep going till you have to stop!" at the moment of release the cycle is broken... that beautiful sound coming from my trusty 6030

It's only 150 but smooth constant easy to stay in, totally unlike the previous 2 days, I'm going to take this as high as I can, might just get out of the start circle

.. drifting the same thermal outide the 5k radius coreing 200s at 3/4 vg the air is like silk, my new rx gives such feed back & response that it feels like a natural extension of my body, I am mesmerised in my flying dream.

just under 6k... "scratch high" Hughbert told me a few years ago but I can't work it any more, there's a glider way below that just can't quite find it, maybe it's gone.

The sky is all grey small sun patches in the far distance that was great, got out of the paddock , if i glide this out maybe can get 20k... I decide to stay on track as there is no obvious better course than the shortest, the air is bouyant with few sinky patches getting lower at 3000 the landing options are endless, nearly every other paddock is 2k square flat wheat stubble my vario beeps & slowly builds I turn & it's solid 300.. the pattern repeats 2 more times

& I think maybe..

25k from goal its looking possible now arround 15 :1 as l get closer there are yet more bubbles & the glide numbers say pull the bar in.. I can see hang gliders on the ground at goal

	... touching 100kmh as the 6030 plays jackpot jingle crossing the 1 k radius "euphoria" the windsock adjacent packing up gliders adds a level of comfort to the landing setup, lots of witnesses so must stay focused...pulled off a good one... Fraser hands me a cold FTTFL goal beer before I can unzip...nothing ever tastes as good, I was late slow & last in ...it's a perfect Day.
	Goal beer with Fraser & Daryl (photo by Linda Halsall)

Who would have thought hang gliding could be so awesome on such a dull day.

Easter Monday (by Wesley Hill)

We woke to a fresh SSW breeze blowing across the lake. Luckily, the wind moderated while we were setting up for the 47km task to Gowanford.

I found myself quickly back on the ground after my first tow. Peter and Johannes had already left, and Beavo wasn't in hurry so I got straight back on the rope for a second tow. This time I released into light lift and climbed slowly but consistently with Darryl. We topped out at 3500' a couple of kms outside the 5km start circle. I glided out first, while Darryl found a fresh core behind me. Getting down to 1200' I found some zero and searched the area for a couple of minutes before finding any workable lift. As it improved to 200-300 fpm Jason came over and joined me. I left at 3200' while Jason was still climbing a bit lower.

The next thermal was perfect. Down to 1700' and the vario starts beeping - it smoothly builds to 200 up over a count of 6 - I bank it up - it continues to strengthen to 400 up - and completely smooth. It did get a bit broken from 3000 - 3200', but an average climb of 400 fpm was very nice. At the top there were lots of zeros for the next couple of kms. The next thermal gave me an average climb of 300 fpm, climbing from 1500' back to 2500'. Now only 9km from goal and I couldn't see anyone there. I stopped for a top-up (wondering if I was going the right way), but it turned out there were powerlines in the original goal and the goalie had relocated. I finally saw goal when I was about 2km out and way higher than neccessary.

After landing I was surprised to to find only 4 gliders had arrived before me (Andy in first, followed by Hughbert, Johannes and Peter). Michael, Col Jackson, Darryl and Jay all arrived much later, with Darryl getting his first ever goal and Michael making it 4 in a row.

Google Earth replay - uses GE timespans which are bit limiting. Try zooming in on the time slider and then incrementally advance the time

1st	Hughbert Alexander	783
2nd	Wesley Hill	726
3rd	Andy Schmidt	718

1st Race	Col Jackson
1st Floater	Darryl Biggar
1st ever Goal	Darryl Biggar

Final results
1st	Peter Lissenburg	2700
2nd	Grant Heaney	2654
3rd	Neale Halsall	2449

1st Race	Jay Kubeil
1st Floater	Darryl Biggar
Steve Ruffels Encouragement Award	Jay Kubeil