Today was another good day of soaring. Due to the previous day’s incident, we were given a Turn Area Task rather than a racing task. . For the given weather conditions this was abnormal. I basically flew alone all day today. My start was real good with an average speed of 110kph and I made my turn and headed toward the next turn which was a rough crosswind leg that was largely undefined and had some pretty substantial deviations. I got low and had to take a sub-par thermal but at least I had a nice downwind leg to look forward to… Not so much, the sky looked bleak. I coasted as far as I could into the turn with the added performance of the tail wind. Halfway through my time,I had an average speed of only 85kph… Not good enough. Somehow I was able to find a gnarly energy line that led straight to the last steering turn with an insane 10kt thermal that took me 9,000ft. From there I connected with the cloud street and didn’t turn the last 85ish kilometers. I was able to manage a final speed of 101kph, but that still is not going to be good enough today. With only half the scores in I’m currently the last place finisher and the winner has a speed of 117kph. Still, during the first practice day I went out on a TAT alone and had a speed of 75kph. This means that from the beginning of the contest until now, I have gotten 25% better?! These guys and gals are truly the best jr pilots in the world! With.two more days of flying left in the contest, I have to admit fatigue is starting to set in, but I am not ready for this experience to be over. Each morning I make sure to get my glider out on the runway early so I have time to admire all 75 of the gliders on the field. I lay in the grass and just soak up the sun, living in the moment, appreciating this amazing journey.

-David McMaster

You can find the latest contest scores at:
https://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/junior-world-gliding-championships-2022-tabor-2022/results

For the latest news from the JWGC:
https://www.ssa.org/12th-junior-world-gliding-championships/