Today we had a 303km racing task. It was a promising morning with cu popping early. Originally there were not supposed to be any cu today so it was nice to see a friendly sky. With first launch at 11 and me in the front of the grid, I had little time in the morning but that was no bother as I was ready to go racing!

My vario woes seemingly fixed and a perfect temperature I felt like today was my day. It was…not so much. The first leg went well and unfortunately I got low on my second leg, right as the cu disappeared; so did my glider buddies. I got low in the blue all alone, the two worst things to be. With a flight low altitude of 1000agl I was getting ready to call my crew. Then suddenly boom! 6.4kts to 6,000ft agl. From there I was able to see the gaggle ahead of me and with a few more strong thermals that I was quick to core, I was off and earning speed and distance.

The back half of my flight was ripping. Seemingly every decision was the right one and I picked up 10mph. Then minus just 1,200ft from my finish my energy line ran out and I had to stop and circle. Fortunately, this was another 6kt thermal so It wasn’t all that much time, just 3 minutes, and over the course of a 3hr flight its almost nothing… but as I finish with a speed of 101kph I look at the 30 pilots above me and the difference between me and top 10 was 8 minutes. So that 3 minutes I lost on final glide combined with the time spent scratching at my low point was the difference today.

Another good flight where other people just did better. I have been told that this is the most competitive JWGC in a decade. Whether that’s real or just glider hearsay who’s to say. Unfortunately, I dropped down one spot overall, but only lost 10pts on my goal of 13th place. Tomorrow looks rippin!

-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/