A quick note today, as I’m just back from helping retrieve Sarah Arnold, who was among 22 Standard-class pilots unable to complete their relatively short task today.  The forecast again was for early overcast giving way to some clearing and soarable conditions.  These did in fact appear shortly before 16:00, allowing the first flying of our contest. Tom Holloran was also among the outlanders.  Their scores aren’t great, but this is a heavily devalued day.

Club class (the first one to launch) saw 18 of 36 pilots finish, including both Daniel Sazhin and J.P Stewart.  15-Meter class was last on the launch grid and = somewhat curiously – had their task scrubbed before launch.  (Pilots are eager to fly, and I expect they could have achieved a valid task day – though no doubt with plenty of outlandings.)

The results would have been much grimmer if this had not turned out to be a notably long-lasting day.  Most starts happened after 17:00, but pilots were able to stay in the air until after 20:00.  Contributing to this is the fact that Montluçon-Guéret airport lies close to the western edge of its time zone.  Not to be discounted is the ability of the world’s best glider pilots to keep near half-ton machines aloft using small doses of solar energy.

– John Good