All over

bar the awards ceremony...

Well, all up a slightly disappointing result for me, some good day scores (23, 23, 68) let down by bombing the first task and to a lesser extent hitting the ground out in front in the third task when it all shaded out (87th). With the overall not reflecting the extent to which the Aussies pushed the pace (or maybe really reflecting the pace pushing ;-))

71st Gareth
114th Che
117th Dave
137th Brian

As a country we did about as expected, ranked 26, finished 24.

Very interesting flying when we flew, one more turn in a thermal costing 30 places in the race and generally a strange mix of very fast racing with very slow sections. 2-3 minutes at the end meaning 50 gliders.

In this comp it doesn't pay to be out the front, the good guys were leaving 10-15 pilots in front to check the conditions before committing to a line. The guys who stuck to the gaggle were rewarded for consistency, a 60th place everyday basically means a top 25 result. On the other hand it's good to be in a race where a 130km triangle task takes 3hr 30mins and 107 pilots make goal, with 130 over 110km. To finish in the top 50 on a task means really pushing along, any off line or slow transition loses many places.

Thanks to the team for awesome company, to Gav for the spare reserve, JJ for the flymaster and Louise for everything else!

Now for a long trip home!