Yesterday was a most challenging day.
Early on 2 pilots decided that tramping up the Ahuriri Valley offered a much more interesting day while one of our overseas pilots decided to take a friend for a fly in a Duo Discus.
Thank good ness there are a squillion sleek and tidy discii to accomodate such decisions.
I have to admit that at noon with overcast skies I was thinking they may have made the right decision. But no, the forecasters weather duly arrived and in a skurry of activity 24 gliders were launched using 6 towplanes!!! We had 2 extra towplanes on standby in case the task setter required a long tow to Magic Mountin which would have added 4 or 5 minutes to each towplane turnaround time. In the end the local "Horrible" nursery slopes were working so thats where they got launched to.
Some pilots decided to take restarts which put them late on track and ZZ spent quite some time low around the bottom of the Neuman range before staggering honm, task not complete at around 7:30pm. Some heavier gliders couldn't quite get on the tops of the Ben Ohau Range to "get over" and home via Pukaki Spillway. Only one landout which was our Aussie Battler. The retrieve tow pilot arrived back to say "the man deserved a beer" for hanging on in very blustery conditions at the Glen Lyon strip.
The designated barman called in to apologise that he couldnt open the bar as he was having a ripper west of Queenstown and could we organise someone else. Well done LP, shame we hadnt tasked around that area.
Today is another day-forecast not as good as yesterday but we think still taskable. We are aiming to launch the fleet around 1:30-2pm.
Keep it up
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