Rules

Today is the last unofficial practice day. Lunch time the sky look good to the north, there are 30 gliders on the grid but only one single tow plane. Luckily we are old and wise and we put our gliders in the front early on. So now it's 1pm and we are in the air.

We set a small 110k task to the north then east. One of the aims for the flight was to practice the finish procedure. Normally in gliding competition the finish is a 2km line centered on the airfield, so you simply glide back, cross the line and land ahead (unless there is strong tailwind). However, recently a more complex finish procedure was introduced, the finish ring. The idea is, you set a 3km radius ring centered on the airfield and you need to cross the finish ring at a minimum set height to finish. The finish height here is 250 meters (820 feet). Obviously you want to finish as low as possible yet still above the minimum height, and getting this right is complicated.

Gliding competitions are like that, they have complex rules. Some of these rules are explained in my 2009 blog.

Another rule is that your glider needs to pass "scrutineering". Basically this is a comprehensive check of your glider weight and measurements to ensure it complies with the competition rules. So this afternoon after flying and before Akea meatballs dinner, i went scrutineering. All is well and i am still 12 kgs below the maximum weight. Those meatballs are yummy!