This article by Andy Smith was first published in the Mt Beauty Gliding Club's newsletter: Alpine Flyer, February / March 2009 edition.
This comp has been held in NW Victoria towards the end of the gliding season for over 40 years. It’s a very friendly event suitable for all pilots with cross-country experience. Because it’s run by pilots for pilots its non-profit making. The $100 entry fee and $35 aerotows make it the most economical Australian comp, and the organisation is excellent. I’ve flown state comps at Temora and Benalla this season and Geoff Vincent did a wonderful job as director at Horsham.
Our new president, Craig encouraged me to enter so I took a look at weather forecast. The first day was the day of our terrible bushfires but I decided to enter anyway, two pilots from Mt Beauty would have a better chance of raising our profile and the weather was bound to improve; this is Australia after all, not the UK.
The first two days were lost to the weather; the water bombers were using the airfield to put out the fires around the Horsham Golf Club so we would not have flown on the Sunday even if the weather were suitable. Monday was the first day, good blue conditions with all 35 gliders completing the tasks (this continued throughout the week, there was only one out-landing during the competition). When the results were announced next morning Craig was fastest in the Standard Class in his ASW19B, and I was second in 15 metre, speeds were reasonable at around 100kph.
Instead of trying to describe each day’s flying I will concentrate on the last day, I can’t remember what happened on the other four days anyway! Every evening we celebrated or laughed about our mistakes in very good company so its all a bit of a blur.
Craig and I were both in contention at the start of the last day so we paid particular attention at briefing when a “run” task was announced, neither of us had flown one before. In this task you have a fixed time (2 hours in our case) to fly as many times as you can around a closed circuit. When the two hours are up you fly directly back to your home airfield. It’s tempting to burn off all your height to get maximum distance and then land in a field but that means a 10% points penalty so careful judgement would be needed. The task was a quadrilateral to the north and east with legs of about 40km, and all 35 gliders would be flying it so gaggles were expected.
After we launched conditions steadily improved and cumulus started to form at around 6,000 ft asl. By the time the start gates were opened just before 2pm there was strong lift and it was clear it was going to be a very fast day. I waited until the last possible moment to start so that I could get the best conditions and have gliders in front of me to mark the thermals. The first large cloud just past the first turn had six gliders under it and averaged 12 knots to 8,500’ – wow! The next 90 mins were some of the best flying I’ve ever experienced, racing along at 100knots in the company of competent pilots.
As the end of the 2hrs approached I guessed a 15 min final glide would be about right from my height of 8000’ asl. I was on my second circuit of the course and to maximise distance I flew straight down track towards Horsham. Unfortunately this was mostly in sink and I got far lower than I hoped. However, the terrain is perfect in NE Victoria, almost completely flat with large cut wheat-fields at this time of year. I got down to 1400’ above the ground but it was my lucky day and a weak thermal saved me and I was able to float home.
When the scores were announced, both Craig and I had won our classes, not bad for a small club! Craig also won the trophy for “most promising newcomer”; he had achieved over 130kph and jumped from second to first place. It was a great week and I would encourage anyone to give it a try, I’m planning for next year already.