This article by Craig Dilks was first published on the Bendigo Gliding Club website.
For the past few years Craig and Paul Dilks have made the trip to Horsham Week, and this year was no different. Paul had his Astir KYP in tow and Craig had the club's Super Arrow GYS ready to race.
The two of them entered sports class which means 15 meters, no flaps or water ballast. The class also allows 2 seat gliders up to 20 meters. About lunch time on Friday February 6 Paul and Craig arrived to rig, tie down and to enter the comp. Arriving early means on Saturday all they had to do is a DI and clean the gliders.
On Saturday the 7th the day was cancelled due to the extreme conditions which gripped Victoria. The caravan park they were staying at came under threat from a grass fire which went around the boundary fence. Craig and Paul had left earlier and took all their stuff out to the glider club to wait it out.
At about 7:30pm we called the park to ask if it was safe to come back, and the owner said they were OK but had no power. On the way back the guys got stopped the Police barricade for three hours before being allowed to continue to the park. Sunday was also cancelled due to poor conditions and the events the day before.
Monday the 9th started out looking fine and that’s what they said at morning briefing. Time to race at last. The task for sports class was Marnoo, Warracknabeal and back to Horsham. The last leg should have been the hardest because it was the most direct into the wind but Craig and Paul found it was the easiest with lots of thermal streeting.
Tuesday was cancelled due to the really poor weather, they launched five gliders and within 10 minutes three had landed. The lift up there was very hard to work and the remaining two gliders just struck it lucky and found a half-good bit.
Wednesday came and the weather had settled down so the racing was back on. The task for sports class was Minyip, Ellam and back to Horsham. This was an AAT task with 20 km circles around the turn points. Most of the fleet had a hard time getting home into the strong head wind. Craig had a big struggle in the Super Arrow - it took him 2 hrs 20 mins to make it home with an average speed for that leg of 27kph.
Both Thursday and Friday where fairly good with good lift and light winds. Paul and Craig completed the set tasks with ease. They started seeing heights of up to 8000ft and six to eight knot climbs. Saturday was the final Day of Horsham week. What a scorcher! That’s what best describes the day.
It was a 2 hour run task, Murtoa, Warrackabeal , Antwerp and back to Horsham. The aim is to go as far as you can before you run out of time. Paul in his Astir KYP did over 200km in the time at an avg speed of 105kph. Craig in the Super Arrow GYS did 182km in the 2hrs with speed of 91kph. Craig hoped to break the 100kph but it wasn’t to be. A great time had by both of them and they look forward to Horsham week 2010.