We went up to the Stol take-off for our first task. I have no signal on top of the mountain, so no twitter updates before the task…

They set a multiple turnpoint task, with a start in the valley, then back to the ridge, Kobarid, Tolmin, across the river and then into the big mountains behind Stol and back to Kobarid. I got off mid-field and bimbled about waiting for the start of the race. Cloudbase was low and it was difficult to stay out of it. People everywhere were on big ears and speedbar. I got a bit too close and got sucked up, so immediately used these and flew away from the start gate, hoping that no one was close to me. I suddenly heard this whooshing noise and some idiot spiraled past me, missing me by 10m! I saw him do this three times before I reported him on the safety frequency.

I got a good start and headed to the first turn point. This was in cloud, so I didn’t want to arrive there with too many other people, so I held back, allowed people to pass me, got the turnpoint and turned round to find a good lift line under the cloud all the way back to launch. Once out of the cloud near Kobarid, I topped up with thermals and made the crossing onto the lower ridge. I got very low, but jumped into a thermal that Martin was marking, and got back up. I was really enjoying the flight and was pretty relaxed.

As I was heading for turn point four at Kabala, my GPS suddenly started saying that I was getting further away from the turn point and trying to get me to fly in the other direction to turn point five. I checked on the route and it had ticked the turn point off as done. I knew I hadn’t done it, but couldn’t get the GPS to fly the route again and I didn’t know exactly where the turn point cylinder was without the GPS. Apparently, it’s a common problem with Garmin 76 units. It will take you round your route in the quickest way, so if you are between two turn points it will send you to the one nearest your ultimate goal. Jo Eades showed me how to stop the GPS doing this for tomorrow, but I landed at Tolmin for 37km. There was no point in continuing since I couldn’t get the missing turn point.

As I landed, a young lady started walking across the field and it was Nicky, having just come from Austria!

Lots and lots of people in goal. First in amongst the Brits was Chris Harland, with Wagga, Neil and Jamie in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, there were three tree landings (all uninjured) and one forced landing.

See photos of today.

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