Task 2 was a shorter 56km task round six turn points. The weather was due to be windier today and there was a chance it would overdevelop. They got us off early when there was still a lot of stratus from an weak cold front, but it was hard to stay up on the ridge. The first turn point was the same as yesterday (out in the valley), but we were not all then going along the ridge into unlandable territory. So we flew along the ridge first and then had a slight tailwind to the turn point and a downwind dash back to the ridge. I got a little low once back, but managed to get up again and set off to Tolmin, along the ridge.

Once we were at the end of the ridge we could see people ahead of us in a thermal, so we tried to get there fast. As we got close one pilot in the thermal lost control of his glider and threw his parachute, landing in a small grassy area on top of the ridge. It was horrible to watch, but I carried on, not wanting to risk landing to assist in what looked like a very dodgy place. Ruth tried many times to land with the pilot, but it was so thermic, she would touch down and then get hoofed up again before she could pull the glider down.

As I was flying along, I got more and more upset about the incident and decided to land at turn point three. The task didn’t seem that interesting any more. I know accidents happen in comps, but I’ve realised that I am still very sensitive to seeing a glider losing control.

I saw lots of pilots in goal on returning to check in, so will update with preliminary results through the twitter feed.

See photos of today.