After last night’s excellent briefing, we had the first task today. We were all a little concerned about the interesting wave clouds early on, but Nicky assured us that Ager has a micro climate and that the clouds would evaporate. We all did a bit of cloud appreciation while waiting, but it was gustier than any of us would have liked.

Kirsty and I were duly called to the task setting meeting and they set a 45km cat’s cradle task, with a pre-task turn point 9km away. There was some confusion about this, but we eventually all got it programmed into our GPS and were ready to start. John, acting as wind dummy, reported good conditions in the air, so we were all keen to go. The launch sequence was a little confusing – at least for the Brits. Instead of a marshal coming round asking us to ‘sign to fly’, we had to pass through a tent and were signed off and then allocated a place along take-off. It was getting windier and as I got past the marshal, the launch window was closed due to too strong winds. It was a good call, and appreciated by most of the competitors. So the committee reconvened and we decided that we would assess the conditions each hour and try to have the task as soon as possible.

Obviously, as soon as the task was delayed, the wind dropped, and by the time we re-briefed, it had picked up again. However, there were more lulls, so the task went ahead. We had to go through the tunnel and sign to fly again, and by window open there was a long queue. The majority of us were left standing in the sun, with full flying gear on, getting hot and bothered while we watched others having to stand on launch waiting for lulls. As we only had an hour to fly the 9km before the race start, many were very keen to get going. Sandra Monse was first off, when the wind was very east and had a horrible time getting away from the ridge, but then settled down and was off on the task. The rest of us launched as we could, but by the time I got to the head of the queue and got a lull, I was well into the pre-race start hour.

Nicky had mentioned to us that the lower ridge would be working and would be smoother, and a chat with Mike Cluer confirmed that he thought the same. I got off, struggled with the wind and then set off along the lower ridge, trying to stay under the wind, and quickly sussing out that thermalling wasn’t necessary until the valley crossings. You could just top up in the thermals along the ridge whilst flying straight. On the top ridge it was windy and turbulent and I thought that would just delay me. Lots of people were ahead of me and the tactic of setting a pre-task way point certainly stopped us having congested gaggles – I never flew with anyone the whole task! The wind made it hard work at times, and I kept low, only getting high at critical points. I was getting tired three quarters of the way round and seeing people high, I started to think that actually I am not really that good at all this comp lark and maybe I should just not bother next year. But I really wanted to get round and gritted my teeth and kept going. Ruth and Trude got to the last turn point before me and I was really pleased they got in. There was nobody in the landing field when I got to goal, so I assumed that they had all got there hours before and I was last in. Another pilot came in while I was packing and then another and I realised that maybe I wasn’t last after all. When I checked in, there were only 9 others in before me. Wow. A few arrived after, so I wasn’t last after all.

First was Kirsty, then Klaudia, third Sandra Monse, a really talented Swiss/German pilot who we’ll hear about in years to come. I am 10th overall so I am really pleased. With three pilots in goal, Doc’s Bollocks might be winning the team event.

Brilliant talk by Anja Kroll tonight, called “Elements of Success”, all about comp flying. Really, really useful!

See photos of today.