Jonker Sailplanes - Soaring Safaris Challenge

Iain Baker reporting


The Jonker Sailplanes – Soaring Safaris Challenge
Latest News by late September

The competition is heating up … Konrad Stark reports on his flight on 5th September:

ç Konrad’s flight in red
ç Jon’s flight in blue

My flight started at a quarter to twelve and for the first half hour I found it hard to get above 900m agl. Another thirty minutes later and still stuck at about 1400m I made my way to a fire in the distance close to Ventersdorp. The weather started to carry and I got there without losing much height. I saw another glider close to the deck and recognised the distinct shape of Jonathan Cross' Astir CS. I tried to talk with him but we were either on different frequencies (even when I tried channel hopping) or he might have been concentrating at that stage. I think the latter might be true because I don't think he was much higher than 300m agl. (John flies from Orient and I fly from Potch).

I slowly pushed on towards Lichtenburg and MM, another glider from Potch frequently asked me what the weather was like ahead. I kept on telling him that it was not great - with the windy conditions climbs were still scattered, broken and marginal at the time. MM was 15km behind me and I just hoped that I would not "lead" us into trouble. I thought the weather guys had it all wrong again, but with such optimistic predictions for the day something had to happen. Twenty kilometres from Lichtenburg, clouds suddenly started to pop 40km towards the west of my position and I could see that cloud base was more than 3000m agl. I deviated towards the clouds. MM joined some distance behind Coligny andwe got to 3000m respectively with a 2 to 3m average thermal. The floodgates had opened and I could run to Carletonville in no time. MM went down to Klerksdorp.All the while I chatted with 151 (Jonathan) who had gone straight to Orkney from Orient. After the last regionals comp, I saw that Johno likes to crack it down the track, and today was no different. I saw on OLC that he got to 78km/h average for his 356km, and considering the day's slow start this is really really good. After Carletonville I shot down to a fire across the Vaal river and I kid you not, playing the flight back on SeeYou, I saw that the fire gave me 14m/s lift peaks around quite a few turns. I was at 3600m in no time. Never really getting right up to the clouds, I would say that cloud base at its most must have been close to 4000m agl. I had little headaches telling me not to go higher than 3600m, and I think they had a point. With no oxygen you had better listen to what your body is telling you. Needless to say, when I got high I tried to fly off my height very quickly to 2000m agl, but still only managed 64km/h average for my 367 odd km. From here I had final glide for Klerksdorp and back to Potch again.Looking back at my flight, and my zig zag track, I realize I could have done well over 400km if I just flew much straighter, and not waste so much time at the beginning, but even as the day had developed there were great blue gaps between clouds, which looked quite ominous and I guess I was just playing it safe.

Picking up on Konrad’s last comments, here are a few clarifications on how the scoring is done, and some tactical pointers to maximise scores.

Flights are scored on SeeYou optimisation using the triangle option. This maximizes the distance around a closed circuit of three points and then it is adjusted by the OLC handicap. The FAI minimum leg percentage (28%) doesn't apply. The OLC rules allowing six legs - with the last two legs devalued - are not used to discourage yo-yoing and never flying far from the airfield. The start and finish do not have to be the airfield, but can be halfway along one leg of the triangle.

Very flat triangles or triangles with one very short leg are scored as out & returns. In the case of a landout, the rules would be flexed to be the distance on up to three legs but not closed circuit.
In terms of tactics, it is best to fly a triangle and when that is completed, if there is still scope for adding kilometres then to overfly the airfield in the opposite direction to the triangle going as far as you dare/can before final gliding to the field (bit like adding an out & return). That's assuming no airspace limitations.
*** STOP PRESS ***

I drafted this newsletter a few days ago and then Jon Cross flew a 400km out & return this weekend.
He needed some determination to climb away from 372m agl some 15km west of Dudfield.
The latest scores are below and it looks like the pilot who flies a 500km
flight and a couple of other decent flights will probably win.

Another 49 days before the 2009 JS-SS Challenge finishes.

Just as a reminder of the prize and the rules …

The Prize:
· One week flying an LS4 or similar glider with Soaring Safaris (dates to be agreed)
· Seven aerotows
· Task planning, post-flight analysis and cross-country coaching
· Free camping at New Tempe Airfield

Rules:
1. Scoring is based on the OLC system and handicaps, limited to out & returns and triangles.
2. Flights have to be registered and validated on OLC.
3. A pilot’s total score for the JS-SS Challenge is the sum of the pilot’s three best flights.
4. Minimum qualifying score is 600 points.
5. Eligibility: pilots who have not achieved a top three placing at a National contest, or who have not previously won the JS-SS Challenge, or have not completed a declared 500km task.
6. Pilots must be paid up members of SSSA with a valid GPL and aerotow rating.
7. Closing date for flights: 15 November 2009.
8. That’s enough rules ....

Please contact Iain Baker if you have any questions by emailing him directly at iainzbaker@googlemail.com.