Day 4

BLUE in big letters. The task was out to the west and back around Attie (to the north of Kroonstad) and then home. Add to this a strong wind from the SW and things are bound to get tricky - turning at Attie I was thinking about the radiation inversion which was bound to be forming on the surface and wondering precisely when the weak thermals were going to quit on us - the dilemma: do you climb in 1.3ms in the belief that it is the last one - hoping you will get onto glide, or do you push on - hoping to get 3ms further on, and smoke it home. With LG and OG it was a mixture of the two - relentlessly pushing on - but never risking too low. Slowly climbing onto glide we made it home and Oscar demonstrated supremacy in energy management - gliding in ground effect the last two kilometers to the runway. 6 points or 14seconds is all what was in the day. It is real training!!!

EY