ampionships
STEVE GOES TO THE WORLDS IN BENALLA BY STEVE WALLACE
B
enalla in Victoria, Australia was the location for the 34th FAI World Gliding Championships being contested in the 15m, 18m and Open classes. I was lucky enough to make the team. I was very happy to be part of what was to be a great fun gliding event. Being close to New Zealand made this even better as the logistics are less onerous and the flying is more familiar. Like most of the NZ pilots, I had some Aussie flying already under my belt. NZ had a full team of six pilots, plus a team Captain, met man/talking head, crew and many others. At times, there were up to 30+ kiwis hanging out at the team base. I arrived in Benalla on Jan 1st and my rented Ventus 2 arrived early the next day in time for me to rig, register and complete the technical inspection formalities. I was up and flying by the beginning of the unofficial practice period but the glider still had a whole range of issues that took me a full five days to get sorted. But this is why there is a practice period, as it gives the organisers and pilots a chance to get their acts together. The weather during the practice period was variable with tasks flown ranging from 150 km at 73 kph to 501 km at 130 kph. This was a reasonable indication of the variable weather to be encountered during the contest period itself. I think most pilots would have agreed the contest weather was not great, especially compared to the potential that Australia can turn on when the weather is good. The Opening Ceremony was a pleasant, colourful but hot affair and it signalled the last of the good weather. The next day it rained and nobody flew and the day after that, the very high humidity meant the clouds were still under 2,000 feet AGL late in the day. The day was cancelled for the 15m and 18m. The Open Class flew a 2hr AAT with winning speeds up around 130 kph. So it wasn't until the third day, that 15m and 18m got to have a day one. The day started late and low and we went to Task C on the grid, a short 206 km racing task. The conditions were low and blue which was to become a familiar weather set for the rest of the comp. This meant the use of tactical gaggle
14
February–April 2017
flying became an essential and I had to learn fast. Most Kiwis don't get to regularly participate in larger competitions, so flying in large gaggles is something quite foreign. It is also quite thrilling. The gaggle is like a peloton of bike riders, rolling through the sky with every glider contributing to the finding of the best lines of energy in the cruise and then centring the best lift. Towards the end of the cruise when everybody senses a climb is needed, gliders spread out and like schools of fish, groups of gliders dart left and right turning with each other as they search the rising air and look to centre the next climb. Then somebody has it. A glider turns tightly and is going up faster than any others. This glider is quickly joined by two, three then four others. The climb is confirmed by all watching as being better than anything else anybody is working in the area and then all at once, everybody moves to join the climb. Gliders stream into the thermal from further back in the cruise and in no time at all, the thermal is full and marked from top to bottom. Sometimes the sky is quite bubbly and the higher gliders climb quicker and break away, while those at the bottom can find themselves in a much poorer climb, sometimes half that of those only 500 feet above. In this scenario, bottom gliders can very quickly find themselves left behind. It doesn't work the other way around either, because the higher gliders don't stop in poor climbs. Chasing the gaggle from low down can be fruitless and the only way to catch up is to independently find a better climb than the next one or two climbs, the now higher and further away, main gaggle finds. When alone and without other gliders, this is very hard to do. This was the environment I found myself in and it seemed some days I was in tune with the sky and the gaggles and some days I wasn't. On the first day, I flew with the main gaggle all day and towards the end of the short course I found myself in a reasonable position near the front of the pack. Unfortunately, my final glide was a bit undercooked and I had to slow right down to enable me to squeak home for a respectable 14th out of 37 for
