Day: 178
Date: Mon Dec 05 2011 13:30:00 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) (05 Dec 2011 06:30 PM UTC)
Class: 15 Meter
Distance: 238.4km
Task: Bad Ragaz LSZE – Sargans Bf – Hoher Kasten Ber – Brunnen Bf – Zuerich LSZH – Bad Ragaz LSZE
The task yesterday used the alps_XL scenery of Switzerland which was very nice and very realistic! As you can see from the map below, this was not a simple triangle task. There is an extra turn point added, creating a sort-of figure 8 course.
The take off and finish are in the town of Bad Ragaz shown in the photo on the left.
I believe I probably had about my best result with this MNS Europe race. I posted 20th out of about 60 racers. I didn’t seem to make any major mistakes. I got some excellent ridge/thermal lift on the second leg a few minutes from TP 1. I also caught a very strong thermal not far from TP 2. After that I could only find weak thermals and that really slowed me down. Below, I compare my track with Sandor Laurinyecz and Dmitriy Balykin who finished first and second. Probably my big mistake was not to fly south to the ridge half way down the second leg where I had planned to go. I need to study more carefully though. I might have been better off to fly slower on the last leg and not take the extra thermal that I did.
Monday Night Soaring Contest (Europe)
Tortui 