Sunday 14 August 2022 - WWGC Day 1

Sunday 14 August 2022 - WWGC 2022 - Day 1

 Definitely excited 😀

The weather forecast for today was incredible - Hot - up to 30C, cloud base across England and Wales up to 10,000 feet - unheard of in the UK!

The organisation set a 3:30 hour Areas Assigned Task (AAT) which is a speed task to cover as much ground in the defined areas within the 3:30 hours for the 18m Class:-

NAW-Naseby West - CWA-Chipping Warden - CIN-Cinderford - BUG-Burley Gate - CHN-Chipping Norton - NOS-Northampton South - RNE-Rugby Northeast - HBX-HB Finish


I was launched behind the mighty Wilga tug to 2000 feet and 'waved off'.  I immediately contacted a thermal and quickly climbed to over 5000 feet in 5 knots.  I was waiting for the Start to be opened, when Steve called me on the radio to say that my FLARM had stopped working about 15 minutes previously.  Sure enough, when I checked my main instrument, the LX9000, it had no GPS information.  A few minutes ensued before I could think through what to do.  I turned the instrument off and back on again, but it made no difference; I therefore elected to descend, dump my water ballast and land to see if anything could be done.  

 I was immediately surrounded by a number of people all eager to assist.  It was confirmed that there was a problem and that the GPS was inoperative which meant there could not be any FLARM readings either.  Rather than not fly, I decided to re-launch and attempt the task without the instrument working.  This meant I had to be re-ballasted with water, assessed and verified by a Competition Steward and then launched in hot conditions that the tugs were no longer permitted to fly in!  One brave soul launched me behind the SuperCub, thankfully.

The conditions were booming and I easily climbed and started the task.

I could hear other GB Team members on our radio channel talking about the fantastic conditions and I quickly started and set off on track.  The conditions were truly exceptional for the UK with 4 - 8 knot thermals up to 10,000 feet, but I purposely didn't climb that high in an effort to fly very fast.  I completed 437Km at 125Kph - the fasted that I've ever flown!  So I certainly did the very best I could under the circumstances.  The winner covered 506Km at 142Kph - absolutely brilliant.

Investigations on the LX9000 after the flight demonstrated that the GPS cable had an intermittent connection.  After fitting another GPS cable, it immediately picked up the satellites and started to work correctly along with the FLARM.  I still need to fly with the new antenna in order to be completely sure that it is properly fixed.






 



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