By : Tim Cummings

The first day sees Austrian Gerolf Heinrichs get off to a, err..., flying start, shaking those camera problems that plagued him during last year's World Championships (Gerolf believes Australia's innovative use of GPS instead of cameras is a welcome improvement to competition flying). Blue thermals to 8,000ft and a 10kt WSW paves the way for a 141km dogleg to Blayney then Eglington. Gerolf's winning time is closely followed by Australia's Joel Rebbechi and Ukrainian Oleg Bondarchuk.

Leading from start, Austrian Gerolf Heinrichs

Again, a blue day with an inversion at 8,000ft, Molong to Bodongarra airstrip (156 km) is the call, and once again Gerolf takes out line honours, followed by Tomas Suchanek and Oleg. Pilots launching later in the day were able to take advantage of the convection set up by the Japanese team's Tarago van, which was on fire at the time.

Forbes starts really running it on. Despite some high cloud cover enough heat and instability exists to produce good thermals, and with a light breeze blowing conditions are perfect for a 100km triangle world record attempt. The course is set from Forbes to Gooloogong, then to Grenfell and back to Forbes. The give fastest competitors all beat Martin Henry's previous world record speed (set in July 1998), while the fastest 23 competitors manage to beat the Australian record. The fastest male, Aussie Rohan Holtkamp averages 41.04km/h and is first across the goal line. Although camera problems will probably disqualify Rohan from claiming a record, he was able to score for the purposes of the competition thanks to the new GPS Flight Verification System used for scoring. Tascha McLelland (Tish the Flying Fish) from New Zealand is the first woman to finish the gruelling task with an average speed of 31.7km/h which, if verified, would be a new Feminine Category World Record.

The day is cancelled due to morning rain and the possibility of dangerous thunderstorms. At this stage Gerolf Heinrichs is still leading.

Tommy the czech, never to be ignored.

The weather is getting better and better for flying. Today a very ambitious 150km triangle is set. This has not been attempted since the celebrated 1997 Australian Nationals in Hay NSW, when Tomas Suchanek set a world record of 44.60km/h. Today, two years later, sees Tomas again win the day, but at 40.12km/h he is not quite world record pace. However, second placed Rohan Holtkamp smashes the Australian record of 26.31km/h (set ten years ago in Austria by Drew Cooper) by completing the course with a speed of 37.73km/h.

In the overall scores, first place is now held by Oleg Bondarchuk. Previous leader, Gerolf Heinrichs, had planned to start the day early, but zipper problems on his undersurface forced him to fly back to the tow paddock to fix the problem and then launch again. He only lost 30 minutes doing this, but it meant he was no longer flying during the optimum time of the day. Oleg needed to beat Gerolf, and his match racing tactics paid off; only coming fourth on the day, but taking the overall lead.

Just before the task was set the SE wind backed off from the 15kt that had been blowing all morning, and the thermal strength was sufficient to resist much drift. The task committee quickly realised conditions were such that an out and return record was possible. The original task to Tottenham was revised to a course to Trundle and tack, a total distance of 142.9km. The existing world distance record in the Feminine Category for an out and return task stands at 134km. This was set by Nicky Hamilton from the UK when she was at Eucla, ridge racing the Great Australian Bight last year. Today, Bight last year. Today, McLelland was able to complete the task after more than five and a half hours of flying. This gives Tascha the new World Distance Record for an Out and Return Declared Task in the Feminine Category (WDRORDTFC?).

The task proves to be very challenging, and several pilots spend more than seven hours flying trying to make goal. Joel Rebbechi wins the day, scoring a rare maximum possible score of 1,000 points. This notable feat can only be achieved by scoring the trifecta of first to start, first to finish and fastest on the day. The first five pilots all finish the three quarter hour race with less than 55 seconds between first and fifth, indicating the closeness of this competition. There are a total of ten pilots at goal. Overall the first four places remain unchanged.

After several days of tasks including headwind legs, which tend to favour the low drag, kingpostless gliders, today sees a straight line cross-tailwind task to Tottenham, 153km to the NW. The temperature in the shade peaks at 40oC in Forbes, and an estimated 45oC in the tow paddock. Tomas wins the day in just over two hours (with an average speed of over 64km/h), putting him in second position overall. Oleg is second, also with a speed of over 64km/h. Third place goes to the top placed Australian, Rohan Holtkamp, with a speed only 1km/h slower than Tomas'. Joel Rebbechi is able to maintain his overall fourth position with a fourth place finish today. Goal was a happy place for 24 competitors today, who were all pleased to achieve a 150+km flight.

Best placed Australian joel Rebbechi

The last day's flying sees a straight line task to Calleen, 96km to the SW. An early inversion is broken by ground temperatures of 40oC , making for a quick task of less than two hours despite the crosswind.

The final day of any competition (no cameras or start gates), calls for a different strategy in the tow paddock. In this case, Tomas and Oleg were both towing up behind different dragonflies. Tomas wanted a later start time, so released and flew back for another tow. Oleg was quick to follow and got back to the paddock first. They then both towed up at the same time. The tug drivers attempted to avoid another confrontation by towing Oleg and Tomas to opposite ends of the paddock. Tomas released first but still Oleg managed to get into goal 13 seconds earlier, giving him the final trophy (although at a cost of $15 for that extra tow).

The day is won by the Aussies however, with Joel Rebbechi from Sydney winning the day for the second time this comp with a time of 54.6km/h. Rohan Holtkamp from Beaufort, Victoria comes in second, also faster than 50km/h. (By way of comparison, Joel's father, Brian Rebbechi, who learnt to fly at the same time as Joel, was able to complete the course with a respectable, if not competitive, speed of 20.2km/h.)

At the end of the meet it was pilot Oleg Bondarchuk who took up winnder's honours, followed by Tommy the Czech and Australia's own Joel Rebbechi, who nudged aside Gerolf Heinrichs to take out third place overall.

(Reproduced from Australian Gliding Sky Sailor - Mar 1999)