However Trotts & I could see the end of the honey ahead. We picked the change of gears and slowed right down to glide out towards the next sector where the cu had disappeared due to the high cirrus above cutting out all heating. It did not look good. We decided that the tactic was to park and wait for the sun to reach us which we could see about 20km away. "It shouldn't take too long," we thought.
We slowly thermal led down from 700m and ended up going backwards and away from the turnpoint sector. A good tactic if I had actually managed to stay airborne. Unfortunately I was a bit lower than Trotts and couldn't connect with a bubble and ended up in a paddock without going through the sector at the 2nd turn.
Trotts had enough height to turn the sector and glide out about 6km further than me. We had parked for about an hour before landing and in hindsight, would have been better off not parking and just gliding into the sector, turning and gliding as far as possible out. But we thought the sun was coming. It never came and I got rained on about 1hr after landing.
Again I choose a good landing spot -- actually a grass strip in between 2 wheat crops. The strip was about 20m wide and 200m long, but enough for me to land in and near a road and a village.
While waiting for my crew to arrive (I was 90km from Klix and it was 1.5-2 hrs drive away), I walked into town to view the local castle, the size of a country Chateau. The castle was all closed up but I noticed a microbrewery in the castle grounds. Mmmmm beer and local fresh beer at that. I had to try it. I found a bar and guesthouse next door and promptly set myself up with a beer and some hot chips (after having been rained on while walking into town). Life could be worse.
The beer was really good -- called Schlossbrau, which translates into castle brew. It was a nice light coloured and flavoured beer. I should have brought a 6 pack to take away for the boys to try.
The derig went fine and we are all getting experienced at that now. What a bugger. Only 3 pilots from standard class made it home -- well done girls and about 80% of the fleet outlanded. Typical as the international teams party was tonight and most people we back late for it. I stayed about an hour before going to bed at 11pm, I was pretty tired.
The good news is that the crew have worked out that if I get a bit extra sleep in the morning I am much happier and don't get in their way so much. So Keith gets up between 7-8am and drives out to the airfield to rig the glider with Mitchell. They also ballast it, weight it if necessary and put it on the start grid. I wake up at 8am and leisurely stroll out to the field around 9 - 9.30am ready to put my equipment into the glider and make briefing by 10.15am. Good work boys, keep it up!