Practice Day

A quiet day yesterday with some liquid sunshine to add some green to the runway. Today dawned a bit dull but has brightened throughout the day.

Compulsory briefing was delivered via a Video shown on the overhead projector and utilising the nice sound system available in the terminal building. This was finished by some safety notes from Doug Hamilton, who is safety officer for the competition.

A practice task was set by Gavin Wills who is our most excellent task setter. For the first time in many years Gavin will not be flying the competition. A simple racing task for all. Omarama-Thomsons Track-Glentanner-Omrama for a distance of 248.2kms.

As at 7:15pm we have a lone competitor still out on task. This is (GZP)Bob's first competition at the National level so it will be an interesting experience for him. Some did not complete the task as it got a bit narly for them. Some International class pilots decided to save themselves for the real thing tomorrow by coming home a little early.

The classes have still not been totally finalised as we have been working hard to get a Club class competing. The rules require us to have 4 competitors launched on the first day. After much behind the scenes activity with goodwill shown by many pilots, it appears that we will have the minimum four to launch tomorrow for Day 1.

Generally the organisation is coming together well and scorer Lex is back from his Stag "do"in Christchurch. ...Back.... is a generic term meaning his body is physically present at Omarama but the dark glasses are hidding the inner man!!

Let the games begin....