We all pushed onto the grid and I was about four gliders behind Andy and Graham but today we had two tow planes so that would reduce the wait times. Everything prepped and ready to go.
The sky was blue as a smurf with only the occasional wisp of cloud to break it up. It didn't look promising although people looked like they were climbing. Looks like we were going to have a blue thermal day.
I released from tow and hunted around for a couple minutes and instantly found a climb to over 3000' which put me well above most everyone else but with nowhere to go. It was all blue out towards our first turnpoint and I really didn't want to outland today.
Andy and I were both within range of the field but then I lost sight of him. Next thing I know I hear a radio call "Matamata traffic MP 5 miles north of the field climbing through 3000'" I can't be outdone so off I go.
I get into the same thermal that Andy hit and climbed back to 3000' and continued on. I was always one thermal behind Andy but keeping up ok. There was negligible wind so there wasn't a larger performance difference between MP and VF today.
Andy took a slight right turn and headed to Te Aroha but the radio calls that he was giving didn't sound promising so I stuck in the central valley. BEEP, my GPS tells me that I made the first turnpoint. WOOOOOO! It should be no problem getting back.
I turn around and attempt to fly back through the thermals that I just came from. Sink sink sink sink sink..... What the !@#%! Ok, down too low to go anywhere now, picking paddocks. Ok, there is my new landing strip for the day. When I turned downwind I realized that I was high and too close in and I tried to open it up a little. I had a short base and quick finals over the fence with a little too much speed. Flared and with a reasonable touchdown but the opposite fence was coming up on me. I probably could have stopped before it but I dropped a wing and did a gentle groundloop to wash off the rest of the speed. I ended up stopping going almost the wrong direction about 2/3 of the way down the paddock. Not too bad but there were a number of things that I would have changed about the outlanding.
I think that I was so focused on the paddock selection that I didn't even think about proper circuit planning and speed control. That cramped my circuit and didn't allow me the time to get set up for landing. If I am put into the position where I have to outland then as soon as I pick my paddock I will instantly switch to circuit planning mode to get properly set up.
About 10 minutes after I landed out I get a phone call from Andy who said that he was on the ground as well. It looks like the weather cycled out right at the wrong time and dumped us both.
After a short walk to the farmhouse and a talk with a nice farmer to get permission I pulled up a spot in the shade and chilled out. The retrieve crew was there in short order and it was back in its box. Then we were off to help derig MP as he had landed about 3km SE of me.
His paddock was a nice 300m smooth strip right into the light wind. A quick derig and we were back home safe and sound.
The moral of the story is to always pick the paddock and plan your circuit. If you don't do both then you will have problems like I did.
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