The 2009 National Sports Class Competition haskicked off today with a good solid day of flying.

We have 7 competitors, with a couple only doinga few days due to other commitments. All are flying PW5s except for Robin inthe Ka6. A few turned up for practice day yesterday, which was an even betterflying day than today.

This morning we woke to a not-very-promisingsheet of cloud covering the Waikato, Fin the task setteroptimistically giving a 51 to 49 percent chance of flying, in favour offlying. That one percent of optimism was worthwhile however, around 12:30 wewere ready to launch with wisps of thermals starting around us, andgood looking stuff in the distance.

Unfortunately we had no tugs. A slight flaw inthe competition plan one might say. Tauranga\'s tug was on it\'s way still, andPiako\'s tug was away being fixed in Hamilton. Fortunately 10 minutes later theyboth turned up at the same time, and away we went.

Fin set a 158km 2.5 hour AAT distance task with10km turnpoints, which turned out to be a good task. Everyone but one made itaround, with Paul Schofield in GSB landed out at the second turn point.

All the way through the afternoon the high layerof cloud would block the sun, then partially break up, then reappear, justgiving us enough convection to get some thermals working well. It wasn\'t tooeasy, and not too impossible, so everyone was happy.

Congrats to Maurice Honey for winning today\'stask for 1000 points, Tim Bromhead second with 935, and Robin Britton thirdwith 781. Fullresults and a view of the taskavailable on soaring spot.

Thanks to all those volunteers helping out withthis contest, there are almost more volunteers than pilots, so it\'sreally appreciated.

For anyone in Piako club, tomorrow\'s weatherlooks similar to todays, and there are 4 gliders available to fly, NI, XP, PKand PC. If you have QGP you\'re welcome to launch at the back of the grid.

Until tomorrow...