Today we finally saw a chance to get away from the 6000' ceiling we've been spending most of the competition under. The prediction was for 11,000' which, going by previous forecasts, meant we should get at least 9 or 10. However, the forecast models caused a lot of confusion for the weather and task men, as they predicted a large splotch of no thermals moving across the task area during the day. The interpretation of this was that it represented an area of cloud cutting off the heating, which might or might not eventuate. The response was to set two very different tasks - an optimistic A task of a fixed 400km, heading first slightly south west to give the dead spot time to pass and then a long way north; and a pessimistic B task, an AAT mostly to the west and with large circles to allow pilots the leeway to work with whatever the weather might throw them.
As it played out, it became clear that the 100% cloud cover dead spot didn't materialize in the west as predicted by the weather models, and the fleet was sent on the A task. There was some cloud developing over the airfield during launch which showed distinct wave patterns, and pilots reported well defined lenticulars later in the day. Once again there were only a few outlandings and most competitors had a good day, with nearly 30 pilots posting speeds in excess of 100 km/h and four of the 18m pilots topping 120 km/h - the fastest day of the whole contest.