The final day of the contest, and what a contest it has been.  A long time since we have enjoyed 10 days of good flying.  Excellent.

Today we extend birthday wishes to Jaco Burger # YA.  May the coming year be a great one for you, Jaco.

There are also rumours that it might have been birthdays of both Holger and Ronald . . . .  but I believe the rumours are just that!

A huge vote of thanks to the ‘behind the scenes’ people - Peter a.k.a. Boris for his work and patience (sometimes extremely tried and tested!) with the scoring computer and producing the results, and other information, pictures, etc. that have gone onto Soaringspot.com.  To Steve a.k.a. Taffy for also adding my words onto the same website and other sites too, and for producing the graphs, and so forth.  To Gary for arranging wi-fi facilities at the airfield – it worked some of the time, but sadly not all of the time (not his fault, but elsewhere problems).  To Corné and his team for all his services providing meals and drinks at the airfield in a very friendly manner. 

To Sven for delivering the met forecast every day and all good wishes for his computer, which he accidentally dropped last evening.  Hopefully it was not terminal.  To Laurens for being the safety officer and reminding the pilots of a variety of things that can sometimes get forgotten, overlooked, neglected in the ‘heat of the moment’ or after many days of good flying.

Finally – last but definitely not least, a big thank you to Ian Buchanan for his contest directing.  An excellent job.

So, to today’s activities at Welkom.  Totally overcast this morning and some early morning rain, but Sven believes that there could be a chance of a small task.  There is still the inflow of moisture from Botswana with humidity between 40% & 60%.  Winds are currently N/NW but should move more SW/S later in the afternoon.  Max temperature is expected to be 27.5° and trigger temperature at 25.9°.  Dew point 13.6°.  By 5 p.m. the cloud base will drop as well as the temperature, and intermittent rain is expected from 2 p. m.

As a result of the weather, it has been decided that the 18m/Open class will have a task, whilst the Club Class can pack up their gliders – those that were not already in their trailers.

Open/18m

2 hr. AAT 106.0 km./332.7 km. Schuttesdraai (30 km. radius) – Hoopstad (30 km. radius) – Control NW (5km. radius)

On the grid by noon and then we shall wait and see.