Although I was not intending to fly competitively this final day as I believed I was far ahead enough on points to maintain my lead, neither did I want to bomb out so soon.  Slowly I struggled back up to ridge height in the light lift on the spine.  The lift became a little stronger as I rose above ridge height, but I did not think it was worth sticking around for longer than necessary.  I quickly jumped across to the right side of the bowl heading out towards the foothills, but not before I was given my first big asymmetric in a long time, exiting the still working thermal.  But the Shaolin is so good and well behaved and only required a bit of weight shift to slow the turn and we were back on course.  On the right the lift was not much better and it was not looking good for awhile.  I turned a few times.  Others joined the light thermal and drifted back and up to the top of the ridge.  I wanted to fly the foothills or the Flats and continued on to a farm house with an emerald green pool that had generated thermals all during the comp.  A grey blue Advance Omega 7 pilot headed out with me, but more to the east.  I could not find my 'sure thing' thermal,because I had not taken into account the change in wind direction.  The Omega pilot hit his own thermal over a small forest of trees and I turned in his direction, very low.  On the way I found my own thermal which of course had been on the downwind drift all along.

I slowly climbed watching the Omega pilot climb faster.  He was not far away, but I elected to stay in my own thermal until I was a bit higher off the ground.  Once I gained what I thought to be a safe altitude to change thermals, I did - and he certainly had the stronger one.  We both climbed to about 2500m ASL - higher than many of the pilots flying the ridge.  My next target was the front of the 'OK Corrals' ,a 'sure thing' thermal trigger at the end of the ridge to the east of take off.  I gained some more height there, but did not go with the drift over the top of the ridge as I wanted to avoid the valley suck when I made the crossing to the next Steve Ham 'sure thing' thermal trigger - the Quarry.

The Quarry is cut into the south east side of a low spine that runs towards the Pass that leads you to Avila.  As I headed out with good height, I saw a white Nova glider and one other also head out over the Villafranco valley towards the spine.  They were a lot lower than me.  On the way to the quarry, I think it was the Nova that found the quarry thermal early and took it.  He climbed well, but I did not like the drift back into the valley so ignored his mark and continued on until I was over the quarry itself.  The other glider joined the Nova.

There was some fierce thermic activity along the low spine and for the first time in this comp, I got a bit tense about the air I was in.  The stories of pilots throwing their reserves in this area during the June comp did not help to relax my muscles nor stop the reflex test grab for my reserve handle.  It was pointless me flying the SE side of this spine as I refused to go with the drift into the valley and so I pushed over onto the NW side of the spine banking on the fact that this was now in the sun and that thermals might trigger on the slopes opposite to the NW and run across and up this spine.  It was a good gamble that worked.  I ridge soared the low spine gaining height slowly, all the while tracking towards the Pass itself.  Refusing to thermal back meant I was not getting the big climbs but at least I was going in the direction I wanted to.  Near the end of this low spine is a cone shaped hill and I was banking on getting a 'Jaco Wolmarans drip point' thermal off this as I had done on a previous Pass traverse.  It was there, grumpy and irritable but going up and now the drift was sucking through the Pass venturi.  I was not high, below 2000m ASL and not ecstatic about going over this low (2500mASL is good) but I was rising fairly confidently and going with the drift....so I went.

After the Pass, I took the line along the N110 tarred road to Avila...and found only sink.  Not a single beep.  I could not believe it.  I tracked closer to the foothills of mountains to the left and passed over a few villages .... and not a single up beep.  This was very different to my previous experience in this area.  I could see the convergence clouds over the mountain range to the right and I knew that a lot of gliders had flown straight over the mountains there above Villafranco and not even bothered with the Pass itself.  Sink, sink and more sink.  I spotted the 'Hotel' sign with big letters along the N110 and headed for this 'sure thing' thermal. It was on siesta like all the others.  Why had I not taken the line that most other pilots took over the mountain range?  Because they were over a mountain range and I am not comfortable yet in this environment.  But I had run out of options.  I knew that sink was found on the edge of convergence and I was clearly in that big expanse of sink.  I turned right and flew towards the mountains to the SE.

As I neared the convergence (I was still about 5km from the cloud line) my sink rate slowed down a bit but I was still a plaything of gravity and going down.  I looked around, taking land mark bearings in order to be able to give the retrieve vehicle directions on how to find me.  Then my airspeed suddenly increased and I knew that there was lift out there somewhere.  I looked at my GPS, worked out where the fastest drift was and headed for it.  100m off the ground, over a sandy field, my endless sink came to an end.  It was the lightest of thermals, soft as angels breath, and I turned and turned and turned, all the time re-centring myself in the strongest lift, being careful not to do anything too drastic in directional change.  It was one of my finest saves :-) and the highlight of my flight.

On the edge of the convergence the lift became stronger and easier.  I was soon at about 2800m ASL and I could see many gliders fluttering along down the mountain range to my right (SE).  It looked lovely.  I was, however, generally higher than them and saw no reason to join them under the cloud street when the foothills on the edge of the Flatlands, the 'Jaco Wolmarans drip points', were working so incredibly well. I overtook a grey blue Omega 7 pilot with a maroon red helmet who seemed reticent about leaving the lift he was in and going ahead first, so I pushed on alone.  The vultures had shown me the highway below.  They did not bother with thermalling, but were on straight glide, economising that glide.  I have had so many wonderful experiences with them during this comp and I knew without doubt to imitate them and fly in the same manner as they did.

There were times when it felt like I was pushing into a light headwind, but I believe this was just the valleys in the big ridge pulling in the air like a venturi.  So I pushed speed bar until I was past their suck and overtook Peter Bretschneider who ended up have the second furtherest flight of the day.  Once free of the influence of the bigger valleys, flying returned to normal and I could step off the speed bar.  Occasionally I would turn a few times if I found lift stronger than 1ms, but generally I tracked along the convergence lift, adjusting to the right whenever I encountered a bit of sink.  It worked well.

Behind me I could see that Peter was joined by another glider - perhaps the grey blue Omega 7?  I  also passed Jan Minnaar on his blue Omega 7 who was flying over the mountain range.  It felt strange overtaking all the hot gliders, but I was pretty confident that I understood the parameters of the conditions.  They all eventually headed out into the middle of the valley.  I pushed on along the foothills, flying mostly on trims, enjoying the view and the peace.  The air was very smooth and buoyant.  It was coming up to 6 o'clock and I really needed to wee.  I made a concerted effort to relax and not think about it too much.  I knew there was a very good trigger point to the SE of Avila town and headed in that general direction.  Suddenly I fell off the vultures convergence highway and was losing altitude.  The drift was now to the ESE up the hill towards the windmills, La Canada and the CL 505 tarred road.  I knew there was a strong thermal in the area but I would have to look for it and the drift would be off the competition heading we had been given for this day only.  We were to be scored at right angles to the N110 road and if I erred and did not find the thermal in time, I would not improve my score by drifting off course.  Whilst I still had height, I made the decision to ignore the thermal pull and keep on course...only to find that the fields ahead were laced with electrical wires in every direction and that the land stepped up where the railway line ran along it.  I could see all the electrical lines and although I could feel bubbles of lift in the area I was turning, I did not like the idea of suddenly losing the lift and being forced to land in this electrical minefield.  Telephone and electrical wires are hard to see from the air and with a mess of them below, I might miss one set and fly into them on a pressure landing.  I chose to turn back and land in a clear field next to the CL505 just after the golf course.

I knew I had flown just over 60km, but only learned later from Klaus Guenter that I had won the days Task 8.  For a few moments then, I was an incredibly happy Flygirl :-)

I believe we all deserve to feel good about our flying when it all comes together for us and we experience such a great day...... It is why we fly.

Thank you to those who have shared their own pleasure at my days success with me.  Your smiling, jubilant faces and kind words are part of a very special memory....