The batteries on my new vario went flat about 10Km into the task with no spare so I was flying off the gps altitude only. My fault, I know much better than to turn up to a comp with an instrument that I have previously turned on only once and tested exactly never. It was actually nice to go back to basics and feel out the lift and I had a lot of fun toying with myself in the crosswind - climb high or leave and push back to the course line? In the end some high cirrus drifted over and slowed the climbs down to make the task very tricky for pilots who were behind the leaders and downwind of the course line.
Looking back at my tracklog was a good exercise though - you can see that all the climbs were drifting directly north once we reached the plateau and it was hard work going crosswind like that, but in my last climb the wind hand changed 45 degrees to the south west. I didn't notice this at all during that climb as I think deep down I had convinced myself it wasn't going to be possible to get to the SIMS turnpoint anyway. In hindsight I could have taken a more easterly track on my last glide had I realised how much the drift had changed, covered more ground and maybe got back up. That's one of the great things about comps, after the fact you can always see where you went wrong, what worked for other pilots then go forth and emulate!
Results at www.chelanxcopen.com/results.htm
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