The first two days in Châlons were intense and fun but it is confirmed : we are Grinch.
A bit of context:
We are competing at the Champagne Cup (the pre-world competition in Châlons-en-Champagne) flying the new toy from Schempp-Hirth : the Arcus-M “20”. The airfield is located near Reims in a middle of a large flatland (the Champagne wine is made on the hill, 30 km to the West). At this time of the year, all the fields are cut and outlanding is not a problem. The airfield is big, with a large camping (a bit more shadow would be nice), and a great team to run the place with volunteers of the local club, very motivated.
The first race was interesting without cumulus clouds (but with a lot of middle and high clouds) but acceptable varios, thanks to very dry weather for several weeks before the competition. Benj managed to leave the gaggle behind before the last point and the last glide was smooth. The thermal where ok but a bit too difficult for me and I didn’t pilot much this first day. It was a good training day for me, looking at Benj tactic, talking about choices and what was the decision making.
For the second day, we had an 2h AAT (race with large areas to turn and optimise). The weather was better but with a risk of low power and sunshine due to cumulus spreadout. We did the flight alone as gaggle was a bit too north on start line for our taste. The first legs went smoothly with good cumulus lines orientated SW-NE. The Arcus was gliding well under the line and the transition between them were not bad. We stayed high, under the spread out, stopping sometime on 1,4 m/s and gliding at 165 kph (Benj is never flying slowly than that).
I managed to pilot a bit more but I must say that I was not prepared for the intensity of Benj “harassing” me with questions and “suggestions”. After 15 minutes, I often needed to give the glider back because of the condensation accumulating on my canopy, I was litteraly evaporating, but it was really fun and I hope I will be able to keep a bit of that when I will go back to the Discus-2. And finally, we have won the day!
But we complained!... we are grinch after all!
Both days were not very difficult for us: We were never really low, we did not had trouble finding the thermal, and the goal of this competition is pretty low rated. But in both flights, we complained and sworn.
In the first one we had the “Why me? What I have done to deserve that?”. I always feel that in a blue day. If I start to sink a lot, I feel that I am punished and it will never end, except to the ground. That is irrational, but I really have this mixed of fear and unfairness. I never really talk with any one about that because at the end (almost all the time) you find the next thermal and in your 3m/s climb you forget and forgive the air mass for such a pain. But Sunday, I realised that Benj was the almost same. After hours and multiple task in blue sky, still the same difficulty to deal with that. That’s somehow reassuring but also means that this feeling will not leave me with more training.
Second day was a lot of fun with pretty good thermals. All was good. The gliding computer finally announced that we were on the “last glide” to complete the task, but we would arrive 4 minutes earlier than minimum race duration so we needed to go a bit more inside the last turnpoint area. The weather started to become tricky under large areas of shade made by high clouds, and we started to complain. Worst, the glide ratio started to decrease with few large deep sinking areas. In the cockpit, we were losing all hope... Objectively: we were flying torward cumulus looking not so bad on a sunny area and we could have complete the task by cutting short if needed, but still hope was gone and complains started inside cockpit with the typical “why now”, “why us”, etc…
So why? We are both highly competitive: that can’t help. We want to optimize as much as we possibly can: that is true. We are disappointed when stuff don’t go to plan even if we are doing our best: May be. I am actually not sure.
Is that really a negative thing? Psychologically, it cannot be very good as it become difficult to think straight while in that state of mind. However, if it is the price to pay because we want to do well. It may be worth to be like that: a perpetual unsatisfied. In addition, the joy we add, when we finally reach the finish line, just on time, after an emotional roller cost in phase with the “arrival altitude” box, is priceless. All glider pilots know that!
So yes, we are often complaining; we are sometime disappointed; we can be unhappy even if, objectively, the situation is not bad. In short: we are grinch and I think we will keep it this way!
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