The cruelest cut – a surreal Gauntlet

The surge in interest in the Cape Gauntlet (we had 16 pilots at the Thursday briefing and 13 participating pilots on Saturday – and more than 20 people at the 09h00 briefing) was really good to see. There is usually something for everyone at briefing – wild and wacky – weather, the lot. It makes for a great start to the day.

Although the sky was that never ending blue that makes one look around for the sandy beach under the palm trees, there was one small cloud threatening the horizon – could the launch operation scale to meet the challenge of a larger grid? Unfortunately, tug MIV was out of action and it would be up to NIG to shoulder the burden with assistance from Adriaan Hepburn in his feisty Lambada.

With a reasonable day (type 4) in prospect, the task setter opted for an OLC Variant task using the new “Le Mans” start rule (which essentially allows OLC variant competition scoring to start 20 minutes after the last pilot launches and does not restrict the pilots from heading off cross country in the meantime to maximize the day-distance), and given what happened later, this proved a day-saving choice. It is also worth noting that EY has proposed a revision to the Le Mans Start Rule (go on, add your comments to the discussion).

Grid Bingo was shunned in favour of selecting a launch order which would allow maximum achievement on the day (thanks everyone for agreeing to this!). With a 1000km in prospect, the first wave of pilots included those knocking on the door of a 1000, Peter (ID) Farrell, Cornelius (GOG) von der Heyden, Craig (LW) Fussell, Dolf (Z1) Pretorius and Quinton (II) Hoole – Dolf flew multiple 1000s in the flat in December, but is yet to do it going ‘around’ the Cape ridges. The second tier included those who had already done it and might get there despite a later launch: Martin (GOK) Grunnert, Sven (EY) Olivier, Adriaan (K17) Hepburn, Hans (GWS) Sterling and Alan (X32) O’Regan. The remainder of the field included William (GIG) Whittaker, Errol (E5) Drew, Jaco (GUC) Hartman.

With a first launch set for 10h00, the pilots scrambled from briefing out to the hangars, with little time for additional preparation. Then, disaster! Unfortunately, Nina (or rather NIG) was a little ‘exhausted’ by the ferry from FASH, and needed a cracked manifold repaired. The inexhaustible & stoic Navarro’s came to the rescue and got to work on the tug at once to jury-rig repairs.

Now, with only the Lambada available and coupled with the slight Westerly in the prevailing wind, which meant thermalling away from the Red Hill was a non-starter, a protracted launch operation was to be expected. Undeterred, launching began under the able chivvying of Marion Cole with some assistance from Jerry B.

Although, in the end, we were unable to launch the whole field (on 11 of 13 NIG got exhausted and it was too turbulent for the Lambada) some creditable flights were achieved: Dolf Pretorius took the maximum day distance at 793, and if he had made it around the Waaihoek corner he may have made the 1000 – well done, Dolf; Craig Fussell (695km), Cornelius von der Heyden (671km) and Peter Farrell (541km). William Whittaker deserves special mention for going the furthest east and scoring his first 300 (303km) in non-powered flight – way to go William!

So the biggest Cape Gauntlet to date was unfortunately a non-scoring day, but lots of flying got done. Big thank you’s to Adriaan and Alison & Johnny Navarro for rescuing us from a potential disaster. And as I have said before – there will be other days; this was a day of unfortunate coincidences.

We have arranged for two operational tugs for the next Cape Gauntlet due on 3rd March.

Can you handle it?