Under the influence of high pressure, we woke up to blue skies this morning. The forecast was looking good, well-deeloped cu, tops near 10K, good lift forecast, winds from the northwest 20kmh or so. There was a buzz - talk of an earlier start even, an great day was anticipated.

The task committee came up with a two-turn triangle area task (same task for both Club and FAI classes; 4:00 and 4:30 respectively), turn points Paradise Valley (170 km, 80 km radius), Stettler (185 km, 90 km radius), then return to Chipman (155km, 2 km finish radiius). Distances: minimum 230, maximum 817, optimal 510. After the pilot's meeting proper, there was a clinic on how to do an FAI badge flight; with a diamond distance up for grabs today.

Your earnest reporter was called away on a retrieve, down by Wainwright, and didn't get back to the field until 9 PM, so missing the stories on how things went on task today. I did hear that there were some awesome thermals, with strengths up to 15 knots!, but that there were also a few land-outs, beyond the one I was involved with. I will chase down some more stories tomorrow (Weds.), and update this blog then.

I have noticed that Joerg Stieber and Chris Gough have been duking it out for first place in the FAI Class so far. Joerg was the Standard Class winner at the Chipman Nationals in 1987, 35 years ago! Can he make it a clean sweep at the Chipman Nationals this year?

It appears that Joerg Stieber my have flown the longest and fastest flight ever at a contest in Canada: 567 kms at 139 kph. Patrick Mcmahon had an impressive flight in Club Class as well: 453 kms at 101 kph.

Tony Burton had a remarkable flight in his Russia, flying 480 kms and staying aloft for over 8 hours. Tony's comment afterwards was "It was a great day until it wasn't".