From May until August I found myself on many airfields around Europe. Competing, crewing, relaxing, stressing, but always learning! Mostly, things went better than I’d ever imagined they would. I want to thank everyone who made it possible, all in your own different ways. The Gliding Federation of Australia, the Victorian Soaring Association, and many individuals were very generous in providing funding. My teammates – at the Womens Worlds, Jenny, Claire and Julie as team captain, and at the Junior Worlds, Reuben, Dylan and Allan as team captain. Martin and Niklas for making your beautiful Cirruses available for hire. Niklas and Matt for crewing, the Spreckleys for giving me a place to stay between competitions, the French Team (Aude and Didier) for lifts across Europe to the next competition. This list doesn’t end, thanks to all of you!
Women’s Worlds [results] – I was definitely ‘in the zone’ for this competition. It helped that the organisers were very cool, and the other pilots genuinely friendly. On the first day everyone was walking down the grid wishing each other fun and safe flights – it was how it should be.
Tactically, this was my best competition yet. I used the ‘Week 1/Week 2’ strategy successfully. The aim of this is to sit back and get solid results for the first week, then strike in the second. The logic behind it is that others will make their mistakes in week one, putting them out of contention. You can cruise by, not doing anything too risky, conserving energy, until the second week arrives. At that point you really start to wind up the pressure, and keep it on until the end.
Applying this, I was able to stop myself from worrying too much about not getting great results through the first four days. After that, an impromptu team arrangement with Sarah Arnold from the US Team really helped with the confidence boost needed to actively try and be the best each day. Our high point flying together was definitely the sixth race, where although we split for a lot of the flight we were together through the difficult blue section at the end – finishing 1st/2nd for the day with a 2 point gap (out of 1000) between us. That second day win in a row had catapulted Sarah and I both up 3 places – me to 1st overall, and Sarah 3rd. I was going to ride the wave while it lasted. Somehow it really did feel like a giant wave – there was an obviously huge amount of support from home and all over. That combined with steadily improving results, just added to this feeling of a wave building up.
As it turned out, the wave went for another four races (and a third day win!) before breaking. In the eleventh race I made quite a few mistakes – and one really good decision – that lost me 500 points and dropped me back to fourth in one go. So for the next day and our last race, I decided to go have fun.
We had the same weather that we’d had earlier in the competition when three of the German team had literally flown away from me, so I figured I’d see if I could stick to them this time around. I guess I also wanted to watch Sabrina win, because she and the rest of the German team really did deserve it. In the end I was dropped about halfway around the task. After that I cruised around the rest of the course, playing it safe. On final glide I remember looking around, quite content, thinking that it would probably be quite a while before I would fly over that particular part of Czech Republic again.
Junior Worlds [results] – I’m still trying to fully work out what went on at this competition. I know that I never really got completely comfortable flying there. We started with very few good landing fields available, and lots of people flying far too aggressively/cluelessly – I had two very close calls during the practice period, never mind the competition itself.
The pacing was also very different to what I’ve got used to. Thankfully we had our first race early on, but then we were left waiting for another four cancelled days until the second race – during which everyone landed in fields… In the middle of the event we had an invalid race where only five people (out of 38) made it further than 50km. For a while we thought the competition might end on a day only three pilots made it to the finish ring (but not the airfield). I’d thought that the Junior Worlds in Poland was quite full on, but this really seemed to take it to the next level! Getting used to that sort of start-stop competition is something I’ve got to work on.
The interesting side of not having such a great run early on in this competition was that I got to the point where I was willing to take some more calculated risks. I’d never really done that before in competition, because what percentage of the winner’s score you end up with still matters for international rankings and a few other things. None of the risks really paid off in the end, but it was surprising how often the decisions didn’t lose me much.
One day in particular, I’d started with the New Zealanders and we got caught by quite a large margin halfway around task. There was a big convergence running parallel but a long way north of our second leg – both Nick and I went for it, betting that the huge deviation to get on it early would be worth it with much improved glides. In the end the convergence wasn’t working as well as it had been earlier, but we didn’t lose much more on the main pack.
There were a few more highs near the end of the competition. One was near the end of the seventh race. Reuben and I ended up together, but with the main gaggle further out in front. It was low, blue, windy, and busy, but we picked some really good climbs together, and it was enough to connect us to that lead gaggle again. They were our best chance to make it home, and even though it didn’t work out like that, it could have.
The final high point was the last race – flying my own flight and making it home. I actually couldn’t get to height pre-start, which by the time I’d sorted that out had me as the last starter in club class. The good news was that a convergence line had pushed across, so I had a stellar run, taking that a long way into wind before turning to clip the second sector. On the way back in, I could barely see anything out in front, with a giant thunderstorm shading the ground and the sun in my face right behind it. Dylan had a weak one knot thermal under the shadow and team base helped to direct me into it. That climb got me just enough height to start sneaking in towards the finish, and with Dylan calling the energy out in front I gained as I went. At the finish I could see the rain closing in from what seemed like all directions – so it was absolutely perfect timing to make it in before that. On the results, I’d pulled up 4 places off a day that was only worth 400 points. I don’t think that happens too often!
Ailsa McMillan 