So long and thanks for all the fish....

What an awesome week of flying in Canowindra.  We had it all, wind, rain and beautiful skies.  Unusually for Canowindra the weather was out of the East for a lot of the week and that led to some interesting conditions.

Some fun tasks were set by David levin and his team and overall it was a fun comp to fly in.  A couple of things I have learned:

In a 7 balloon comp, points are critical and its much more like a matchracing scenario than normal comp.  You need to peg your main competitor and get inside them.

It hurts to do a GMD of 3m and be the median pilot!

Trust your gut instinct.  I changed two tasks early in the week based on what should be there and not what my instincts told me would be there and it hurt me.  On the last flight I made a gut call and changed my goal 10 secs before takeoff and it was the right call.

A good team makes all the difference.  My guys were awesome.  We had a great week , with lots of laughs and didn't take ourselves too seriously.

Have fun.  its the whole point of the exercise.

A big note of thanks to the organisers especially Aurthu and Kerry Falconer and Graham and Jan Kerr.  A huge amount of work goes into any event and the value this one returns to my old home town is simply amazing. 

Also a huge amount of thanks to all the volunteers and officials associated with the event.  There is a lot of contention regarding the use of Observers in events, but for mine they add a lot to any event.  ALL of the observers we had were fantastic and seemed to really enjoy themselves.  Its a credit to all of you and to those who have trained you.  Hope to see you all again next year.