5th trip - Tuesday morning
Last night's result is not yet official. However, it has obviously not been easier for the majority of the balloons, which came after us to the target, despite the slower winds on the ground. Our deposit is still enough for a good 700 points. With this we have to be satisfied for a task in the evening. In the overall ranking we climb a little bit further up due to the two rides from Monday. However, the gap to the very front is still considerable and hardly become smaller.
Today Tuesday morning there are 5 tasks. As the first task there is a CRT, actually a Fly In with individual starting place, however with the difficulty that one can always achieve a score by marker only in a given time window. The Swiss choose the start place and time so that this time window is no problem. Our marker, which may only be dropped, comes to rest at just under 6 meters. Actually this sounds quite ok. However, so many markers are even better that this means just rank 30 in this task. There is no time to relax, we go straight on to the CLP at the airfield. There, two markers have to be thrown with the shortest possible distance to each other, into two opposite triangular areas. We drive deep optimally over the target. However, the first marker lands on the border between the first two surfaces. Thus, we are unsure which of the two upcoming triangles is now the correct one. By deciding back and forth we lose some time and thus the possibility to throw the marker even closer into the corner. Stefan then decides in favor of a surface after all. In the meantime, it turns out that the markers have landed correctly and we have achieved a result. This is still very good despite the missed opportunity to achieve an excellent result.
Besides this task a fox balloon starts on the CLP. This one is not to lose sight of despite the still further tasks and at its landing place then also a marker must be dropped. Because of the start time, which was perfect for the first task, many balloons are a bit too early at the starting point of the fox balloon. This was also the case for us. We don't want to overtake the fox balloon in any case and try to slow down a bit wherever possible. A Fly On, which has to be pre-declared a maximum of two times over a distance of at least 4 kilometers, we solve directly after the task at the CLP, quasi on the way to the next task. The result here is certainly not terrific, but as always it is impossible to estimate how the results of the others are in this task. As soon as the fly in is completed by loggermark, we have to fight on directly to reach the only realistic target cross of the upcoming task, a torture of choice. We miss the timely descent a bit, unfortunately, but can still drop the marker into the MMA. This is not such a good result, unfortunately. It would have actually been possible to approach this goal better. However, many other teams also do not succeed as desired and thus there are probably still a few points for our result.
Shortly after our rather modest marker at the agony-of-choice target, the fox balloon also lands. Stefan recognizes quite early that practically the whole field of the pursuing balloons on the left of the meanwhile laid out fox target cross will pass. So he goes early into a thin still existing layer to correct as far as possible to the left. Unfortunately, it is no longer enough to reach the target cross. However, our Loggermark should be one of the better ones at this task. The marker actually drop into the MMA, could only very few pilots.
Short conclusion, also based on the partially known measurement results. It was again anything but easy. The results are mediocre to ok over the whole ride. It will hardly be enough to catch up with the leading teams. However, we can probably keep up to some extent and keep the chance for a hopefully lasting catch-up.