On Wed, 13 Mar 2019 03:08:04 -0700, ashmanthefirst wrote:

I'm flying in my first gliding competition this year. I've flown a
reasonable number of XC tasks over the last couple of years and thought
it would be fun to enter a small local competition.

If, before your first competition, you get the chance to fly a
competition task as P2 with an experienced competition pilot in a
reasonable two-seater, DO IT. This way you'll get a picture of the way
competitions work: attending the briefing with your P1, and helping with
pre-and post- flight activities will be useful experience. You'll learn a
lot and have fun doing so.

If your glider can carry water but you've only flown it dry, its a good
idea to get used to flying with ballast before the competition. If you're
going to use ballast, you need to understand the filling process, how
much water to carry on a given day and how it affects handling and flying
speed. Otherwise, just fly it dry.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org