Dave's fast triangle

The 31st of October looked pretty promising, with a trough bringing good Cu conditions to Waikerie.
Of course, as usual the Cu were everywhere but near the airfield, which was in a blue hole about 10km radius.
As the day looked to be a good one I loaded the LS4 with 4 tubs of water (About 90l). For some time I have been trying to improve my XC speed to above 100kmh, by flying 100km triangles, WGC-Maggea-Kingston Bridge-WGC. Last year my last 2 attempts were 99.3 then 99.67 – just a bit annoying!
On this day I released at 2500 over the bend in the river North West of the airfield, finding and then losing the lift in the blue. There were some Cu to the west so I headed over, and to my annoyance every time I got under a cloud and started to climb the thermal petered out after a couple of thousand feet, the Cu disappearing too. At this stage I dumped about 20 L of water, and things improved immediately. I guess the glider was just a little too heavy to circle in the best part of the lift.
Eventually I got a good climb to around about 9000ft. Now 10km East when I looked back towards WGC I was amazed to see a Cu forming just north of the club, offering the chance to climb just outside the start
sector. Even better a street had now aligned itself almost directly between WGC and Maggea. A good climb to the North took me back to 9000, and I flew thru the start sector at 8700 and120KT.
Half way to Maggea, at Holder I saw Robbo circling to my right, but the climb rate did not feel too good, so I pressed on. About 2 km further on track I hit a ripper climb and spent 3 minutes in 4kt back to 9000ft. I then continued to Maggea, turned for Kingston and then hit the big one, 5.8kt for another 3 minutes put me on final glide, only 30km into the flight. From there it was simply a case of cheering along the LS4 at 85-105 kt for 23 minutes. The last 20 Km was under a dark overdevelopment which gave no lift at all, lucky I had climbed to 1300 above final glide in that last thermal!
I finished at about 500ft, 120kt dumping water over the pad, followed by a normal circuit and landing.
Flight stats were;  100km in 43 minutes with 16% climbing and 84% straight. Speed was 142.88 kmh. Average climb 5.1kt!
My best flight from an all round perspective so far, and great fun!
I will buy a $30 bottle of Red of your choice for the first better this in a Standard class club glider this season!
Dave L