July 16th (Brett)

This morning I got the keys to the Team NZ HQ. This is a shipping container transformed into an office - complete with window, door, power points, air con and office furniture. Very nice - and thank you to Gliding NZ for your sponsorship of this. There are 7 or 8 of these sited next to eachother and the Aussies, South Africans and Americans also have one so there will be a few laughs had over the next few weeks.
Steve was on the roof affixing Kiwi flags and the Wallace children are preparing artwork for the walls.

While this was going on Kerrie Claffey mentioned there was a task pinned on a bulletin board. There have been no briefings or formal communiques from contest management yet - and it was already after 1pm so there was no time for ballasting in the rush to get airborne as the task was a 4 hour AAT.
I started with Tom Claffey as Steve got launched 30 minutes after me. It turned into a tricky day with track selection and timing of cycles critical. I suspect Tom & I were the only ones to complete the task - 423km @ 104 km/h; Tom with 107 km/h. Steve started 20 minutes after us which was just too late, and turned back half way around the course in weakening conditions, but probably did as many km. We all landed within a few minutes of eachother at 6:30pm.

Sandwiched between the inversion and the cu's