Diamond Distance flight plan

Sam, I did similar to what you plan for a 500km in the UK. The first leg
was into wind, about 200km, and took half the actual flight time I the
event. Next was downwind about 150km, then upwind about 50, then home
about 100km. The route is along major roads (the A14/A1, for those in
the UK who might be interested) which simplifies retrieves as well as
navigation.
The turn points and navigation (I used map, compass and eyeball, not
GPS, in those days) happen to be easy from my home site on this route,
with no airspace problems, and the best thermals for us happen with this
wind direction (NW).

Plan was to use cloud streets as far as possible - that worked OK.
Another advantage was that if I found I was too slow having turned A and
reached B, I could abandon the task and cut it to 400km with a good
chance of getting home. Had I been really slow on the first leg, I could
have turned back at say half way through the soarable part of the day
and still probably got home with a tailwind and accumulated height to
help. Also, there are gliding sites at turnpoints B and C, so handy if
a landout became necessary.

As it happened, it all worked OK, even with a head wind on the way out
of 17 knots (measured by somebody flying with a GPS the same day in the
same area). Only problem was my camera jammed so I had no proof of the
flight for badge purposes.

Hope that helps (the planning, not the faulty camera!). Chris N.




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