Woodlln – Woodlz – Rabies Peak – Woodrat – Burnt – Cemeta – Dark Hollow
Results are at http://flyxc.org/2010ratrace.html
Today we arrived on launch to find it socked in!. Yes we were at cloud base before even taking off! :-). I wasn’t too sure if it would clear but lo and behold Rick Ray local pilot and weather man was indeed correct. He had spoken to Hayden Glatte and they both agreed there would be a task called, we would get to 5k and everyone would fly, He was pretty much right on the money.
It started clearing around 12:30 and by 1pm we had a task called. Start time was set to 2:40pm. I wanted to get off a little earlier today but seeing a lot of people initially not getting high I wasn't too sure. However I stood in line with around 30+ people behind me and eventually got to take off looking at blue skies and puffy skies with another good flying day ahead. By this time, the gaggle that had been floating not too high above launch had got to around 6K in height (2.2K over launch). 
Hmm. Had I left it too late? The wind looked to be picking up and there were more botched launches delaying even further the time it was taking to get airborne.
I finally managed to get off and immediately had issues getting into my pod harness. This year either I have grown in height or the harness has shrunk!. 
I hooked the speed bar with my heal trying to get in and crushed the speed bar full on. Not good! I wriggled into my harness and then used my hands to get the neoprene cover over my legs. I then looked for lift and managed to find a nice little thermal that took me above launch height. It was a right hand turn day but I felt very comfortable. But then the lift disappeared. I was confused. Big sink and I was now loosing height quickly, I got to mid launch and started looking for more lift. Not a great deal. I looked up in envy at the people high above me. Damn. I got below mid launch and then got drilled again. Soon I was about 300 ft over the lZ. Damn again!. I was not going to be beaten!. There was one glider below me scratching who i found out later turned out to be Jeff Farrell from SuperFly. I worked nasty bubbly lift and managed to start gaining height. I could see the glider below following me and soon we had got back up above mid launch. Yabba Dabba Doo I though to myself. Now we are talking. I started flying with another couple of gliders but soon my dreams of getting high evaporated just like the lift. Sink alarm started screaming at me and I lost all the height I had gained in about 30 seconds and was now back about 300 ft over the lZ.
I looked up and could see a massive flush in progress throughout the valley. People were falling from the sky big time. I came into land and found it to be very thermic and the wind pretty strong. I landed and very quickly there were around 40 gliders who had joined me, About 10 minutes later there were over 70 gliders in the lz.
The day was done. 11 gliders managed to make it to goal with the score being posted of only 220 points for the leader. I got 93 for just landing in the LZ!. What a crazy scoring system indeed. I don’t think it is fair but then again was happy that it wasn’t all down to my bad flying to land so quickly.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
No comments:
Post a Comment