Woodln – Mt Isabel – Cemeta – Dark Hollow – Donato
Today looked very similar to yesterday’s weather and we arrived on launch to find the same familiar conditions, although there were more blue spots appearing in the sky and the wind was a little lighter.
The same task was called as the previous day when it was cancelled so there was little to do in terms of programming the gps. The free flyers and wind techs got up and the wind was strong in the vicinity of launch and especially if you got behind launch so the trick today was to stay out front.
Again they gave us enough time to launch and get established today although that wasn't going to be a problem! There was a lot of instability in the air and there definitely was going to be some big air out there. As the time ticked by, the wind on launch picked up and it was important to pick the right cycle to launch in. It was clear there were a lot of pilots out there with insufficient ground handing skills in higher winds as many gliders were overshooting and taking frontals on launch. I watched on and chuckled to myself thanking the time I spend at Whidbey.
With 30 minutes before start window opening I was in line and sitting next to Gilead on launch. He was still beat from the long task a couple of days ago and wanted as much rest as possible. Ralph was also waiting a little. About 5 minutes later I decided to go.
I took off and got high pretty quick and moved out across the valley. Today was a 3Km exit cylinder so people would be spread out. Getting near the edge at the start would be ideal. I didn’t think this was going to be a problem but the wind was pretty strong at around 5500 and it was slow going. Thankfully the instability made it easier to get high. The problem now though was staying out the clouds at around 6500. Looking ahead I could see gliders with Big Ears and others spiraling down over Rabies. I took a more conservative route across and kept around 5500. As I got above Rabies gliders heading out to Mt Isabel were sinking and I was on a nice glide path although it was pretty rough in places, especially under the edge of the clouds. I was thinking this was going to be a real easy day. I climbed to over 6k and headed off towards Isabel. Sink!. As I sunk along at 500 ft down I heard a couple of beeps from the vario and then pegged! Wallop!. Some big cloud grabbed my wing from above and took me skywards quickly!. Looking at my vario afterwards I went from 300 ft/min down to 1300/min up in a heartbeat. 
That was a rush but the wing was holding together well. I put on speed bar and headed for blue sky. Thoughts of Wheeler’s cloud spiral video came to mind for a second.
I got to the edge and continued on. Everything felt smooth the another wallop but this time I was falling. I looked up to see a small rectangular patch of wing left flying above my head about 6ft in length and I had swung out a little in front. This was going to be fun. Both ends of the wing had folded in completely then bang out they came with the inevitable surge. I jammed the brakes momentarily as the wing flew forward. No problems. For once I didn’t seem to be nervous for some reason. Don’t know why but this comp I have felt pretty comfortable on the wing. Ok now let’s just tag this sucker and move on.
As I worked my way up the ridge it was my turn to sink. The other gliders that had been in front had turned back and were looking for climbs. I pushed on. With the headwind I knew as soon as I tagged it I would be flying fast back. I got to within 250m of the turn point and was too low in my estimation to make it out safely. I decided to turn back and found more lift. In retrospect this was my downfall. I could have tagged it and gotten back. But since it was the last day I wasn’t taking any risks.
My thoughts of flying quickly back dwindled as I lost even more height and wasn’t flying that fast. Oops. That was a miscalculation. I looked at landing options. oh oh. Everything was leeside. Stupid bugger I thought to myself. Only good option was the large field in Forest Gulch but this was directly in the direction of the wind and in a tight valley. However, the top of the hill was quite a ways up and I headed out to land. I didn’t get much turbulence as I head down to land but it was buoyant. I could see a flag lightly blowing on a house below and said to myself phew!. I came into to land and spotted power lines running alongside the field and then across the field as I sunk at 1:1. I spoke to myself saying keep calm Iain everything is fine. I passed over the lines and gave a sigh of relief. I moved forward into the field and came down gently between 2 trees.
My task was over and I had landed safe and the comp was over!!! All was good! I walked to the road and radioed in my position. 3 miles up Forest rd.
39 pilots made goal that day including Jeff Smith for the first time and Gilead for the 2nd. He has way more patience than me! Overall though I was pretty pleased at my performance this week and had a fun time in a comp for probably the first time throughout the week.
I left wanting more! Until the next comp folks Aw Ra Best!
Iain.
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