What a week and what a great last day! This time everything seemed to work fine regards equipment and flying, Task was set for 70.4 Km and I flew 40Km of the task before landing at Escasle. I was first of the launch today at 11:07 and managed finally to beat by arch nemesis – the Penon! I left launch lower than any day, 2500m, as the inversion layer was pretty low but I managed to find some lift lines that took me to the Penon about half way down. This time I gave it a body swerve and continued to the foothills of the wall to get some lift off the spines.There wasn;t much lift and after benching up the spines for a bit I was forced to go back to the Penon and get some lift. I honestly thought I was going to be scuperred again as I was really low but with al the practice of flying it a couple of days ago I managed to get up to about 2/3 the way and headed back to the wall foothills where I eventually got up onto the mesa. By this time there were quite a few other pilots in the air and the comp pilots had established themselves above the crazy thermal location. I got a screamer off the G-Spot, very sharp edges and rough that took me up to 3200m where I joined the main gaggle waiting for the start gate to open. It was rough up there and having to just circle for over 25minutes seemed like an eternity. Eventually the clock ticked down and as the start opened I found myself facing exactly in the direction of the first waypoint. I was off first!!!
I headed over the valley towards 3 kings and I wondered how long it would be until the comp wings caught up and it wasn’t long at all! Amazing to see them pass you. I was on 1/4 speedbar averaging 50Km/hr on the transition. These guys must have being in excess of 60Km/hr.
You sink quite a lot of the transition so I got to Maguey at ridge level and then just soared the ridge for a while until the gap at the 3 kings where I got a stonker of a thermal that I topped out with folks joining me like bees to a honey pot!. At this time I actually could see Randy and Gordon below me in the same thermal and for once I managed to stay on top of them. I got to Divisa high, tagged the waypoint and headed back to Maguey. I got quite a lot of sink flying back and ended up low at Maguey where I found Mer scratching below. It sure was rough in there and being in leeside of ridges at a low level is not recommended. Thoughts of Kostantine went through my head and I got out of there as soon as I could, Mer and I scratched for a while and I waited for a while until a thermal kicked off. Mer went fishing elsewhere but was unlucky to find lift and landed out.
My thermal was another screamer and I cored it well I thought but comp pilots joined me and I heard them screaming tighter tighter as I climbed higher. However, it was starting to get a little stressful and after I started hearing the beeping geting weaker I left and went on glide towards Cerra Gordon and Escale. getting towards Escale I was getting low so I turned towards Cerra Gordon to go find lift. By now the convergence line was setting up and Cummies were beginning to form.
I glided right into the convergence quite low. Wow was that something. I circled once heard a whack saw my right wing disappear and the rest frontal. In a split second I had about 25% of my wing left and I was diving. Big weight shift left a little left brake right hand up..BANG..the wing exploded back to its proper flying form. Wow, That was something else. I decided not to reenter but go on glide to Escale. There I saw a nice ranch, 4 trucks 10 people and landed. Put on the charm and within 10 minutes got a ride right back to town. Awesome!
Went to headquarters handed in my gps and found out once again I had a mis start! :-( I jumped the start gate by 45secs. My digifly was telling me I was still to fly to the start cylinder and my Garmin was telling me to fly to the next waypoint. I couldn't see the proximity circle on my garmin and I didn't trust my Digifly due to all the issues I had the previous day. No matter, I had finished my first comp in Valle de Bravo safe and sound with tons of new experiences and learning's under my belt and the longest distances I had ever flown as well as meeting tons f new friends. Next year for sure! Butterfly sightseeing tomorrow!
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