Rat Race Task 4 37.1Km

Woodlz – Rabies – Rabies Pk – Burnt – Woodrat – Cemeta – Dark H – Donato

Today was a very eventful day for more than a number of people from  happy to frustrating and then to unfortunately tragic. The day was calling for overcast skies and a NNW wind of around  8-10 mph with stronger winds of around 15mph up at 6k. However it started to clear just before 12:00 and the task was called as the free flyers were already getting up. The skies looked to be setting up to be a wonderful day and I was looking forward to the day.

The launch window opened at 1:06 and the start was scheduled for 2:00pm. After a few days of only having just about an hour to get everybody off launch ( 105 pilots ) it is clear that the task committee need to allow more time for all pilots to get established before the race starts, at least 30 minutes in my opinion. I got off 6 minutes before the start and Rich Hass and Conrad both launched after the start!

I launched  in a flush cycle and got drilled back down to the car park before I got a screamer that yanked me up at over 1500ft /minute with a peak of 1700ft/min to over 5500 in a short time. By this time the race had started and other pilots who had established themselves well over Rabies were off and running! I didn’t top out the thermal and in retrospect I know I should have as it cost me later. I headed out to tag the start and got drilled in huge sink. I made the enter start cylinder at 1km radius and then continued on to tag the inner first waypoint at 0.4Km. However I was now low and needed to get back up so headed back towards Woodrat where I tanked slowly back up before heading back out.

As I got high I saw a glider take a collapse above Woodrat and enter a tight downward spiral. Ok, throw I said to myself..more turns…throw dude…more turns THROW for Fxxx sake…tighter faster turns...FXXXing THROW. By this time I was screaming at the top of my voice. I saw him pound into the hill side which was very steep. I was stunned! For this comp we banned all PTT miles and my radio was in my pocket that I could not get to easily as I was getting well worked in the valley. I heard a calm voice report that a pilot had gone down and then the emergency folks set into action. They didn't move off to the emergency frequency for some time so while you were flying you heard everything that was going on, It was unnerving. By this time I was still on course thinking that enough people would be able to help that were already on the ground and there was little I could do. I flew on and tagged Rabies and Rabies Peak and headed back to Woodrat to tank up.

However, I couldn’t get the vision out of my head of what had happened and decided to spiral down to the LZ. I landed and was an emotional wreck. I bundled up my wing and went and packed it up quietly and had a little quiet time on my own.

Jeff Smith was already on the LZ and landed for similar reasons. We met one of the ground rescue staff who asked if we could go up and help out. For sure!. We also found out at this time the pilot seemed to be ok, was talking and in not too bad shape. I was completely amazed and immediately felt relieved. We headed up to the top of the mountain where there were around 20 helpers. Jeff being a fireman immediately started helping out with the Applegate fire rescue team putting ropes and pulleys in place. Soon we were hauling the rope and bringing up the pilot. Many hands made fast work and soon we had him at the top of the hill. We carried him down to the car park where a waiting helicopter whisked him away to hospital. I was talking to him on the way to the copter and he was in good spirits and even making jokes! I wish him a fast and safe recovery.

Some of the frustrating things that happened occurred to Gilead and CJ. They made goal, Cj for the 2nd time this week and 2nd in 8 years!. However, their joy was short lived as they were within the start cylinder when they tagged it. Ouch! That must have hurt for sure hearing that news. However, once again the Seattle crew all did well making goal in fast times. Kudos to Ralph also for making goal at his first competition and he did it in a fast time too on his 1-2 sprint.

Hopefully today there will not be any incidents and we can all get back to having flying day.