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Hangola January 1 - 4, 2005

Flight Reports

Crawled into bed late last night -- well, early AM -- after the parties. However, I cannot sleep late after a lifetime of rising on a rigid schedule, so I crawled out of bed early, too. I guzzled coffee and managed to survive a ride on my horse in spite of the fact that I cruelly tried to ride him by some obviously dangerous cows. After a morning that was not nearly as sedate as I had planned, I met Paul at Quest.

Somehow my harness lines got tangled into a spiderweb and it took awhile to straighten them out. I launched when the sun decided to disappear behind a layer of clouds. I knew I was screwed on tow when we got absolutely no lift. Funny, I thought it was Lisa towing me but it was Joe from Manquin, who has turned into a really great tug pilot. He brought me to 3,000 but my flight was an uneventful cruise to the LZ.

We left early (today was not going to be soarable, period) and I snoozed on the couch. Paul left to buy ice and smashed the truck. Oh well. He's OK, anyhow.

Day before yesterday it was pretty windy when we flew -- not dangerous for someone experienced, but definitely a factor to consider -- and a new pilot who had just soloed (he started flying up in our neighborhood) ended up in the trees. He tried to "go exploring" and ended up WAY downwind of the airport. We learned of his misfortune when we saw him on the evening news -- stranded in a tree for over 2 hours, apparently. He was fine but the Target had to go to glider heaven. Kinda an expensive flying vacation.

It was not a brilliant move on his part, but chatting to him later made me realize that I have forgotten how much there is to know, and how cautious we need to be with new pilots. He just had no clue about the danger of what he was doing, and when he couldn't get back to the airport, he just kept flying towards it, thinking, uh oh.....

Anyhow, without implying the slightest criticism of anyone here, I want to say how grateful I am to my instructors at Highland. Chad and Sunny and Adam did their utmost to insure that my flying experiences were positive ones. Speaking of Highland crew, Jim Rooney goes from strength to strength, helping everywhere with his professional attitude and vast knowledge.

Paul says everyone is going to sick of our posts about flying here. I can shut up until we accomplish something BIG. Maybe... We miss you all.

Lauren

PS: Try to do something for the Tsunami victims if you can

Good day at Jonestown today.

As often happens the conditions, tho good when we got there, subsided as we finished setting up. After packing and harnessing up the conditions became too light. Abit of patience paid off however as I carried my wing down to wait in place, ready to launch into a good cycle. About 5 min. of waiting was enough to launch into what turned out to be the cycle that persisted.

TR and I got about an hour w/ 1200+ gains in REALLY smyoooooth air. Heard Shawn on the 2-m ,but could not get thru to him. Where wuz yas?

Fun flying, a beeyooteefull sunset, good landings and cold beer. 2005 is starting out purty danged good!

Wondered where youse wuz. Must have been a strange day. Much like about 6 weeks ago when it wuz soarable everywhere except where Shawn and I wuz, except we wuz where it wuz this time. Lizzyville.

It was STFI but blown out till about 1330 when Doug lead the ( very short ) parade off. From then on it started turning slowly more North but we were all on the ground by 1530 with full bellies. Thermals ranged from big fat 5 minute mellow fellows that felt like wave to punchy 500 fpm bullets.

By dusk the sunset we watched was setting inside the Carsonville Hotel, the latest and greatest Lizville watering hole. Gains to 1800' Doug, Shawn, and Me were the lonely rangers. WHERE THE HELL WAS EVERYONE ELSE. OY VEY. You all missed the best day all year.

Bacil was right! History repeated itself and the Pulpit was soarable again on New Years Day.

It was windy early, but by 3:30pm it calmed down enough for me to take a tandem flight with Joy Smith (Gary's wife). We launched from the old ramp, boated around in some smooth air for about 45 minutes, and made a wheel landing in the upper part of the LZ (no corn stubble) in time to pack up and head back to launch for the sunset.

Other New Years Day flyers included Gary, Bacil, and Wesely. True to form, Bacil flew early in the strong stuff and then came back up for more. All enjoyed the evening glassoff and got high. Many thanks to Dave Tymms and Cragin Shelton for their help with launches and retrieves.

Sadly, the winds never abated enough to allow Dave Tymms or James Coblenz to fly PG.

Dave is heading back to Australia next week and he will be very much missed, but forever remembered as the first to launch a paraglider from the Pulpit.

'Spark

As Sparky has stated, history did repeat itself at the Pulpit today. Arrived 9:30A to find Sparky and Dave Tymms shooting the breeze. It was already cranking at 9:30A. 15 to 25 MPH on the ramp. On the drive up there was barely a stitch of surface wind anywhere. Set up listening to the cranking conditions. Noticed the clouds aloft had some speed to them as well. Gary Smith and his wife Joy, as well as Wesley Comerer, showed in the next hour. Around 10:30A conditions abated enough to allow me to launch. Got quickly to 500' over out in front of the ridge and noticed a good 25 to 30 MPH headwind. Decided to head over to the main LZ since parking in the air is not all that much fun. Burbled around in light lift for 15 minutes over the main LZ before running out of air. Back at launch it was still strong. Halfway set up, waiting for the predicted throttleback. At 2PM conditions backed off greatly. Sure enough, as soon as I got back on the ramp at 2:45PM, conditions picked up, but not as strong as before. Launched into sweet, smooth air, and a headwind of maybe 15 MPH. Delightful. Boated around Rt. 16 in light lift, getting to 1400' over, waiting to see Sparky's tandem launch with Joy. Saw their launch and their subsequent soaring. Wesley launched and got up easily. Headed towards The Corner again. Made it to within a few miles of the silo, but decided to turn around when the ridge lift got weak. Back at the microwave tower the headwind picked up to around 20 MPH. Sparky and Joy had already landed. Flew out and landed around 4:15PM. Gary landed next after a nice flight where he flew with Sparky and Joy. Wesley was last to land, and his mom, dad, and grandmother were treated to his standup landing not far from where they were standing. Big thanks to Cragin and Dave Tymms for sticking around and helping pilots launch.

Bacil

A beautiful day at Blue Sky for New Year's Day. Carlos, Randy W, Nick Tex, and I were the fliers aside from Jim Kerrigan and Steve Wendt. Steve and Jim got the first flights of the day early with their Doodle Bug and Tryke. I took several truck tows and a couple aero tows using a shoulder bridle for the first time. Not much in the way of lift. Managed a few extendos and enjoyed the spring like weather and the campfire with Tex, Nick, and Sandy in the evening.

By the way, Blue Sky now has wireless internet available so you can bring your computer and log on.

Joe

I'll be brief (since I lied and am reporting). Winds E @ 10 plus mph, lots of pilots because of great looking sky and blipmap. Ron (rigid comp pilot) downloaded waypoints onto my new GPS 76C, and pulled up a page on it that shows both my current glide and the glide I need to get where I want to go. Way cool.

He punched in Quest as my "go to" and instructed me to launch and figure out what my glider would do. He is showing me how to put the comp start circles into my GPS, too. By next spring I should understand how to work this thing.

Not as great as it looked; none of could stay up for long. I managed half an hour; Paul beat me and managed 38 minutes. I only flew once but most flew multiple times due to rowdy tows that should have meant SOMETHING and the lying sky.

Rented some hangar space for $25 a month per glider so now I will not have to break down Griffin (or set her up again) except when I go XC. Sweet. The hangar is owned by Neil and Buddy. Turns out Neil built most of the Phantoms Ultralights (the one we own). He had many useful tips, explained how to fold her wings back. Small world.

Lauren

Basking in the sun.

Ya'll might be happy to hear that the soaring sounded better up where you're at though. It was plenty flyable, but the lift was weak. Flew a tandem that day and eeked out some slow climbs, but not enough to overcome the drift. December was kinda sucky. January is already looking way better. If the wind would just tick around to the South, then I think we'll be 5k@500+fpm.

I've heard that it's unusually mild up there these days?

Happy New Year :)
Jim

Lauren and I were lured out to Quest again today by the warm, sunny weather and hopefully good soaring potential. We've had great prospects the last few days but the outcome has been pretty marginal. Some of the locals say it's because the prevailing winds have been from the NE and the wind flowing across large lakes in that direction are shutting it down and that the best direction for Quest is SE. Could be correct. I heard reports that Wallaby was working great yesterday while we had a very mediocre day. Think I had the Quest FOD with 38 minutes.

Anyway, we decided to wait for a couple other experienced pilots to be wind dummies and when they bombed out, we decided to call it a day. There was a pilot there with a brand new ATOS VX. If you haven't seen one of these sky rockets, take my word for it. WOW!!!! So I introduced myself and found out it was Jim Lamb. He's a comp pilot and ATOS dealer from Iowa and I had conversed with him on line a while back. After a bit of schmoozing, he offered me a flight on this thing that looks vaguely like Space Ship One. I was a bit nervous, having never flown a rigid wing and concerned about breaking a $15,000 glider, but how could I refuse?

So after suiting up and getting some ground school I hooked on and Lisa towed me up. VERY different. The control frame is carbon fiber and felt really flimsy because it's not a stuctural part of the glider. I'm certain it's strong but felt like jello in my hands. Speed was incredible and happened with the flap controls rather than bar pressure. Towed up with about 15 to 20 degrees but when I went to zero flaps after tow release, the nose dropped and speed zoomed quickly to over 50. Scared me half to death so I put some flaps back on, slowed down and gingerly tried some turns. With 46 feet of span, roll was slow but positive. Would have loved to try some thermals but it was getting late and what little lift had been there earlier was gone. Boated around for a while with my vario showing about 150 or less down. Even in a fairly steep turn at 30 mph I never saw more than 200 down. At 300 feet, I went on final and landed with no problems. Was told not to try for a hard flare but to slow it down and run it out. Worked brilliantly and I stopped with the 100 pounds on my shoulders after just a few steps.

Did I like it? Well, performance is pretty unbelievable and that could be fun but I'm not certain I liked the detached feeling I got. I suppose after a couple of flights I'd get used to it and I sure did like it's docile landing characteristics. Jim is here for a week and I may be able to mooch a ride in more soarable conditions. If I do, I'll let you know how that goes. Oh, one thing more, I'd never be able to justify $16K but Ron Gleason is selling his ATOS C and that might be within my reach if I decided to get crazy. It could be had for just a bit more than a new topless.

See ya

Paul

We've been too sore from flying to type anything 'til now! ;-)

I stopped by the Pulpit and bailed pretty quickly to HRock after seeing gusts over 30. Forecast was for it to back off... but I wasn't in a patient mood, and I really needed some airtime. I'm glad conditions improved for those who stuck it out.

It was totally soarable when I arrived at the Rock (maybe 1:30ish?). Matthew and Karen were already setting up. We were joined by Danny, Dave P, Brian V-H, Ellis, Marc F, and Eddie Miller. Perhaps a few others arrived after I was in the air.

**HUGE** mob of bikers, more than I've ever seen up there. The noise, exhaust, and crowd were a bit distracting, but I have to say they lent an air of excitement to the proceedings. ;-)

I jumped off first into a mild left cross. Although launch was fine (the crew had no complaints), I think I rushed it a bit, could have been a bit better balanced.... Crowd may have been a factor? That's a good (re)learned lesson for the day : focus, focus, focus, regardless of what's going on around you.

Anyway, the flight was fantastic : I topped out around 900' over. Matthew and Dave beat that by probably a couple hundred feet. Brain-dead soarable to about 300' or 400' over ALL DAY LONG! I had close to three hours. Many strafing passes over launch: from out front, the sides, and behind. Many dives and wangs for the crowd, porpoising, hands-free, hovering right above the rock.... It was schweet!

One notable thing: You could hop the gully (past the rock pile) and cruise along the ridge to the south for a ways, then turn around and hop back, and lose maybe 150' of altitude. So I did that with Eddie a few times. Probably should have just kept meandering along... but I was in more of a fun-mood than an XC-mood, and of course my truck was up at the top (sunset/gate-closure concerns).

Was great to see Karen soaring in her new glider (not to mention her first mtn launch in about 6 months). Welcome back Karen!!!

Seven of us planned to hit Macaroni Grill or TGI Friday, south of Frederick, on the way home. But the wait times were an hour or more, so I suggested Brewer's Alley in Frederick. Major raves for the salmon and the seafood gumbo, and the oatmeal stout and IPA were both most excellent! What a way to start 2005!

--mark

Years ago I went through a couple of cheap hand-me-down double surface gliders, but didn't like them so went back to pure falcon flying. I figgured it may have been because they were CHMDDS gliders they had characteristics that newer ones didn't suffer from. So when Ellis decided it was time to get back into hang gliding and offered to trade her ultrasport for my falcon for a few months, I jumped at the chance. I haven't gotten much flying done myself for the last few months, so this may not have been the most opportune time, but I flew an ultrasport at Ridgely before with no problems, and have heard mainly good things.

Took it out to the old boonesboro training hill which, alas, is soon to close. Stakes all over the place, and wind blowing about 15 mph. Almost decided I should wait, but then thought a high wind makes for easy landings, so hoofed it up (why should an extra 20 lbs make so much difference?).

Everyone, including Linda Baskerville, was doing at least short soaring flights, but my original plan was to fly straight out the first time. As soon as I launched it looked like I would overfly my landing target (it drops off suddenly), so turned to burn off altitude. If my brain had been engaged I would have realized that of course I was soaring when I launched and my glide angle would return to normal after leaving the narrow lift band and I could land just fine straight ahead. Anyway, I flew along the ridge quite nicely, but when I turned back my inside wing dropped and things went haywire. I see-sawed all the way out, managing to straighten it out in time to slide in for a landing.

Danny thought I hit a pocket of turbulence on the turn (they were out there), and Ellis told me later she slipped her first turn on the glider too. Not sure which one it was. Eddy Miller thought I was flying to fast on the way out and so was doing some induced oscillations, which would match my falcon instinct to pull in when I get scared.

I was pissed, and if it was my ultrasport I would have run back up the hill to try again, but since it wasn't, I packed it up for the day. I needed more altitude to experiment with.

Next day I opted for High Rock, since the launch should have been a non-issue, and the LZ is big and familar. I remembered having terrible ramp suck issues with the K-2 and Formula, but had never heard any ultrasport pilots complain about it. More efficient wings equal more ramp suck, but with a wire crew it shouldn't be a problem. I had forgotten about those slack US wires. Perfect conditions, and in a falcon I would have launched in 30 seconds, but I couldn't get the dang US to balance with the wings flopping in the breeze. Thanks to a very patient wire crew I finally stumbled into a lucky few seconds of balance and was off.

It felt fine in the air and had no slipping sensations in the turns, but I think between the long launch session and being a bit deyhydrated I felt too tired to stay up for long. Came in, overflew the spot and ended up in the wack dip. Danny pointed out that I continued to slow down as I overflew the hump, and should have kept my speed up. That thing is less than forgiving in its flare window.

But since all you double surface people seem happy, I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it, and I'll hold onto it for a couple more flights before trading back. In my falcon Ellis is landing like a ballerina, drat her.

With a little more practice I may stop thinking most of you folks are crazy, even if you do see more scenery in them double surface jittery ramp suck demon thingies.

Brian Vant-Hull

I was destined to spend the day in Orlando (Dr appointment) but Paul decided to fly Quest again. The rigid pilots (Ron and Jim) flew to Wallaby and back, no kidding, but Paul only nabbed two 20 minute flights on the Litespeed. The performance of those Rigids is awesome, but I like my Sport 2 too much to consider a change for now. I drove out to Quest for the evening adventures.

The fun part was when Megan, who learned from Steve Wendt at Blue Sky, Manquin Flight Park, tried my Eagle. She has truck towed a fair amount, and soloed aerotowing on a bigger Target this week. She is challenged only by the fact the she is so slender -- I look like Oprah compared to her. It is hard to find a glider small enough for me; for her it is near impossible. Plus, it is not financially viable for most of the instructors to keep tiny gliders around for the few tiny pilots who may need them to fly.

Anyhow I lent her my 145 Eagle, Ginny. Megan felt nervous, of course, but then she had a GREAT time and Ginny was much easier for her to fly than the other gliders she has been flying. She made perfect, long approach and flared at the exact right moment and landed perfectly. And then she did it again, after Lisa pulled her into the sunset.

I got kind of sappy when I saw Megan, small and wide eyed, in beautiful old Ginny, who took me to Dover on my last flight with her. Big old truck wheels hanging off Ginny's basetube, like I flew with for a year or two, Megan all jittery like I was. I know Ginny is an inanimate object but I felt like she was teaching another pilot now, and it made me happy/sad that my time with her is done and that she still has a job.

Tomorrow is my turn to fly again. Happy flying and living,
Lauren

I just finished up my first comp of my Oz season winding up to the worlds. Thought my peeps back in region 9 would like to hear about it. Maybe some insight into strategies for speed or XC distances.

This past week was the Australian Nationals based out of the town of Deneliquin. The region and flying reminds me a lot of Texas (basically Florida on steroids). All flat, very dry, very desolate. Wide open spaces with only sheep, kangaroos, and a few emus to dot the paddocks below.

This year has been wetter and cooler then usual which is fine by me. First day was post frontal with beautiful skies but wind velocities that had us a bit unsure. We waited all day out in the dust before calling off the day. I have a cool picture of the cloudspeckled sky if anyone is interested.

First task we flew was sort of downwind dog leg. Conditions were consistent and tons of pilots made goal. I was doing some flight testing with a new prototype vario/gps that looks wicked cool but apparently doesn't get the best GPS reception. Most times I could get the direction arrow but could only get distance about 30% of the time. With 2 backup GPS's presumably logging my exact course I wasn't too worried. On a long final another pilot slipped in under me a few k's out. Great for me because it meant I had someone to race, and I also had confirmation of exact courseline. I raced into goal directly over Attilla Bertok, using him as my compass. It was a cool view watching his sail change wrinkle and flutter patterns as we wound up the speed. I don't know many gliders that don't flutter at 70. It was cool watching that upclose with the sage ripping past in the background. My backups gave me bad love on that flight and it took a week of convincing to get proper credit for my goal finish.

Second task was my best of comp. Not because I flew anything special. It just worked out that opportunity presented itself and I was able to capitalize on it. The task started slow for me. I towed about the same time as Curt and Dustin (too phenomenal teammates). We were together in the air but I just couldn't seem to dial into the broken thermals. There was some high pressure and inversions messing things up and I just didn't have a good feel for how to get the most out of it. I ended up chasing around bad lift and couldn't seem to get high in the stack. Most of the field left for the first start gate while I was only about halfway up the thermal ladder. I wanted to go but hung back to top out and just hit the next start opportunity 15 minutes later. Going out on course from that point was relatively uneventful. I had some pilots to fly with but nobody who stood out as someone to team up with. The further on course we got the stronger the lift grew. I was happy about that obviously for speed, and also I felt more dialed into what was going on. Flying my own flight rather then chasing I was able to time my presence in the strongest phases of the thermals. Climbs got higher and I only hung out if the lift was over 600. If it petered into broken 4's, I was gone. 3 or 4 800+ bangers in a row and I caught the leaders. It was obvious that conditions had softened so I had no problem with throttling back. Grouped up with the top guys there isn't the anxiety to push ahead unnecessarily. Working with about 10 really good guys we covered the last 2 legs of the course. I was lucky to find the core first a couple of times and get on top of the group. Before the last turnpoint my 5030 (with new firmware) was telling me I was close to making final "around the corner." A couple of high pilots we caught went on final glide and I jumped in about 4th or 5th. Gliding almost 20 miles to a goal is cool enough, doing it while racing in 3D with a handful of your best mates is even cooler! I was getting a great glide compared to some guys below me so I cruised into goal a bit high to watch the show. A nice thermal over the field and I was able to climb back out from just a few hundred feet. Thermals over landing fields make me nervous so I take the free ride up. When I landed about a half hour later Davis (like a fool) followed my approach but was a bit longer. He seemed to forget that me and fences have some love/hate tractor beam thing going. I landed short of one and he ended up having to bunny hop one right before flaring. With my late start I had the second fastest time on the day. So close to winning a day but not quite.

Third task we flew zig zag to the Toqumal sailplane field. I shifted between groups and didn't fly very well that day. I made goal but not with the fastest guys. Again I got to race some guys into goal which is one of my favorite things. Picking the right speed to gain on a person but not too much altitude... its tricky and great gear is a HUGE advantage. I have noticed that with my cleaner harness and instrument setup I seem to realize big gains in fast glide. At 45 to 50 I still glide great and above 70 it is still respectable. My biggest issue is the higher speeds are taking up too much bar travel now. Up to about 55 the bar doesn't get much past the sternum but to get over 70 I have really stuff it and then the body looses its clean angle. Last year I trimmed my glider to the slowest hole to maximize climb. But after this glide I moved it back to the middle.

Fourth task the weather looked very unpredictable. Forecasts were for a strong inversion and low climbs, increasing winds, and weird cloud cover. When I got in the air there were only a few gliders in sight anywhere. I saw some guys downwind so I just went for it. Loose scrappy lift, slow climbs, and phenomenal downwind drift rates. The sky was mostly overcast with the high clouds that had moved in. A couple other guys joined me and we struggled between 1700 and 2500 feet while hurtling from the field at 25 mph. No good roads to speak of below, just open terrain and a fight for survival. That junk petered out and my 3 buddies bolted cross wind from under 2k. That direction was towards a road so I conceded that going with them cross wind and decking it wouldn't be that bad. I really wanted to make goal but couldn't spot any pilots in the air. It didn't look good and at least I would land with a group and score a ride. The first pilot in that group flew head on into a boomer at 500 fpm! KABOOM, the situation went from hopless to game on in about 2 point 2 seconds. About that time a handful of gliders appeared from downwind to join us and get a different start time. I immediately recognized several top pilots in that group. We charged hard for about 4 thermals together but I was slipping to the bottom of the group. Flying other people's lines and not climbing well enough I was having trouble keeping up. Luckily our fast pace put us ahead of the cloud line and into the blue. Climbs got higher and higher but I lost this lead group. Luck handed me a freebee in the form of a dust devil and the only well developing Cummi for miles. The climb got me close to cloud base. I could see the group low in the distance struggling to find a good thermal. I mistakenly hung back in my lift to try and top it out higher even though the climb rates had slowed down to 2-300. I figured I could get high and glide in over the big group. Bad call. By the time I glided after them they had found the strong core and were climbing very fast. It takes a long time to cover the big glides between climbs and by the time I got there they were several thousand feet over my head. In retrospect I should have left as soon as my climb slowed down knowing that the would find a good core eventually and waiting to see it visually made me too late. That point marked a transition through another phase of the frontal boundary and no thermals. I crossed into 80% overcast skies and found a fat, light convergence thermal. With the 25 mph tail it was time to take the slow climb and use the drift to get me closer to goal. The sky ahead looked hopeless and I was alone at this point. At one point I spend almost 30 minutes in a thermal that only gained me about 1,000 feet. It didn't matter though because it got me 10 miles closer to goal! It fell apart at about 3.5 grand and my final glide was telling me I could make goal by 200 feet. Oh well, just over 3k and 20 miles to go! Go for it! That was one flat glide! Any thing other then sink and I flew slow to milk it. Steadily the arrival altitude on my 5030 crept slowly higher. Good news there. Bad news was the small tree covered ridge line blocking my path to goal. It couldn't have been more then 3 or 400 feet high but at 7 miles from goal it was in my way! Oh yea, wind hitting a slope makes lift. I don't do that much and it took me a minute to realize that with the ripping tail I would easily glide over the hill. As I got within 5 miles of the field I could make out the gliders in the distance, and I could also CLEARLY make out the details of the terrain below. It seems that the organizers gave us the wrong altitude for goal and that 300 foot error was causing me great stress. How low could I glide before pulling a U turn into the wind? Luckily the goal field was very long, and very dark red. The GPS coordinate was at the far end of the field against a line of trees. I cruised over the fence with maybe 1 or 2 hundred feet but all that hot baking clay quickly tripled that altitude. Now a proper finish to the coordinate and safe approach was no prob. I turned into the wind, parked, and elevator ride down. Breaking down in the increasing wind was a bitch.

Fifth task was a good one for me. I got with a good group at the start and figured out the flavor of the thermals real fast. They were fat and strong with short lived embedded cores. Every time I found a hot core I slowed her down up on a tip for a couple of 360's before flattening back into the big circles. A couple of those each thermal put me on top every time. Midway through the course we met up with Oleg and that trick was even working to stay even or above him! That was definitely the high point of my week. Even staying close to that Thermal Wizard is near impossible. To stay with him or above I have never dreamed of. With just 20 miles to go I goofed up and ended up alone over a forest. Scratch city, instant survival mode with few options for good lift. I had to just fight to stay in the air. The wind blew me off course to the point that goal was no longer getting closer, but further away. I was stuck between 1 and 2k forever. I finally got my ticket 10 miles cross wind of goal to 3.3k. After that one I darted straight upwind in the lift line. Using the scraps to keep my sink rate minimal while eating up ground I had lost drifting. When the line fizzled I darted straight cross again. One more of those later and I was plowing straight up wind towards goal just a few miles out. The end of the day frustration and hunger drove me through good lift I should have stopped and turned in. Instead I continued on at Mach 1.2 hoping for a bigger gift of thermal luck. I decked it in a strong head wind 1.5 miles downwind from goal. I couldn't help but think what a tool I was for having to struggle upwind on a downwind task day. Haha. It just shows that you have to stay in the air at all costs. Even if it gets you far off course sometimes. I was very happy to get that close on another 100+ mile day.

Day 6 was total overcast. We fought in 10fpm up with big gaggles. The whole group was flat turning it any chance they could get. Lucky for me there were some short lived cores hiding out there just out of sight. Not content with the flat stuff I searched for the hot shots to crank up in. Every couple minutes I could find one to jump up higher in the group with. Soon I got to sit on top with Oleg and a few of the top French pilots. We all led the group for a couple of thermals as we drifted to the first turnpoint. From there it was hopeless. The wind had clocked around and increased in velocity. The scrappy light lift was useless for making headway and the best any of us did was glide a few K's into that wind. Gliders were scattered up and down the road from the start to the first turnpoint.

I learned a lot this competition and hope to share that knowledge with anyone curious. Flying in groups is the best way to learn what is possible, and what you are capable of. With so many other pilots you learn to understand how the atmosphere breathes, how it undulates and pulses. How to recognize where you are in the big picture and make the most of it.

We flew 6 tasks and except for the last one, averaged about 100 miles a task, and about 3 hour course times. The air was great except for the few times it got a bit churned. Hopefully I will continue to dial in and race well at the World Championships that begin this week in Hay.

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This page last updated January 4, 2005