Rat Race Paragliding Competition: Practice Day

So I'm out in Oregon for my first paragliding competition.    It's the Rat Race, the largest competition in the USA, near Woodrat Mountain, Oregon.   Last Saturday, we had a practice day, which was fun flying with a task to get us acquainted with the area.   Since I had never flown here before, and I was using a borrowed GPS, my learning curve was quite steep.   However, since there were about 100 other wings in the area, it made it easy to follow the lift by watching who was sinking and who was rising.

Our practice task was just a triangle around the main valley above Ruch, with a landing at the winery.  My borrowed electronics and their capabilities meant that I could actually see the wind speed while flying, plus tell when I was getting near my turn points and my final landing zone.   I know this sounds like greek to most of you...I will attempt to explain more about paragliding competitions soon.  Just as soon as I learn what they are all about myself!

Since then, we've had 4 days of really bad weather, no flying, and Rob and I took off to the redwoods and the coast for a couple of days.   Bummer, but now we have 3 days of competition left, and what looks like really cracking weather for it.   Stay tuned for some race blogs after the flight today.

While I am flying, I am carrying my SPOT tracking, so you can see how I am doing.    To find my SPOT map, go to RAT RACE SPRINT, click on the word SPOT next to my name, and it should pull up a map of where I've flown that day.

Once we have a real task (hopefully today) check for the results on the website.   They should be here:  http://www.flyxc.org/2013RatSprint.html