Wow, I thought Task 1 was a long one, but Task 2 sent us 100 kilometers south of launch! Or it did for the lucky sods who got that far. Yeah, I wasn't one of them. :(
 |
| On launch and waiting for the window to open |
I had a good start, though. Conditions for the day were clear and strong, with a north wind perfect to help everyone push south. The start gate was huge, a 15 km circle. Right after launching it was clear I had to keep moving to position myself across the valley for the start. I almost made it, only a couple hundred meters below the lead gaggle as they took off. Just getting there was a feat...I left a lot of wings behind and below me, as crossing the valley was proving difficult for many.
5 minutes later I tagged the first and last turn point before goal. That sounds pretty good, but my GPS then said I had 84 km left to fly! Yikes. Lift was good, there were wings around me...yet 10 km later I found myself on the ground. My wing isn't as fast as the comp pilots (it's safer, but that's a tradeoff for speed), and their glide got them to lift, and mine didn't. Retrospect gives me lots of better choices to stay in the air but then again it always does!
The cows barely cared that I landed in their pasture. It was hot I got back to Roldanillo via a lift from a nice family and two buses. I seemed to be in good company at headquarters...many people were already there, so perhaps I hadn't fared too badly?
 |
| Jim and I waiting for the bus up to launch. |
 |
| The task briefing |
 |
| Jim's cool colors for his new Ozone Delta 2 |
No comments:
Post a Comment