Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Spanish Nationals Day 5

Today we arrived on launch and new we were going to fly but did not know how good it would be. They set a 92kms mostly downwind task with a but of crosswind and no turnpoints. I launched early again to avoid the crowd and just after launch my harness zipper blew apart and I was already uncomfortable. I tried to fix it and made it better but knew that my landing would be difficult in the position it was in. I decided to dive off across the lake which I guess no one ever does especially from low alttitude.When I got to the other side I realised why it is deep revines into the water and very little landing not to mention high ground. I turned and headed down wind for some landing options to avoid high ground and hit a thermal from about 300 ft and climbed out. I did the 3pm start at 1200m which was only about 300m above theg ground below me. I scratched my way along the course very low. I should have landed at least 3-4 times before getting a good strong thermal to 1700m still only about 650 m above the rising ground. I then glided off as I knew the others were about to start 30 mins later and thinking I had done so badly I was pushing hard. 5 minutes later I was standing on the ground with a broken harness and a bad landing as I could not get both feet out for the landing. I packed up and watched the guys fly over 40 mins later. I spent the next 5 hrs waiting to get home as I landed in not the easiest spot for retrieve. It is now 2am here and I have to wake up in 6 hrs to go and get a new zipper sewn into my harness so that is all for tonight. Here is todays Video..