Thursday, September 16, 2010

Santa Cruz Flats Day 3

After the previous days I was not keen to set a long task and given the wind we decided on a 87kms downwind task. Dustin Launched early and eventually came back and landed again. Thanks to Red Bull who kindly drove out from Phoenix twice to supply us with a nice big tent no one was in a hurry to launch. Just having that shade out there let pilots relax untill the conditions were good enough to stay in the air. We all did the last start gate quite low and headed off towards the first turnpoint. I was leading the pack out as you can see from the video for thie first glide. Zippy hit a climb to my right at the end of the hills and we all climbed up to about 5000ft. Climbing out on top of the gaggle I hung back on the next few glides just trying to make sure I had lots of markers infront of me to find the next bit of lift. Just before the Turnpoint I hit a great climb and ended up on top of the gaggle except for Zippy and Nils who were infront of us after hitting a good climb after a long low glide. Gliding into the Turnpoint High We got really high 7,000ft the highest so far this comp for me and we glided off did the TP and came in above Zippy and Nils. I hit a climb with kraig and Carl and many others. I was now on top with Carl and the thermal stopped so we headed off. Larry hit a climb behind us a good one so I turned back and when I got there I missed the climbed and was left in light lift. Kriag had pushed on with zippy and hit a climb in front so I glided back off to them and I also missed the strong part of that climb. looking SW after the TP. I was now about 2000 ft lower than the gaggle I was just on top of 10 mins earlier with no chance of catching back up before goal. The guys climbed high and went on final while I was still trying to get enough alttitude to do so. Kraig managed to cross the line 9 seconds in front of Zippy with Shapiro just behind them. Carl was next in with larry just behind then I came in about 3 mins later. A total of 17 pilots made goal and there were quite a few happy faces to be there. We all returned home to celebrate Russels 50th Birthday party at the bar in the hotel. Here is Day 3 Video.