Thursday, September 06, 2007

day 4

Today was still windy but after not flying the last 2 everyone was keen to fly regardless. They set a 112kms task with 4 turnpoints with a landing out of the Esplanade due to a big parade in the city. There was supposed to be low level flying aircraft and nowhere to land so they remote goal was set at casa de lagoa. Most everyone was at the start and the field spread out making all different lines to the first turnpoint. I went more along the ridge and most tried to stay upwind a little in the valley. Just before the 1st TP I hit a strong thermal and was quite rough on the outside edge then I saw the gagle coming in below me. One the pilots from Sao paulo flying a Aeros tumbled about 5 times before totally destroying his glider. He ripped the crossbars off the leading edge and it folded up like a lawn dart. He got his metamorfosi 16 out reasonably fast and it opened a little slower than I imagined it would. I am sure time stands still in these moments so it was probably quite fast considering the situation. Chris and I relayed co-ordinates to Jamie who then gave them to the comp organiser and they went in search for him. Turns out he was fine without a scratch on him and the co-ordinates were only 300m away from where they found him. I continued on to the first TP and then chased the leaders down half way to the 2nd TP. They went a little off course and I decided to go straight line and was rewarded with a good climb arriving at the TP high and infront of the gagle. I lead out to the 3rd and soon Andre,maskara, nene among others had caught up to me at the forest. I wanted to be high at the 3rd TP as the next leg was going to be almost straight headwind in 30kph. I got the TP 1st and headed for the last TP topping up about 12kms out. I then did a final glide and picked a bad line with Andre who was following me the guys behind move off line and got a great glide overtaking us and beating us in to goal. Maskara will win the day followed by Monex and then me 30 seconds behind Maskara.Andre will be fourth and then after that I am not sure. Looks like there will be some changing going on in the scores after today. there seemed to be about 30 in goal with a few just short. for results and more info check out www.superrace2007.blogspot.com