Thursday, June 11, 2009

Spanish Nationals Day 6

Today was an early start with only 5 hrs sleep I was up and off to get my harness repaired. Alberto drove me into the closest big town that has paragliding shop and the lady there managed to sew and new zip into my harness. Thanks to Fran for supplying me with the new zipper. After fixing the harness we raced up the hill to sit around for awhile before the decided on the west launch. we set up and soon they had a 86km triangle set with light winds it seemed like the perfect course. No wind on the lake and you can see the reflection. I was one of the first off the hill again and climber out to 2300m. Thinking that today was going to be much better than yesterday I decided to try my luck again and crossed the lake to try for another starton higher ground. Gliders on Launch. Well It was exactly the same I spent the next 30 mins low just staying in the air and eventually did the last start at 1450m only 450m agl.I flew only 400 m on course before having to stop and climb a little so that I did not land. I had a couple of slow thermals then I spotted the guys that had started at launch 1000m higher than me. They were out in front and high I diverted to them and came in low under the 2nd gagle.I climbed to 2200 m and saw guys coming from high still behind me and over taking me. At this point I felt high as I had not been this high since my first thermal 1 hr earlier. I decided to stay in a light climb at 2200m 18kms from Tp1 and eventually it kicked to 7-800fpm and I climbed to 2,600m.I was trying to contact Blay to see where they were as I could see a stream of gliders high in front of me. I had no answer from him and as I approached the turnpoint I saw Ako low below me. This gave me hope that I was not doing as bad as I thought so I decided to stay high and complete the course this way. I was pushing hard on the 2nd leg and overtook most of the pilots. I rounded the last turnpoint below Blay and Pedro and one other Rigid. They were on final and I still needed to climb to make goal. I went on final and made it easy and to my suprise when I landed Blay told me he did the start before me. That means that I had the fastest time by around 7-8 mins. I think will be just enough to put me infront of Blay for the day. My track log around the course. Most of the pilots made goal and there were lots of smiling faces around the field. Tomorrow is looking even better with higher thermals and light winds. Lets hope for maybe a 130kms triangle. Here is today's video.