Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Quick post from the Rat Race


A silly little noisy video to prove I was in the air.

Sorry for the delay in getting a Blog post up for the Rat Race.  As usual there is more to do down here than fits in a day and it is a bit of a challenge to do the blog and everything else. I also got a minor bug and a corisponding sore thoat/cough. Even when I had a moment I was not feeling up to “working.”

Great weather so far for the racing. Day two and three in particular. We were skied out with opportunity to touch the clouds. Yesterday I got to 8,800ft or so and was happy with my flight. – Happy that is until I saw the results. The task was a big push out to Grant’s Pass area, about 26k, and then up I5 to the Medford valley and Jacksonville then back into the Applegate with a run towards the dam. A big flight but a good number made it. Lots of pilots made it farther than I, 57 in fact.

My cumulative score for the first 3 days of competition is 57 out of 86. This was not the results I was hoping for but the tape is the tape. Yesterday I learned that I must push harder faster. Reviewing video I spent way too much time tanking up on the way to the pass and not enough time pushing speed bar and flying fast.

The best part of the day was the start. I was at cloud base and right on the edge of the start cylinder at go time but because of 400fpm lift I hung around at 7,000 ft for 3 or 4 turns and the whole pack just left me. – Go figure.

The crew here is doing a great job dealing with the large number of pilots and I haven’t heard many complaints. But there is a saying in paragliding. “If the weather is good the pilots won’t complain.”

Today I hope to do much better but we will have to see. 


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