Task 6

Today was about the toughest day for me mentally since
I did my first comp. Strong winds and a 150 k
"downwind" task. We did the usual ratchet up wind
game over the tow field. LIft was ratty and I was
staying high on the group. Unfortunately the groups
weren't organized in a way I could pick which group I
wanted to join up with. Dustin and I putzed around a
bunch and in retrospect we wasted time not punching
upwind. OUr group crossed the start between start
gates which is a bad place to be. Around the 3rd
start gate I de3cided to go back upwind to get the
last start when a group below me left. Big mistake
because 6k in a 25 mph wind is WAY TOO MUCH! By the
time I got a new start, it was already 5 minutes late
on that gate also, and I was down to 1700 feet. I
crawled downwind getting blown a bit off courseline
for a few thermals not really getting established.
Each glide had me a bit low and I was out of phase
with the strong climbs. By about the 4th climb I was
in phase, getting good lift, and not having to glide
too low. Sadly, I was having to find it all alone.
35 feet of searching wingspan is just no where near as
efficient as a pack of 15 spread at 50-100m intervals!
Crossing the first and only turnpoint the crossing
tail became a bigger issue. The turn was about 20
degrees to the right but the wind had been pushing me
left. Now the wind was increasing and clocking around
more cross and less tail. To make efficient progress
I had to glide about 30 to 45 degrees to the right of
of goal to beat back the drift in the thermals. My
second thermal after the TP was the fat daddy of the
day. It was actually downwind of my course which is a
big no no when fighting wind like today but I couldnt'
resist what I saw. On a day with Dust devils this
field was doing something absolutely amazing! An area
about a half mile across was continously sucking up
dust off the ground! Not a spinning devil but a
constant hoover action! I just had to check it out.
I was rewarded with 1000 fpm+ to an altitude 2k above
the regular highpoints (almost 9 grand). From there I
began a new glide pattern. Every thermal I would
leave when it dropped to 300. Below 300 fpm you end
up not making good ground towards goal because the
time wasted pushes you off course. WHen I would leave
I would track straight upwind for at least a kilometer
or two. The thermal lines would block the wind and
provide a killer glide line. WHen the line got bad, I
would turn 90 back towards goal till the next thermal.
After a few of those I did pass through a few pilots
but no one to fly with. THe last few glides were
stressfull with the strong cross. My nose was pointed
abuot 60 degrees to the right of goal. This made my
final glide less stable then usual. Lovely. Finally
scraping into goal the turbulence was strong enough to
knock me wayyyy of course! It almost kept me from
making it across the line. I squeaked in with about
30 feet to spare.

Leaving late and being slow cost will cost me heaps of
points on the day. With eveyone so close that will
drop me way back, but no sweat. I learned a ton and I
am way stoked to hone my strategies more. I learned
mucho tricks flying a hard day like this alone, trying
to go fast. Different lessons then you learn
wrestling through the big gaggles.

Kev C