Strong winds and rain cancelled saturday and threaten to shut today down as well. Some high cirrus are covering the area but cummies are shredding off a few of the peaks as well. The wind is strong but mostly west...not the dreaded north. Every pilot I have talked to tells me how horrendous this valley can be in a strong north wind. The valley runs East to West.
The task is 90k first going East to the airstrip towards the top of the valley. We aren't going all the way to the end to try an aviod an area where the north wind can spill in. From there the task heads west down the valley to a turnpoint on the opposite ridge. A turnpoint has been selected that lies on a west facing piece of the ridge. This allows for good ridge soaring if you get to the turnpoint low. The third point is the back to the same place as the first, and then finally a goal near the campgound (center of the valley).
I goofed around a bunch after launch. Just hunting around to see the nature of the cores. Most of my experiments were wrong though so it was good I was doing them before the start. The run to the first turnpoint was relatively easy. We had a tailwind and the turnpoint radii were 1k instead of 400m. We stayed on the ridge only ducking out into the valley to grab the turnpoint, then back to the ridge. Lift was strong but not as strong as during the first task. Less turbulent as well (but still with a nice pucker factor). There was a nice sized group to fly with mixed between flexies and rigids. We all headed back near launch to get high again before heading down the valley. I climbed a little slow here so headed out lower then the rest. I decinded to make up for it by taking a more direct line across the valley. Here is where we hit the mondo head wind. I think I was registering up to 35kph on this leg. I had a tough time deciding what angle to cross this at waiting for the bottom to drop out at any minute. Most of us arrived on the opposite ridge relatively low but as long as I am average or higher I'm not too worried. These guys know this place and it is obvious the finger is going to be very ridge soarable. The air in the bowl was boyant with short lived strong bubbles of lift. We all got a little higher then ridge height before diving over the back. The pilots ahead of me stayed on the south ridge and Nichelle crosssed straight back to the north ridge and launch. I hugged the south for a bit then headed across as well. Overally the south ridge didn't have many clouds ahead and just looked like a bad idea.
Back at launch the valley wind had kicked in hard and the lift sucked. It was drifting 90 cross and hard to exploit. Nick was struggling below me but Richie and some other guys had hooked it quick above me. I tried to get under them but that was a mistake in the pulsing stuff close to the terrain. I got left behind and opted to go around the corner to get something better in the lee. Nick tried to follow me in a light one but the ladder had been pulled up (just like me under ritchie). In the lee valley I found light climbs and crept a little deeper to get high enough for the crossing. To the East was a fork between the 2 valleys that I thought should work well but I didn't want to cross there low and get stuck in the stronger valley flow below. I watched other pilots sink out there when the rest of us got to launch so I decided to be conservative. While I scratched some pilots had clustered up on that ridge but didn't seem to really be climbing. The moment I was high enough to get there comfortably I noticed a few of them climbing better. I headed right over and joined the party. More sun was coming out and this puppy was turning on. The last 1500 or 2000 feet the lift was really strong again.
The last turnpoint was the same as the first so mostly dophin flying down the ridge. I circled in a few strong ones and wasted some time hunting through a couple that didn't pan out. The leaders had dusted my new group back when I struggled at launch and this posse was still clearly made up of aggressive pilots. I found a couple things here and there and headed to the turnpoint higher. After the TP a few guys headed right back to the ridge but I took a more direct line. The lift had been so good I felt catching one a few fingers down was a faster route. It worked out well and I was able to take a conservative (fast) line down the ridge and finally across the valley to goal. I didn't know exactly where the goal point was and I wanted to be carefull since it was 1,800m up the side of the ridge.
Most of my mistakes were small with the exception of getting stuck at launch. That squeaked me into 5th for the day.
Kev
Int. Delta SM 2005 Flex Total Results
International Results
T1 Task 1 124.7 km
T2 Task 2 90.4 km
Place Name Nr Sponsor Constructor Class T1 T2 Total
1 HÄRRI, Martin 21 Moyes - Litespeed S 1 1000 1000 2000
2 MEIER, Richard 187 Moyes - Litespeed 5S 1 940 984 1924
3 MAYER, Walter 193 Icaro 2000 - Laminar Zero7 1 929 810 1739
4 DOBLER, Roman 1 Airborne - C4 1 781 920 1701
5 WÖHRLE, Roland 185 Moyes - Litespeed 4S 1 866 763 1629
6 NICHELE, Roberto 190 Williswing - Talon 144 1 859 753 1612
7 MATHURIN, Didier 11 Moyes - Litespeed 1 638 953 1591
8 GAFFNER, Françis 5 Aeros - Combat 2 1 786 804 1590
9 CARTER, Kevin 194 Williswing - T2 1 731 816 1547
10 CIMINI, Andrea 8 Icaro 2000 - Laminar Zero7 1 746 798 1544
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