Another light lift task day

The day didn’t start out looking great, lots of high cirrus clouds and more clouds expected to move in, but it wasn’t windy and that was good enough for us, so we went up. On the east launch a task to Baanbaa was called (60.8 km) with multiple start gates to allow people to choose when to start the task. After the hoopla over the 1st TP on the last task, I didn’t really want to be involved in a massive gaggle right over launch in light conditions (which they were, according to the wind dummies not getting very high over launch), so I opted to wait until almost all the other competitors had launched and gotten away from the hill, even though by doing so I was pretty much shooting myself in the foot as far as keeping up with the lead gaggle. But I figured safer was better, and yep it was a good decision since there were 2 mid-airs over the mountain in the gaggles that did form up. The first one I witnessed while still on launch; a Japanese pilot on a Boomerang 5 and an Omega mid-aired right over the south launch. It took a very long time for them to separate, while those of us watching were saying under our breaths “throw, throw, throw”. Eventually they separated and the Boom flew away cleanly, but the Omega was in trouble and Caroline from France ended up throwing her reserve. It opened cleanly and she controlled her main glider as she drifted very slowly behind launch onto the west side, where she landed gently part way down the west launch slope (and OK). The other mid-air I didn’t see, but it was Renata from the Czech Republic and Tracey from South Africa that mid-aired right over the east launch. They both tossed their reserves and landed at the split rock hairpin turn up to launch; Renata was OK, Tracey was taken to hospital with a back injury.

There was also a treed pilot right off the east launch, and a pilot that broke their leg landing at Godfrey’s (not a comp pilot). So there was a lot of carnage in the beginning, which made me glad not to be in the air right then.

When I did launch, I did so with Bill and then we chose the 3:30 pm start gate. The going was slow since the climbs were weak and disorganized, and nobody really wanted to land out on the plateau to the NW. We actually stayed more to the south, and finally got a good climb to 2000 m just as we hit the Boggabri Gap. But the shade was coming, and there was a storm cloud forming just to the north of the Gap, and rain was coming out of it. I could see some pilot diving underneath that cloud in an attempt to find lift, but I didn’t feel like playing that game and stayed well away from it. Unfortunately all around that cloud was a lot of general shade, and a bunch of us spent the last few minutes searching for little pieces of lift just before the Gap. It didn’t work, and about 6 of us landed in the same field at about the 28 km mark.

Turns out all of us were women; after we took off our helmets and realized this it was quite funny. Then a guy landed in the field with us and destroyed the symmetry of it all, but he seemed pretty happy to have chosen that particular field to land in :). And just as we were packing up and leaving, Russel Ogden came in and landed too.

Keith and Bill landed a few fields over from us; a lot of people went down in the same general area. Adrian from the UK team and Brian from the Oz team also landed nearby. Petra didn’t do so well today so she will drop in the standings too. In fact a lot of rank-swapping is going to take place after this task! Josh and Will landed 1-2 km short of goal and walked the last bit as penance, while Tom and Kari made goal (yay!).

All in all, it was another non-typical Manilla day, with lots of weak climbs. With every day being non-standard, flukey, and practically no racing taking place, there is more than the average amount of luck being involved. No clear winner is emerging as far as consistency goes. Definitely not what the Worlds are usually about!

The Aussies hosted a party at JJ’s tonight for all the English-speaking pilots…$5 for a BBQ steak and all the fixings, and then we watched episode 16 of Heroes on the big screen. By the time we get back to Canada we’ll be all caught up!

Nicole