Golden August 7
A similar day to yesterday, with us waiting until late in the day to fly. It was very strong in the afternoon, south winds, so when it became lighter we were once again using the south launch. It was stronger though, and swirly winds, so it was a bit of a gong show to watch the launches. Many duffs and aborted launches, some excitement too. Ryan gashed his knee on the sharp rocks during an abort, and had to go to the hospital for stitches. Jeff had some punctures to his leading edge of his glider, and while he was fixing the holes on launch, undid his legstraps. He forgot to re-strap them when he launched afterwards, and as he flew away from the hill, sensed he wasn't strapped in and opted to right away slide out of his harness, to fall to the slope below. Fortunately the slope is super-steep, and he fell and rolled, no injuries other than a fast-beating heart. But the rest of us just about had heart attacks watching him fall from his harness from the air. But he got himself sorted out again, and successfully launched later on.
By this time it was kinda late, and the race start was about to happen. Jeff and I got over to the start cylinder a few minutes late, but hey late is better than never. Task was a 37 km OR to Pagliaro Cliffs, back to the gravel pit, back to the cliffs, and to Nicholson LZ goal. Jeff and I did the course mostly together; from the cliffs to the gravel pit we were able to fly the valley since there were nice clouds giving nice suck, and only lost a little bit on the transition. But on the way back we had to stop for some lift, and I got low, and lost Jeff as I was fighting my way back up from the last bunch of cliffs before you have to head out to land (1500m ASL).
I eventually got up to Mt. 7 peak height and back to the cliffs for the last TP, and then it was an easy glide to Nicholson goal. I opted to head to goal via Mt. 7, since I wasn't sure about a possible north headwind (happened yesterday at this time), and my glide to goal was pretty close to my actual glide (5:1 vs. 6:1), so I wanted some fudge factor. Got to goal with plenty of height, and joined a bunch of people who had flown in ahead of me. In the end there were about 15 people in goal, and a lot of smiling faces!
Non-Race pilots either flew locally, or did OR. Robin flew 25 km out, and returned back to Nicholson. Some pilots chose not to launch after watching the gong show and high wind launches, also after spending a day in the sun and dust.
Keith had a nice epic cascade of events on final glide to goal, full bar. He had a assymetric which cravatted, riser twists, etc. During the recovery one of his brake line cascades broke, so he had to fly the rest sans part of his brake line (but he was on final glide anyways, just couldn't do bar anymore since he didn't have full control in case of another event).
Pictures are at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ (Willi XC and Race Willi 2006)
