The task board had 3 tasks on it before the day was canceled - NE winds are not the best direction for Woodrat and it was a little too strong.

After the day was canned, we flew around and found good convergence over the Longsword LZ. It might have been taskable, but I think the day was canned due to safety concerns.

Tomorrow is the last day of the comp...

Stay Tuned

Much better conditions today saw people getting up to 7000 feet, and much cooler temps on the ground too. The race was a 47.2 km task ending at Donato's Goal. Brad Gunn got 1000 points for being in goal first.

Paul Murdoch was second in goal on his DHV 2-3, very impressive considering the next 10 gliders in goal were comp wings (Len's wing is incorrectly listed as a Boom Sport).

Tough conditions today. 54 pilots got minimum distance. 18 in goal. 12 somewhere in between. This type of spread across the course is what makes the winning pilot get only 461 points - the scoring software recognized the day was tough.

Pilots got very high today, over 7000 feet, but it was tricky finding the climbs. Hayden won the task, I think a first for him.

More hot weather coming our way, but not as hot as the last two days.

Results are here.

stay tuned

Day canceled, not enough lift in this extremely hot weather.

stay tuned

I see from my site stats that many folks are coming to this blog because it's listed as a Rat Race Blog on the website - Sorry for the hip-fake, but I was unable to make the Rat Race this year. I'll be at the Chelan Open later in July instead.

Here are some links for those looking for Rat Race 2008 info:

The Scores can be found HERE http://flyxc.org/ratrace08

It's getting hotter everyday - and more stable, but conditions were good enough for a 31km task that saw 21 people in goal. Pete Schaefer won the task today on a DHV 2-3.

The task was just under minimum time and quite a few pilots hit the dirt early on so the top score was just under 900 points. I came up 2k short after taking no risks, except a little one on the final glide and I got no love...

Yesterday we had a reserve deployment - but Cherie was back in the air today and made goal ...

Good conditions today - we got a 35.5km task zipping around the valley and with goal up the Applegate Valley at Purcell.

There are 85 pilots flying, and 38 made goal. I tried to race with the lead gaggle which is a mistake I keep making. This got me coming into Mid launch from the first turpoint really low and I came very close to sinking out at this point - I wasted a lot of time crawling my way out.

Sam Mulder won the serial class (DHV 2) today, this is only the second goal he has ever made, way to go Sam!

I've been reinvigorated by the Australia trip. Even though I had a dismal result, (39th out of 65) I did get to goal & set a PR of 71 miles on the last task. The flying we had this Jan. & Feb. will jump-start my season. I think my Avax XC2 (arrives next week!) will give me the performance to score well if I make good decisions in the upcoming XC season. . .

I'll be flying the West Coast Paragliding Championships in Ruch, Oregon the week of June 8-14, 2008.

Welcome to the sixth year of the annual Rat Race Paragliding Competition held in beautiful Southern Oregon. Rat Race 2008 will be held in the month of July and we expect to have great weather. It is a seven day event with an emphasis on education and training in GPS use and competition strategies. The race format is Cross Country/Race to Goal.

This year, 2008, we are offering an optional practice day, Saturday July 5th, the day before the competition begins.

I finally got to the mountains for some XC flying. A cold front passed through Utah on Thursday and second day post frontal is usually THE day for good XC conditions. Peter, Bill, Cliff, myself and about 30 other pilots...