Contest Website (15/18m) Contestants (15/18m) Contestants (Open Nationals) SPOT Tracking
At the morning meeting, CD Ken Sorenson announced that tomorrow (Thursday) would be a rest day. I, for one, am more than ready for a rest day, and I have a three-turnpoint task already called. The first turnpoint is at the micro-castle with a chance to sleep past the 0645 wake-up time. The second turn is to get my laundry over to the cleaners where they promise a fast turnaround for wash/dry/fold. The third and final turnpoint is to restock the micro-castle’s larder, as I’m out of GatorAde, beer, bread, and just about everything else.
Well, we did have an overcast this morning – that was good. We did have clouds all day out on course – also good. However, they were a bit lower than a ‘classic Uvalde Day’, and there was a lot of gear-shifting going on. There was a lot of confusion in the start gaggles today – the cloudbases were fairly low at the start, and it was hard to get up to the max height of 5000′. In fact, I had to relight today with a full load of water. Fortunately I was able to find a climb after the relight, and no one had left yet, so it was only my ego that was damaged. The start cylinder rules for the pre-world contest are a bit odd, as you can’t start out the top, and you only get credit for the miles from the point on the cylinder that is closest to the next turnpoint. This means there is only one point in the entire cylinder that is optimum for the start, so naturally everyone crowds around this one itty-bitty point trying to get a good start. Great place to have a FLARM unit, as there are gliders buzzing around everywhere, as the climbs were weak and ragged and there was a lot of shuttling back and forth between gaggles just outside the cylinder and gaggles just inside.
I was fortunate enough to fly with Sarah and Francois today, and I witnessed a pretty spectacular demonstration of world-class flying by Francois. About halfway down the second leg, Francois was pushing out ahead and missed a couple of climbs that Sarah and I got. He wound up very low, had to dump his ballast, and wound up several miles behind the two of us. Within about 45 minutes, he had not only dug himself out of the hole, but had caught up to me (I had fallen behind Sarah at this point), helped me for a while, and then passed me by. I was flying with full ballast, and he was dry, and he still beat me like a cheap drum. All the while he is doing this, he is helping Sarah by discussing which line to take and where to turn in the cylinders, and helping me when we were together. Francois is on the U.S. team bound for Argentina, and I’m just cannon fodder at this contest, but he went out of his way to be helpful and gracious, even when he was struggling and behind. Now that’s a class act!
We had an after-action dinner tonight at Julie’s a BBQ/Mexican restaurant here in town, and it was pretty good. Lots of beer (smuggled in a paper bag – they don’t serve beer), lots of conversation, and lots of laughter. John Good, John Cochran and I solved all the world’s problems over some of John Good’s beer, and we all had a good time.
I’m off to the micro-castle to get some sleep, with the alarm clock de-fanged – Yay!
TA
