As usual I am truely crap at blogging when I'm competing. Theres not much excuse other that having to find a funcioning wifi connexion at the time I am finished flying / retrieving / recharging / eating / faffing!
Again 4 tasks from Piedrahita. The first days were windy and ideal for checking equipment, stretching lines etc before the battle began.
Task 1 : 100km+ task to somewhere north of Avila saw me close to getting sucked into the big black convergence in the Ambles valley about 32km on course. Thoroughly frightened after getting hoofed uncontrollably into the sky with big-big-ears and speedbar at the max, I nearly landed before Avila. A sudden revelation that I wasn't going to die just 200m from the ground saw me and the guys I was in a gaggle with scratching to recover some of the enormous height we had just 10 minutes previously tried to lose. Revelations are a common occurance in this game! Basically I had stuffed it up with the decision - not really a decision more a freezing of all mental processes - but the net result was that I was on the ground near Avila as the north wind picked up. A below average result for well below averagre decision making, so I guess its something else to file away and learn from.
Task 2 : another 100km+ task to some where north of Avila. After getting real low before start I thought 'stuff it' and decided to head home to land in the field next to our casa rural. Needless to say I hit the thermal of the day from the bullring on the way and found myself at cloudbase in front of the lead gaggle as they tried to cross the pass.100% luck, but I topped out just as start opened and cruised in over the entire field to pick off the best climbs just as they started to scrabble about at Casas del Puerto. I know I surprised a few guys as they crossed the pass to find a tiny red / black glider in front and above them. I LOVE these moments! The flying was amazing.. speed was real good I was in the 2nd or 3rd gaggle all the way to 85km out, 35km before goal. Then it ALL WENT WRONG! Getting low I was calling to the climb to take me up and away, problem was we were talking a different language.
After a few tight turns in a good climb my glider disappeared - the beginning of the end. A cascade of increasing proportions saw me wrapped up inside my wing struggling to find my reserve handle through the flapping cloth tightening around me. Needless to say I did find it and threw just 150m above the rapidly approaching ground. The wind on the ground was strong so I was dragged across a corn field ploughing, reaping and threshing all in one go! The glider protected me from most of the impact so after quite some time extricating myself from lines and wing I walked away unhurt and with minimal bruises. My angel was watching me again. Fortunately we seem to fly at the same speed!
Huge thanks to Dave Smart and Mike Coupe who called in the incident and landed to assist. A surprising end to a brilliant day - boy was I pissed not to be in goal!
Wagga & Mike helped me put back together all my bits later that evening - thanks guys I owe you, so I was ready to fly the following day.
Task 3 : 100km+ task to Segovia. My head felt fine (quite surprisingly) so I launched early but found myself scratching below launch with the best of them...Wagga, Kelly, Adam & me were having a team grovel. Perhaps it was going to be BBQ day after all!
Fortunately we all climbed out from far too low and the guys showed their form to make goal in good time. After 1 hour, parts of me were aching so much that I decided to call it a day, muscles were hurting in places that I didn't know I had. It hurt my ranking but the physical aches were more of an issue at the time.
Task 4 : 55km race to Avila.Goal at last, all be it with a bit too much excitement 4km out from Avila when I had another cascade and was close to chucking the washing again. During the cascade my reserve pins came loose so I was in danger of an involuntary deployment over goal just on the outskirts of Avila. The thought of being hung up on a crane or splattered on the Avila city walls wasn't appealing so after getting the cylinder I headed to open fields south of the city so that if what could go wrong did at least I would have reasonabley open ground to flop down into.It was a very uncomfortable 20 minutes as I tried to keep the glider stable through the strong thermals and high wind and dust devils but I landed very relieved without further incident.
The Axis UK team did brilliantly and finished as Team Champions way ahead of any opposition - well done boys!
I managed 3rd in the chics category which was more than I expected after choosing to land on the 3rd task and a mediocre 80th (ish) in the overall.
After checking the symmetry of my glider we found that the right side lines had stretched from between 15mm in the centre to 45mm at the tips which explained why it had become a 'spiny death ship'. This effectively put me out of the Spanish Championship and unable to defend last years title...its kinda challenging to compete without a glider! New lines are on the way so I'll be putting lots of knots in bits of string sometime over the coming week here in Àger.
Lots of mistakes and many more leasons to learn from the week but i'm feeling good about it all. I'm ready to learn alot more about putting my wing into nonflying shapes and hope to take her out over the water soon to see what I can get wrong in a reasonably controlled environment.I never thought I'd say it but doing some aeros is starting to have an appeal!
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