Thursday, June 27, 2013

Race Task 1

After three rain days, we were ready to fly. The forecast suggested it might clear up in the afternoon on Wednesday, so we had a pilot meeting in the drizzle and headed up the hill, which was enshrouded in mist. Finally in the late afternoon the clouds lifted, but only just enough to clear the launch. Cloudbase was only a couple hundred over launch. But they decided to run a task anyway, a late quick one, and only for the Race group and not the Sprint.

It was the craziest task ever. Typically the local pilots would not fly on a day with cloudbase that low, but when the Rat Race is happening nothing is typical. I was super worried about the conditions. It seemed like a bad idea. But we actually made that task work. Lots of pilots made lots of turn points, and I was super excited to make a low save over the retirement home with my host Paul Murdoch. He was yelling encouragement and as we reached cloudbase (again) he told me to follow him to the next point. We reached cloudbase there (again) and headed out to the next valley, but by that time it was late and dark under the clouds and nothing was working. We all sank out to various fields back there and waited for retrieve. What a surprise to make a fun task out of conditions like that!

Later on, Jay Z, a pilot at the restaurant, came up to me and told me I'd tied for fifth place with Josh and Rob. The task wasn't worth much for points, because it was so short, but that's certainly the best result I'll ever have in a comp. I realize it was just a question of which field people picked to sink out in, for one or two points of advantage, but I'll take it any way I can get it!

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