After the slow start with 4 unflyable days, the race organizers went big for our first race day. They set the biggest Rat Race Sprint task ever, with 42km to goal. Conditions were windy and strong, with big thermals in places, but in others the wind was making usual thermal sites unworkable.
Climbing out was scrappy and unpredictable. I managed to get to 2000m, then took a collapse while maintaining height until the race start. That put me off a little and I dropped back 300m by the time the start time came.
The first waypoint at Burnt was working, so able to climb out in the wind and go on the first big transition to Rabies. We went right along the ridge to the SugarLoad waypoint, and then all the way back along the ridge back to Burnt. The out and back task setting in the Rat Race Sprint ensures people stay in areas they know and retrieves are not too problematic.
Back at Burnt the wind had picked up, pouring over the rounded summit like a weir, demolishing all the thermals. I tagged the turnpoint and then got viciously flushed down into the valley between Burnt and Woodrat. Air doing what it does, when all that flow got to the bottom of the valley, it washed up the other side. From -3m/s second sink all the way down, suddenly I was circling above a baking field. A few turns late a nice Icepeak 6 from the race group let us climb out in the smoothest, best climb of the day that took us from 800m to 1900m without stopping.
The Icepeak 6 took off on his route to Jacksonville, leaving me on my own with no one remotely near. A few minutes later the sink started again, now on the other side of Burnt. All my hard won height was burned off despite full speedbar towards the next turnpoint. I ended up circling above a house on small knoll, with waves of heat popping up, but nothing turning into a coherent thermal. After over two hours of flying I was hot and tired, and not patient enough to wait for the thermal to pop.
Eventually I got too nervous and went on glide towards the Cemetary turnpoint. Nothing was working there, so landed uneventfully in a big field with gusty little thermals popping off everywhere and winds swirling around from all directions.
Eventually there were seven more or less happy pilots landed all the adjacent fields at around the 30km mark, so we had a long analysis of our mistakes waiting for retrieve...
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