Day 4 of the comp and we still haven't flown. Today it was actually flyable by 4pm, after hours of waiting, and then the Race Organizers told us in the Sprint class that our race was cancelled so that the Race class could have a valid task.
Then they added if we wanted to fly we had to take off in the next 30 minutes, or wait around another ninety minutes (until approx 6pm) until after all the Race pilots had taken off.
Given that cloud base was 50m about launch, pretty much a sled ride was all they were allowing us to do. So about thirty pilots hastily launched, most going slowly down to Longdsword or Fiasco Landing fields, probably to have a glass of wine to mend the frustrations of three days not flying, and one sled ride as a sacrificial offering to the sky gods of Race class.
I took off and was at cloudbase in about 2 minutes. Well, it was only 50m above launch! It was actually quite easy to stay up, but every blip of the vario had me wondering when I would dissapear into the white room.
I ended up flying over to thhe Squirs ridge, only to find a 25km/h wind was hitting the ridge. Ended up pinned there soaring close to the ridge in 25km/h wind, with 100ft fir trees on either side of a narrow open spur, and cloudbase only about 150m above. Not exactly comfortable.
Tried to fly back to launch where it looked like cloudbase might be lifting, and hit huge sink. With the wind now behind me, I was heading towards the main ridge at 50km/h+ and 3m/s sink.... Tried to turn around...Bad choice, now 15km/h forward speed and 3m/s sink with a good 500m to go before I could get around the corner back into the ridge lift. Not an option. Bailed over the back of the Squirs ridge and drifted sideways out to Little Applegate road though the crappy leeside.
Landed vertically into a huge field, rather unimpressed with both my own decision making, the organizers decision making, and everything else... I guess that's paragliding.
Tracklog is here
Then they added if we wanted to fly we had to take off in the next 30 minutes, or wait around another ninety minutes (until approx 6pm) until after all the Race pilots had taken off.
Given that cloud base was 50m about launch, pretty much a sled ride was all they were allowing us to do. So about thirty pilots hastily launched, most going slowly down to Longdsword or Fiasco Landing fields, probably to have a glass of wine to mend the frustrations of three days not flying, and one sled ride as a sacrificial offering to the sky gods of Race class.
I took off and was at cloudbase in about 2 minutes. Well, it was only 50m above launch! It was actually quite easy to stay up, but every blip of the vario had me wondering when I would dissapear into the white room.
I ended up flying over to thhe Squirs ridge, only to find a 25km/h wind was hitting the ridge. Ended up pinned there soaring close to the ridge in 25km/h wind, with 100ft fir trees on either side of a narrow open spur, and cloudbase only about 150m above. Not exactly comfortable.
Tried to fly back to launch where it looked like cloudbase might be lifting, and hit huge sink. With the wind now behind me, I was heading towards the main ridge at 50km/h+ and 3m/s sink.... Tried to turn around...Bad choice, now 15km/h forward speed and 3m/s sink with a good 500m to go before I could get around the corner back into the ridge lift. Not an option. Bailed over the back of the Squirs ridge and drifted sideways out to Little Applegate road though the crappy leeside.
Landed vertically into a huge field, rather unimpressed with both my own decision making, the organizers decision making, and everything else... I guess that's paragliding.
Tracklog is here
Conditions at Launch when we arrived