Rat Race Day 5 - Nick

We woke up to a heavily overcast sky. I was thinking it would be a bad day, but Paul was excited. The task committee was excited too, because they put up this crazy 13 turnpoint, 154km task (at least according to the GPS … it will be about 70km due to the large waypoint cylinders)! It was basically 4 loops around the valley. It would definitely be good for spectating.

Did I mention it was freezing? The pilots were reporting 35F at altitude! I borrowed some handwarmers from Motorhead Paul, since Pepi, Paul Murdoch's little dog, wouldn't fit into my gloves.

I had a hard time climbing out of Woodrat both times, and learned that sometimes the lift is in the valley and not over the ridges. Had to hook a thermal way out in front both times, ride it through any gaggles, and then go back to Woodrat peak to get high enough to tag Buncom and goto Burnt.

At the start, I left Woodrat at about 5,000', which is about 1,000' lower than I would have liked. This time, Rabies was working like normal. I started to get decent lift along the ridge, and worked my way back towards Rabies peak. I was climbing at the 6km mark so I had to backtrack to 7km to make the start.

Burnt was working really well. The convergence was working to 6,500-7,000'. I lucked out with a lifty line from Burnt to Mt. Isabella.

After I tagged Mt. Isabella, I had a wonderful experience with a hawk. I was getting a little low in the China Gulch (inside the Rabies area), slowly thermalling up, when I noticed a hawk to my right doing much better. He seemed to be saying, "Hey, come over here, stupid." Sure enough, it was better over there. He gave me a wink and flew off in the direction of another struggling pilot. OK, maybe he just blinked, but I could only see one side of his head …

Getting up at Woodrat was tough, as I previously mentioned. I took a small chance to tag Buncom again, with only about 4,500'.

I went to Burnt really low (4,500') and was worried about rotor, but the crossing was smooth as butter. I got to the ridge about halfway up. The lift was ratty but not bad. I worked my way above ridge height and thought I had it made. I made a big mistake by leaving this area of lift, and I made my way north on the ridge expecting to hit the convergence again. I never got to that lift, and it was too late to turn back. I was also worried about being pinned in the valley with the winds. I decided to head towards Hunter LZ to land, when I got the idea of working the lee (south side) of Rabies ridge. It was actually working well, but it was very ratty. My Ozone Delta handled the bumps very well. I saw some smoke far away on the ridge, but thought nothing of it. Later I learned that it was a wildfire. Reaper and others went to help out. Potentially saved a house and prevented a larger forest fire.

At this point it was 6:10 PM and the goal would close at 6:30 PM. I could have pushed forward and maybe even tagged Mt Isabella. Getting that point would have been huge for distance points because I would have gotten points even after tagging it for heading to Longsword. I decided to use the height to get to Longsword instead.

Overall, I did okay in the task. I had 5 hours of flight time, 3.5 of which was probably spent around Woodrat. I almost gave up several times, out of sheer frustration about the gaggle at Woodrat. I need to learn how to work with the gaggle. I can also learn how to thermal more efficiently. Being 5 kg over the weight doesn't help either. The extra 5kg is good for Hawaii and high winds. My next glider will be sized more appropriately.

Later we all went to Fiasco winery to partake in the ribs/chicken dinner. We also got to see Alex's t-Shirt design adorning a few custom labeled cases of Claret. I heard that Alex was signing bottles later on. Although I'm sure he'd rather sign bottles of IPA, he must have been stoked. I'm happy to be around such talent!

-Nick