If you have read any of the press about Ewa Wisnierska's encounter with clouds in Australia, you've learned the basics: Ewa was pushed to nearly 10,000m MSL (over 30,000ft), lost consciousness, awoke an hour later still flying, landed, and survived.

But these somewhat sensationalist stories don't answer any of the important questions that pilots are asking:

• How did she get caught in such strong lift?
• Did she not see the storm conditions?
• If she did see them, why did she continue to fly?
• How did she regain consciousness and land?

Kari Castle, who flew the same sky the same day (and chose to land early) visited with Ewa to find out.

This is Kari's blog entry where she describes her experiences that day and Ewa's first hand account of her flight: Kari's Interview with Ewa

My reaction to this incredible event is a mix: amazement at, and thankfulness for Ewa's survival; sadness at the loss of Chinese National Team pilot He Zhongpin; and mostly a reminder of how important it is to keep a margin of safety when flying—and how we are tempted to fly past that margin in competitive situations.

Valle 2007 Photo Album
Andy Macrae's Photos and Blog
Josh Cohn's Photos
Task 6 Results
Cumulative Results

Good classic Valle task. Excellent start. A little bogged down after that. Caught the lead gaggle at the second to last turn-point. Was patient (clouded light lift day). Should have been 10th or so into goal (let the fast comp gliders pass me on last glide), but played it safe.

The GPS said 7:1 glide to goal, but I had to cross over town (trees and houses, no fields) and chose to take the last bail-out field rather than push it. You can see on the results, I was the first person NOT into goal.

Ah well, but given that I was racing for something around 30th place risking landing in someones pool or backyard tree didn't seem worth it :-)

Valle 2007 Photo Album
Andy Macrae's Photos and Blog
Josh Cohn's Photos
Task 5 Results
Cumulative Results

The task committee has been hearing a few complaints this week. The tasks have been challenging, but with 7,8,14 and 0 people to goal, they've been too hard.

This competition parameters include 30% of the field in goal per day—that should be 37 pilots to goal daily. Clearly we've been under.

With all this in mind the committee picked a short (44km) generally downwind task to the landing field by the butterfly preserve. This is not a simple task, but it is very doable.

The start today was a 2km exit cylinder around the town of Cerro Pelon. This meant that the edge of the cylinder was about 1.5km away from the Espinaso ridge—a good place to gaggle up.

For start, I launched, pushed down the main ridge from launch, caught something nice, and within minutes was away from the launch zoo on my way to El Peñon. I usually have good luck with the Peñon and expected an easy climb out over the top.

Well, there was nothing happening, so I continued on to the Cliffs—arriving lower than I ever have before and wondering if I was on my way to a pre-start bomb out. Fortunately, a glider a bit over me (Brad G. I think) caught some junk flowing up the cliffs and we bobbled around (with several other gliders joining us) until we could turn safely over the top of cliffs.

First problem solved. Now we all headed to Crazy Thermal and Espinaso where we formed the nastiest start gaggle I've ever been in. There was not much cloud development and folks were charging hard, gaggling tight, and cutting in to maintain height for the start.

After a few near collisions, I bugged out and made my own circles. Of course anytime I stumbled into real lift, about 100 gliders came to join me. It was pretty spooky, but for the most part everyone held it together. That said, after I landed I learned that there was a mid-air and a reserve deploy (which I hadn't seen).

Enough about the start, eventually the clock ticked over and we all ran for the cylinder, and back out for Crazy Thermal. I spent no time at Crazy and cut straight for Peñon. I turned about two circles over the Peñon and pushed for launch.

I was pretty much in the lead (there were maybe 2 gliders ahead of me) and I decided to take a chance. It seemed smart at the time, but turned out pretty disastrous: I chose not to turn in lift at launch (the first turn-point) but instead to tag it and run quickly back to the Peñon. A quick soar up the face of the Peñon and I'd be off to the second turn-point established up-front with all the leaders.

Well, things didn't go as expected. I arrived low at El Peñon and in a bad cycle. Pretty soon I was as low a I've been in front of that rock and looking to the Piano LZ, from leader to first to the ground.

I was lucky to find some low bubbly junk which I rode up a few hundred feet—enough to crawl back to launch, work my way up, and return to the Peñon with some height. My daring move had put me at least 1/2hr behind the leaders.

So of course I had two choices: fly conservatively and focus on making goal; push hard and try to catch up. I chose the second.

For a while I was doing well, surfing low to Espinaso and back. Leaving the Cliffs around 10,000ft and making a desperate glide to Sacamacate, and then beyond when that didn't work.

Past Saca, I hit the trash dump low and into that beautiful, smooth, stinky, trash thermal which took me all the way to 11,000ft, perfect for a valley crossing.

In the valley I tried to play it conservative, staying and drifting downwind toward goal with light lift. Above San Ramon, I knew I needed one more thermal to make goal, so I circled in zero watching the gliders ahead of me. When they started rising, I left my light lift and pushed into the Los Saucos valley.

I thought my timing was good, but it stunk. I arrived just as the gliders ahead of me topped out their lift and left for goal. All alone and low, I couldn't find anything.

I had very little time to make a decision (the ground was close) but having pulled out of the hole twice before on the flight, I wasn't going to give up. I crossed the Los Saucos valley away from goal, but toward a little peak with a cloud forming overhead.

I had to soar the tree line for a few minutes but when I found the lift it was huge, boosting me back to over 11,000ft and what I thought would be an easy glide to goal. Turned out the winds in goal were strong and the easy glide turned into a bouncy upwind ride that nearly dumped me just outside the goal cylinder. But with a little thermal pop, I eaked in by 20 meters or so.

All my futzing around cost me a lot of time, I think I was probably 40th into goal, but I was in goal with about 40 of my buddies. A beautiful day!

Valle 2007 Photo Album
Andy Macrae's Photos and Blog
Josh Cohn's Photos
Task 4 Results
Cumulative Results

Today did not look promising on launch. Lots of cloud and shade with high winds predicted. The task committee picked short route they thought would keep us out of the wind.

Even that was a struggle with zero people in goal.

It was clear from the beginning that their would be no race. Rather than hurry we just had to stay in the air as long as possible.

It was light and generally smooth and turned out to be a fun 2hr or so flight. The best results were around 30km. I went just under 15km and am guessing I placed around 30th.

Slow, tight gaggles, short distance, but we made a fun day of it.