Easy down-wind task? Not exactly...
My Flight
Task 2 Results
Overall Results
Chelan XC Open Website
Worried about possible high winds, the task committee sent us on a 70km down wind (North) run from Chelan Butte to Okanagan.
The most interesting part of the day was the complete lack of turn-points.
We were given Start and Goal and could do whatever we liked in between.
The major decision was whether to cross the Columbia River straight from the Butte, following the high, flat ground north (downwind), or to stay more on course—crossing Chelan town and running the low hills to the west of town north.
I though the flats was the more conservative route and intended to follow it, but I was high and toward town at start time and decided 'f*ck it' and took off to the hills.
The air was pretty awful. I think we were getting rotored from high winds and maybe wave above us. This created very rocky holey lift and required a lot of active glider control. But we were finding lift and making decent time.
I pushed out pretty hard sticking with the front gaggle, or leading it, until my first problem area...
After the first crossing of the Columbia (around the town of Pateros), I felt lots of bubbly air, but it wasn't coming together into lift.
Santiago Baeza (MX) and Brian Webber (AU) were with me, and Santiago just pushed forward, low across the flats, hoping for something before he had to cross the river again (the Columbia takes a sharp turn so we needed to cross it twice).
Brian and I doodled around for a long time before we found a good ride, and I went from the lead pack to probably 20 gliders behind—not counting the half of the field that had gone immediately to the flats.
I managed to push some speed-bar and catch the chase gaggle after the second river crossing, but made a bad call, pushing low into the lee-side of a ridge that I _thought_ we had to cross.
Turns out town was not over the ridge, but along it. Instead of groveling in nasty lee with Bill Hughes (US), Eric Reed (US), Matt 'Farmer' Beechinor (US) and various others, I could have just push up the valley and into town.
I was slowed down again in the lee and almost dirted. Will Gadd (CA) and Andy Macrea (US) didn't make it out, but the rest of us hung in there and eventually made it to goal.
I was 16th, clearly not as good as last task, but good enough to hold onto 6th overall, and only about 100pts out of the lead.
If we get another task in (today, Friday is canceled for winds), it's still anyone's race!
