The Task
I think the task committee was suitable chastened after yesterday's fiasco and decided to call something conservative today—a task to keep us out of the canyons and the lee.

The task was a 50km pinwheel around the main valley: Launch->North->Launch->West->Launch->South->Launch->SW->Main LZ.

Conditions were good. Lift was a bit higher (I reached 7200ft compared to a max of around 6000ft yesterday). Winds were a bit lighter. And even better, we weren't stuck deep in any canyons.

I started to race well with good height and hitting the cylinder right on time. From there things were good _briefly_.

I took the first turnpoint about 400m behind the leaders and had decent height.

The next transition was back over a major ridge back into the launch area. I misjudged my glide and came into the launch too low and started getting rotored down into a ton of sink.

Having learned a bit about rotor and sink this week, I turned quickly away and ran downwind a bit, sinking, but not as bad.

I joined a couple other gliders that had made a similar mistake and we limped out and around the ridge deep into the valley and off course.

Around the point and back into the windward side, I caught some bubbles and a ridge soared into some good lift with on of the other two gliders.

The lifted turned into the nicest ride of the week, 7 or 8m/s sustained right up through the inversion to about 7200ft.

My blundered had hurt, I was at least 50 gliders behind now, but I had altitude and I used it—trimmers out, speed bar mashed.

I took two more turn-points without stopping for lift and had passed maybe 20 gliders.

I stopped in some good lift back at launch and pushed out toward the lead gaggle.

By now I'd made up almost all the time I'd lost and was maybe 1km behind the leaders—I'd caught the chase.

It was clear there would be a lot of people in goal and the day was a serious race, so I kept on the bar, but was smart enough to stop for good lift (maybe a first).

After two more turn-points I was maybe .5km behind the leaders and making up time.

I got a great line and pushed out toward the last turn-point climbing as I went.

In the end ONE HUNDRED (100) pilots reached goal!

Team America!
Goal was a blast with tons of people barreling in. And toward the end of the pack, my fellow American Melanie Pfister glided in on the moon.

It was her first goal in a PWC, and she proudly flashed the loser sign on landing!

Score and discards...
So now the bad news, despite scoring decently (even for 29th place) the discard system dropped by from 33 overall to 38th.

There are two more tasks so I still have a chance to claw my way up, but it's looking pretty grim.

Bad Call
I know it isn't always easy to call a task but today's was bullsh*t.

Winds were strong again, but base was high and it was very flyable.

Problem is the task took us upwind and into the lee of some large ridges.

My first attempt to make it through the lee of the first ridge and position myself for the start failed. Rather than scare the crap out of myself (as I have the past few days), I limped back to launch and made sure to get good an high.

I made it to the start easier on the second attempt but I was 8 minutes late—a lousy start.

But in the end it didn't matter. As I approached the first turn-point and caught some of the slower competitors, the lead was pushing across a valley on course to the second turn-point.

The only problem being the large ridge system between them and the course. And the fact that the wind was howling. And that they were in the lee.

As I struggled into the headwind, sinking and doing my best not to get pinned, Anders Baerheim reported "Conditions Level 3".

The PWC uses a very simple an smart condition reporting system:

• Any pilot can report conditions
• Reporting options are only 1-conditions good. 2-conditions rough but flyable. 3-conditions dangerous.

PWC pilots, being bad-ass, rarely report Level 3. But mere seconds after reporting, to prove his point, Anders folded his glider and threw his reserve.

He landed in trees with no injuries, and no damage to his glider.

But with several other pilots reporting level 3, and an additional reserve earlier on the course, the task was soon cancelled.

The shame of it is that the day was actually very nice OUTSIDE of the tight valleys and lee.

Free Flying
After the task was cancelled I gratefully fell downwind and out into the valley.

My plan had been to fly out to a wider valley where wind would be lighter, land, and go get something to eat.

BUT several pilots got on radio to report windy bouncy landing conditions in the right valleys. One pilot announced "Careful when landing. I just saw at least 20 pilots roll across the dirt."

AND I hit some nice lift. Up seemed like a much better idea than down, so I cruised up with 10 or so other gliders and headed toward town.

In the bigger valleys, lift was sa-weet. I cruised in what felt like convergence around the main valley checking out launch, the main LZ, and some temples in the hills.

After 1/2 or so, I cruised into town and landed down the street from our hotel.

Could have been a sweet task down if we'd stayed out of the obviously dumb-ass places...

Today's Task
Today was _rough_ and _tiring_. Winds were predicted to be high and wind socks on launch were showing ~15mph. But things were a bit calmer than yesterday and appeared taskable.

Given predictions for increasing winds and possible thunderstorms, the task committee called a what appeared to me to be a generally downwind task (to the south) with a zig (south-east leg), and then a zag (south-west leg).

Total task distance from start to goal was ~40km. I figured it would be a quick run and that we were at risk of a devalued day with several people making it in under the meet's nominal task time of 1hour 15minutes.

I was wrong. The winning time turned out to be ~1:20 with the last to goal at just over 2:40!

Here's what happened: the winds picked up very strong from the west making the first south-east leg a serious slog. Progress was a slow combination of riding strong and turbulent thermals up and west, then pushing against the wind back east to get to the course-line (or hopefully a little upwind of wind). Back-and-forth, yo-yo'ing and controlling for very rough air.

Why I love competing
In what other sport can you so quickly go from a complete high like "Yes! This is brilliant, I took a risk and positioned myself to _crush_ the start!" to a miserable low like "Crap, I didn't expect the winds to be that high, I'm crushed downwind behind the start, what a dork!"

Or the other way around—going from shit-terrified 7km/h pushing out a valley desperately looking for soft trees to almost 9000ft up and cruising over a pack of shit-terrified gliders way below, looking for their own soft trees?

And then to have it reversed again so quickly as I cruised downwind at ~80km/h toward goal with a 8:1 glide only to drop like a rock (or crappy pilot...) to land 1.3km short of goal—yup, I get the Price-is-Right award today: I was the closest to goal without making it...

My race went like this:

1. Take a chance and screw the start


2. Crawl very slowly, and nearly alone (thanks to that start) upwind through the canyons.


3. Catch a serious screamer out of desperation canyon to 3000ft higher than I've seen in Korea.


4. Rocket downwind on a 15km glide to goal. Catch a blown-to-crap bouncey-as-hell ride. Leave with a 12:1 glide. Pick the good line so that I climb while cruising at 80km/h to a 8:1 glide.


5. Lose that line, drop like a stone, land 1.3km short

The big take-away
Flying is scary fun!

No really, the big take away, I left broken but working lift to race NO ONE (I was that far behind) to goal rather than hanging 1min more and making it a sure thing.

In the end I probably needed 100ft or less to make it over the last ridge to goal. Or maybe just bigger balls to cut it close. Either way, I left my last lift 2 turns early and paid for it.

I dropped in the stats and am now sitting at 33rd overal and ~300 points out of 15th (where I need to be to make the superfinal).

I can make this up with a few good days but I'll need to be focused and remember some of the good lessons I'm learning here!

Tomorrow
Word has it the winds will come down. I hope so. I'm looking forward to a flight without getting pinned and crawling my way out of unlandable canyons.

BTW: several more treeings today, including one up top of the ridge I chose not to attempt to cross to goal...

Yesterday's Results
Wow. Amazingly even without a speed bar and flying very slow (1:51 to goal, with the winners at about 1:15), I came in 27th, middle of the goal pack.

Unfortunately that still puts me 400 points out of first place. But weather looks good starting tomorrow (Tuesday) and if we get a couple more good tasks, I can drop yesterday's score...

Other stats from yesterday:

• 2 confirmed reserve deploys, 1 rumored


• 8 tree landings


• 1 power line landing


• 0 injuries!

This morning at HQ Mr. Gin was shaking his head: "I _told_ everyone to stay high!"

I had to laugh, telling PWC pilots not to go low and fast and risky is like telling dogs not to sniff butt. You can tell them, but they aren't going to listen.

Today on Launch
One word: NUKING

Winds were strong but the sky looked nice, blue with puffy clouds. A day that looked great if you could somehow get off launch in one piece with an inflated glider.

The task commitee came up with a task and we dutifully entered it into our instruments.

When they set actual start times, I had to grumble: "I bet I get my glider all unpacked and they cancel it."

Well, that's what happened.

Two wind dummies launched, both with fast gliders an Omega 7 (LTF-2/3) and a Boomerang 4 (comp glider). Both had shakey launches, were making little progress into the wind, and were getting rocked.

So they cancelled the task and offered that people could go free flying.

THIS is when the fun began!

Some 10 pilots or so decided to launch in the crud that we'd all just watched.

One, a Korean on a Boomerang 5, beemed straight up, made a little bit of forward progress, frontalled, mishandled the frontal, whip-stalled, is drifting backward over launch (about 20ft over) all during this. He finally turned around (or was pushed around) and flew downwind behind launch toward the lee-ward valley.

I thought everything was good at this point. The glider was straight above head and with the monster tailwind he had, flat landing spots were easily reachable.

So, of course, that's when he decided to throw his reserve.

We all cheered, laughed, and watched him drift down into trees about 50ft behind launch.

WTF? All we could figure is that when things were going bad (during the whip-stall) he decided to throw, and when things were good again, he just went with his earlier call.

Either way, it was good enough entertainment for the rest of us. We all packed up and road back down the hill.

Here's hoping for the same skies and lighter winds tomorrow!

Korea!
Ok, first off, Korea is a very fun and funny place. Our retrieve bus has Karaoke, a coffee machine, and a most excellent LED light show.

Our room has heated floors, on which we sleep with small mats. Very comfortable for my back, but too hard for the sensitive Swiss Team who had to demand extra padding!

Melanie Pfsiter, my roommate finds, the floor a little too hot and complains of "Ass Fires", but she thinks she found the off switch... We'll find out tonight!

The organization here is fantastic. Compared to Brazil, or what we might come up with for a PWC in the states, it's outrageous. 20 or so people in 'Staff' vests taking care of your every need.

The opening ceremony had a parade of nations (with Melanie representing the US), traditional Korean singing, some NON-traditional 'electronic performers' (see YouTube video...), and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, himself a paraglider pilot, attended and gave a very nice speech about how flying opens ones perspective.

Think we can reciprocate at Chelan next year? Get Hilary Clinton to open the meet??

Then we had a _huge_ feast of sushi, kimchee, three kinds of chicken, soju, beer, and some very weird deserts. And there was enough food for _everyone_ even with a crowd of 100+ pilots...

The Flying
Today was not supposed to be flyable. Predictions were for high-wind and rain, but this morning the sky was clearing out and the trees remained vertical, so we headed up to launch.

We had some top-notch wind-dummies who flew to the first turn-point of the provisional and declared the conditions good, winds not too strong.

Huckage was a bit of a cluster, with no launch order, and all traditional politeness disappearing. I had at least 3 Korean pilots fully push me over and cut in front to launch.

But there was plenty of lift and no need to hurry—we all got off the hill with plenty of time.

The task committee was a bit concerned about possible high winds from the North so they called pretty much a ridge run, with us making several passes North->South->North along the launch ridge system.

The winds did pick up, but they were WNW which meant we were cross-wind most of the day with strong winds pushing us up the canyons, and a strong lee to each finger ridge we had a to cross.

The lee took it's first victim before the start when a Magic 4 gave a dazzling Front->Spiral->Reserve-Chuck performance for the entire field.

Aside from that show, everything seemed pretty chill at the start, though a few pilots couldn't get the turn direct correct...

My first problem came at the start, a standard entry cylinder followed by a turn point. I was about 30secs late to the start which put me about 20 gliders behind, but a had a good line and a bit of speed to the turnpoint.

At the point, I was maybe 15 gliders back, so I took it, turned, and stomped hard on the bar. Something popped, and a lined fluttered into my face, tickling my nose... I'd snapped my bar. CRAP!

Without a bar there is no way I could stay with the leaders, or the followers, or the followers behind them, so I decided to take it easy and just make sure I made goal.

And I did make goal. About 35 minutes after the leaders.

Thing is, the day got windy and we had to dive repeatedly up canyons to find lift. People were diving deep, and folks _with_ speed bars were getting pinned and treed (about 6 in trees today, not counting the two reserves). Going in there, and dealing with ground speeds of <10km/h was nerve wracking.

Hopefully winds will be lighter tomorrow and my new speed bar line will hold!

The Glider...
So given that today, in one day, I flew about as many kilometers as a week in Brazil, had at least twice the thermals, and hit my first rough air, I can now say something about my new Boomerang 6—it's pretty darn sweet.

Even without a speed bar, I could cut a pretty fast line through the sky. Glide is fantastic, handling is tight (I banked hard in a few bullet-esque thermals), and it _general_ doesn't smack you around.

I did have several asymmetric collapses, but no cravats or stuck-tips that a little brake-pumping didn't fix.

Overall
We are having a blast! Conditions are supposed to improve tomorrow, and I'm psyched.

Off to eat some BBQ!