Jeff's Blog

PWC 2009 SuperFinal: Task 4—crappy task and lessons learned

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:57:33 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos A Bad Call The task committee gave us a large box around the valley to fly today. On a day with predicted heavy cloud cover. I'm just down and kind of pissed, so I'll make this short. Nice high base, excellent start, everything shaded in as we hit turn-point 2. Scratch Maybe 50 gliders managed to scratch light-ass-shit up and drift back to the west (wrong) side of the valley where it was still working. They are up at base right now working their way around the course. The bulk of us got shaded in. Airspace... A small group of us found a small bubble and where riding it up fairly well, but it drifted us into restricted airspace around the valley's sailplane airport. I was almost 200m inside the restriction when Semih yelled over to me that we were in violation. Not sure what the rule is, but this may well zero me for the day. Equipment Failure First time ever I had a problem with my GPS/Vario. It failed to register turn-point 1, so I bounced around for a bit making sure I had the point. Later, it made no noise when I hit the 300m buffer zone I set up around the restricted airspace. Lessons Learned

Pay strict f*ing attention to airspace
Choose you ass-saving thermal with drift in mind
Don't count on the instruments to warn you about restrictions
A poorly called task can turn a race into a lottery and piss off a lot of pilots...

Photos at least Got some nice photos while gliding to my doom. I'll post them when I get to decent Internet...

PWC 2009 SuperFinal: Cancelled for windy launch

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:09:31 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos Great lift, strong winds Today is our last day in Norma. Winds were not promising on launch--blowing in all directions, but the weatherman assured us this was normal--we just needed to wait for the sea breazes to overcome the prevailings. He was correct, the winds turned and strong. The committee set a task an I hucked as soon as the window opened. It was strong but easily launchable. I left the hillside and beamed straight up. Clouds were good, lift was everywhere. A few minutes after they closed launch for high winds I hit my highest altitude in Italy of around 2500m. About 10 minutes after the closure they cancelled the task. The 40 or so gliders already in the air flew around exploring the ridge and the flats out toward the ocean for at least an hour. I took many pictures and will post soon. But with bad weather predicted for Bustone, today may have been our last chance to fly. 4 more days to go—here's hoping for at least one more race day!!

PWC 2009 SuperFinal task 3: Norma

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:54:37 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos Norma With bad winds predicted in Bustone, we got up early this morning and road a couple of busses 2hrs south to the town or Norma—built on top a high ridge next to Roman ruins with a view of the Adriatic in the distance. Fast Task the committee gave us a fast 70k ridge run task. Zig-zagging along the ridge above Norma. I got stinking high at start but chose to positon myself in the flats. A group dove deep upwInd into the tall peaks, got a lucky, perfectly times thermal and sknked us to the start. From that point there was little to do, just push the speed bar and race. Waving to Anders I had tightened my speed lines after task 1 and today i got a chance to try out full extension. Bottom line--I need to learn to hold it together on bar better. After three big asymmetric collapses and ensuing cravat fishing adventures, I slowed down. Anders watched one episode from below and told me: "that was a nice way to wave to me, with the right half of your glider!" Rank I managed despite my slowness to finish in the top half which moves me to 87 overall. My goal now is to creep into the top half at position 63. This won't be easy--that slot is currently Bruce Goldsmith, frmer world champion!

PWC Super Final, Task 2: An improvement...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:12:40 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos Cloud Surfing Today looked nice. Winds were down and base looked a bit higher than yesterday. The course was set as a grand zig-zag. Up and down the west side of the valley, then crossing to the east side (avoiding the sailplane airport and restricted airspace), up and down, and then back across to the LZ on the west end). I launched right into a thermal and joined 30 of my favorite insanely aggressive world cup pilots, fighting for cores right off of launch. We wiggled and swung our way up a few thousand feet and cruised north past the town of Poggio Bustone and a nice fat cloud forming on the peaks beyond. It's against the rules, and generally against airspace regulations, to fly into a cloud—the you lose all visibility and the chance of collision is high. But with the right cloud, there is lift just outside on the edge and you can pass back and forth climbing higher than the base of the cloud, maybe even over the top—cloud surfing. For the next 30 minutes or so the entire field easily climbed to base (~2200 meters) and then surfed the side of the cloud a few hundred meters higher. Start I lost some altitude waiting for the start, and headed out in the lower 1/3rd of the gliders—higher than many, lower than most. Not a stellar start, but good enough. I was with the lead pack, if a bit lower. First Decision and Head Winds The second turnpoint, south on the main ridge system, was pretty straightforward to reach. The only decisions where whether to stay in lift to climb while others passed, or to leave before the top and push forward. I was moderately conservative. Taking height and falling maybe 30 gliders back. At the second turnpoint we had our first real decision—did we continue south of the airspace restriction and cross the valley south of town, or turn around and fly the same ridge back north, crossing on the north end. My guy told me that turning around was a good option. Base was high and there was lots of lift. But I didn't want to go alone and the lead gaggles had pressed forward (the southern route), so I followed. Continuing on course meant fighting a headwind through a small canyon. Wanting decent height, I kept taking drifty lift that got me higher, but pushed me back the way I came. After wasting a bunch of time, I ditched the bad rides, smashed the speed bar and slammed through the head-winds to the hills on the far side. At this point I was at least 60 gliders behind... Change in Tempo Looking to make up time, I kept on the speed and took only the strongest lift. This let me catch a few gliders. But as we turned around the airport to head for the third turnpoint, I realized the day had changed. Large high clouds were forming shading in the sun. The lead gaggle was storming onward into the shade and doing poorly. In the end most of them landed. One of the toughest mental challenges in a race is changing pace. Knowing when the day has changed from a race to a struggle for survival. I'm generally very bad at making this decision and was proud that I recognized the situation. I slowed down, gliding at trim, maximizing all lift, waiting for the clouds to clear. Patience... Is not something I have a lot of. I knew I needed to slow down and take all the lift I could, so I joined a group of gliders flying in very very slow lift just beyond turnpoint 3. But the lift was drifting them off course and after a few turns, I flew off toward turnpoint 4 all the time screaming at myself in my head "STAY! TAKE THE LIFT!" Grovel... I reached a small gaggle working even worse lift a few hundred meters over the ground halfway to turnpoint 4. I joined them and managed to stay up longer than several, but the clouds kept growing, the sun never emerged. A few desperate minutes later, I was on the ground with Pete Schaefer and one other pilot. STOP A few minutes later, the task was stopped because of thunderstorms. Pete, the other pilot, and I waited out a downpour under a tree and limped back to the LZ in a retrieve van. Validity In the end the day was worth less than 1000pts for the leader, and about 700 for me (putting me in 75 place for the day and around 100 overall). This means an additional discard, which is not a bad thing for me. Once we fly two more tasks, the first two days will disappear and I should move up.

Days 2 & 3 Cancelled...

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:00:23 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos l'Aquila Wednesday we boarded giant green 'Forestale' busses and trucked about 2hrs away to a site outside of the town of l'Aquila called 'Campo Imperatore'. The site was beautiful, but did not look promising. The launch is deep in a hole with some tall (7000ft?) ridges forming a big bowl behind and north. It looked windy and we were launching deep. Not a great combo. As it turns out, people were able to bench up and report from the sky was that the winds were manageable. Unfortunately, winds came up strong and rotored on launch—after some close-call launches (Urban, parachutal; Regula frontal, turn, recovered maybe 50ft above the dirt; Jack popped, dropped, dislocated finger), the task was cancelled. Those of us who hadn't launched rode the busses down to the LZ, on the edge earthquake devastated l'Aquila (read about the l'Aquila Earthquake). We passed many collapsed houses, Red Cross temporary tent housing, and a new moble home development going up to provide more permanent housing. At the LZ we had a small celebration with local foods—a show of support for bringing life back to the town. Day 3, back in Poggio Today we were back in Poggio Bustone, but storm clouds and high winds kept us on the hill. After several hours of top competitive para-waiting, the task was cancelled. A few hardy souls punched off in strong winds to glide to the LZ. The bulk of us rode the vans down and are catching up on blogs!

PWC Super Final, Task 1: Junk Show!

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:30:40 -0800

Results | SPOT Live Tracking | Photos Perfect Start Day 1, Super Finals, the race for number 1. Pressure is on. Sky is blue with low puffy clouds. I'm pumped. I'm nervous. I'm on what people here would consider an 'ok' glider (nothing like the crazy prototypes the top guys are flying). Launch is full of rocks and sticker plants and rocks and crazy European pilots. Somehow I got of the hill without tangling any of the above and positioned myself for the perfect start. Cloudbase 30 seconds before the start time, 300 meters from the start. Crossed into the cylinder about 2 seconds after the start, high, and the lead glider! It's the Super Final and I got the perfect start. I glided into the first turn point, turned to head back to the hill and tank up for the ride to turn point 2. Brad Gunnuscio joined me and we led the pack to the first thermal of the race. And that is where things started to fall apart... Slapstick Ensues So Brad and I are in a nice strong thermal when the other 130 gliders come to join us. It's the typical hyper-aggressive PWC crowd pushing and shoving in. Brad swings a little wide, an evasive maneuver and I turn tight behind him to stay in the strong lift. Whack! I hit his wake and take an asymmetric tuck. Not a big deal, but it sticks, cravated. I decide to fly straight out of the pack, planning to fish out the cravat, and duck back in. I will have lost height, but no big deal. My alternative, which turns out would have been a MUCH better idea, was to stay thermalling with 1.5 meters of my wing tucked in. Not efficient, but doable. So I fly out a bit and start tugging the stabilo. And it's still stuck. I let go of the controls and start the hand-over-hand pull to get the tip out—a little surprised that I need to resort to this for what looks like a pretty simple cravat, but these new gliders have a lot of structure, and things get stuck good. Finally the tip pops out, and hard. The stabilo pulls tight and wraps around my left middle finger. Now I'm literally stuck in the line, arm extended to the sky. What? This is ridiculous! I can't really believe it's happened, but it has. I pull my hand out of the glove and am now staring at my glove flapping a few feet over my head in the stabilo. This is not a good configuration. My hand is going to be cold. The flapping will drive me crazy. And the stablio is a little shorter with a glove wrapped in it. I take a calm breath, examine the wrap, figure out which way it's twisted, carefully untwist and recover my glove. All good, comedy routine over. But now I'm very far away from the thermal and kind of low. I guess I could have turned back, but at that point I decided it was better to continue on course and take the first ride up I found. The ride was a long time coming. When I was low enough to start spotting landing fields, I spotted a soaring bird launch from a tree. I joined it a few feet over the tree and rode a long slow thermal back to base. In the meantime at least 80 gliders had passed me. From lead glider to 80+ in one serious of slapstick maneuvers... Less than Perfect Ending I spent the rest of the task essentially flying alone at the back of the pack. I tried to stay patient but could resist a few attempts to catch up the other gliders. I made up some time, and eventually ran into Bill Hughes who had suffered his own serious of calamitous events that put him toward the back (just not quite as far back as I was..) The last turn point of the day was across the main valley. I knew I needed as much height as possible and some company to make it happen. I found a great climb and hit my highest altitude of the day. Then I hooked up with another glider (Regula) and patiently set out to cross with her. In retrospect, our positioning was not good. Winds were southwest and we needed to head almost directly into the wind to get the turnpoint. It would have been better to retrace our steps to the south along the hills and approached the turn from the southeast and quartered the wind. Instead we took the direct route from our climb, hit the wind, and dropped. I found a slow bubble half-way across the valley and patiently tracked it up. But I wasn't patient enough. Or I just lost the lift. I'm not even sure which. But I left too low. Regula had missed the bubble and landed short of the point. I reached the point, turned toward goal, and landed about 4km short. In the end I finished 112th... Fortunately, if we get two more flying days (very likely in this 11 day meet) I can discard the result...

2009 PWC SuperFinal

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:56:19 -0800

SPOT Live Tracking | Photos Poggio Bustone Denise and I arrived Sunday afternoon in Poggio Bustone, about an hour north east of Rome. The town is built about 2000 feet up a hill on the way from the LZ to launch. It's beautiful old stone houses, one small plaza, 1 restaurant and 2 bars. Semih Sayer and a couple Korean pilots are staying the the hotel with us. The rest of the pilots are spread out through the valley in rented rooms, farm houses, and assorted hotels. It's a beautiful spot, but I wish we'd rented a car. It's a bit tricky getting around by foot. Pre-Practice Day Yesterday was a 'pre-practice' day, an unofficial day with no organization support, but plenty of pilots in the air. I was able to get my glider out of the bag for the first serious flight since the PWC in Korea (several months ago). I remembered to replace my speedbar line, and everything worked well. All lines attached, I remembered what I was doing. Andy Palmer, Brad Gunnuscio and I had a nice flight chasing maybe 20 other pilots up and down the main ridge, with a pop out into the valley to test the lift for a crossing. I didn't want to be up too long—this is a long (10 day) meet and I don't want to fry myself before it starts. Plus I thought Denise was waiting in the LZ. Turns out she hooked up with Kim (Bill Hughes' girlfriend) and Sue (Jack Brown's wife) and was planning on hiking. In the end, Jack went for an adventure off on his own and landed out away from the LZ so the women spent most of the afternoon trying to find him. I spent my time at the LZ greeting pilots as they arrived and drinking some cool Italian beer. Practice Day Today is the official practice day, but I'm planning on taking it off. Denise and I will head into the nearest town and look for a scooter rental store. A bike looks like a great way to get around this place!

2009 PWC Korea: Day Cancelled... Meet's over...

Fri, 01 May 2009 23:45:55 -0800

Results | Photos It's too windy today and the task has been cancelled. We had 4 good tasks and some excellent eating. I finished 18th overall—my best finish for a PWC (previous best was 22nd), and significantly higher than my invite (I think I was 37th or so). The top 15 from each meet automatically make the super-final, but it's likely that the top 20 will be invited. So fingers crossed this is good enough for me. Unfortunately, I won't know until the end of the summer! Check out the results for the final standings.

2009 PWC Korea: Back in Brazil?!?!!

Fri, 01 May 2009 05:06:09 -0800

Flight | Results | Photos Grabbing for the Mask Today was a strange and most excellent day. Before hucking us off the hill we were informed that there would be a gift in goal—a Korean ceremonial mask for each competitor to arrive (similar to the one pictured on the Gin Gangster glider). And free beer. I was pretty bummed yesterday after making it to goal reasonably high, scoring well (800+ points) and dropping to 38th overall (thanks to the new PWC discard system...) So today I figured with really no chance of making it to the super-final I'd race for the damn mask! The Task Today started very much like the past few days, with a north push to a mountain about 7km beyond launch, and then a 15k or so track back along the main ridge to an ancient fortress south of launch. we've seen both those turn-points a bunch this week and though the run can involve getting deep in some windy canyons, I think everyone has figured out how to do it. But after the second turn-point, we hooked south-east into unknown territory, and then the route led us due west for another 40k, for a total task length of around 80k. The Twist... To make things a little more interesting, the route took us down a somewhat narrow corridor south of an airport (and no-fly airspace for us) and north of a military zone with, wait for it, ACTIVE AIR EXCERSISES WITH LIVE AMMO! Describing the route, Seong told us in his charmingly shy English "No permission. Stay north. Should be no problem." SHOULD BE no problem! Ok then, I'll stay north! The Flight As expected the flight started like the past few days with a death gaggle about 1k outside of the start cylinder. Usually at PWCs the pilots are aggressive but very in control. The pilot level here is a bit lower and the start gaggles have been terrifying. Abnout 5 minutes before the start I'd had enough and drifted away from the egg-beaters to catch my breath and prepare my race-to-the-mask. I hit start about 30 seconds late but with good height and headed on course. Returning from the start and turn-point 1, I stopped for some lift and avoided yestreday's mistake, making it over the first major ridge that had cost me so much time. But, I did watch Denis Cortella fall into the canyon as I had, push around the point, and get some lift. Basically, we met up at the same point, both directions taking about the same amount of time today. From there, we had the same ridge run south as the past several days. I was high. I was low. I got stuck once and scratched my way out with David Ohlidal and Julien Garcia. All in all, it was uneventful. After turn-point 2 things got interesting. First thing was that no one was getting much lift. I turned tail from the turn-point back to the main ridge, as did most of the field, and following my "don't race, get the mask" mantra, bobbled around for EVER, maybe 20 minutes, with some top pilots including Anders Baerheim and Hannes Huber. Up a bit, down a bit. Ahead of us, gliders had pushed out low on course and were landing. David Ohlidal pushed out, worked some light lift, and ran back toward us. Eventually Anders got fed up and pushed out. I stuck around a bit longer, and left with a few hundred extra feet, which in the end didn't matter. From here the course, with still about 55km left, turned into flats with low hills. And the lift got very very slow. Brazil slow.. Ahead of me there were several gaggles low and working very light lift. To my left Anders was leading a group in something that didn't look very worthy. For a moment I tried to push ahead of them, but there was nothing better in sight and Anders is a good pilot, worth sticking with. So I turned back and joined them. We turned dinky circles for maybe 10 minutes gaining almost nothing. Pushed a little fuirther out, found something light and crappy, turned a bit more. This went on for a while until we found something that was light, but big enough to keep the vario beeping ever so slightly for an entire rotation. We topped the slow guy out and continued on course. It was a slow slog of maybe 10k from that position to turn-point 3. After stopping just short of the turn-point for more Brazil-esque (100ft/m?) lift, we took the point and turned downwind toward goal. The lift stayed crazy light, but now the thermal drift was in the direction we needed. We had 40km more to go, but even turning in zero-lift (zero-sink) brought us closer to home. Anders and I stuck together, along with Dmitriy Chernyak from Russia, who was on a 2-3 (Niviuk Peak) and flying very well. We spent 40k topping out light lift, drifting in zero, and going on some frightening glides. But in the end there was lift everywhere we needed it. Low and slow, but we worked it. About 15k short of goal we stumbled (yeah dumb luck!) into a decent thermal over a river (huh?) and made enough altitude to glide over the gaggle ahead of us and get the better part of the lift that they had marked. My vario started showing a 10:1 to goal and I yelled over to Anders that we should take it. He Dimitiry and I peeled off, leaving a couple of our companions behind to climb a little more. I was worried about coming up short again, so I didn't touch speed bar. Anders and I cruised along with trimmers out chatting while Dimitiry (who'd left a little earlier than us) kept his slight lead. With a tail wind and no bar involved, today's 2-3s go as fast as a comp glider. A few minutes later we spied the goal line and put on some bar to catch Dimitiry. He made it into goal about 20 seconds ahead of us, but with leading points Anders came out ahead, with Dimitiry and I tied behind him. As I circled goal setting up to land I counted about 8 gliders and was wondering if maybe a bus load had aleady left—there had been so many gliders ahead of us earlier. Seems all the other folks had dirted. What we saw was everyone in goal—the first pack had beat us by ~20 minutes, but Anders, Dimitiry and I came in 10th, and tied for 11th. More importantly, we enjoyed our masks and beer :-) Super Final?? Amazingly my finish brought me up TWENTY places in the standings. Right now I'm at 18th. 15 and higher automatically make the superfinal, but it's likely that the top 20 from each meet will make it as well. So as of now, I'm fairly well positioned to make it. We have one more day scheduled for flying, and I'd love the chance to try to hit the top 15, but wind and rain are predicted and it's unlikely that we'll fly...

2009 PWC Korea: Task 5—Team America to Goal (and 98 others!)

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:33:40 -0800

Flight | Results | Photos 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.

Melanie Arriving in Goal

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.

Gin Party

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:23:40 -0800

Gin makes a great glider. He organizes an awesome meet. And he throws a rocking party! Tonight the Gin team arranged a Korean feast and traditional Korean performers: hat spinners, dancers, and a great clown routine that lost little in the humor from none of us understanding the jokes. Much beer and Soju was consumed. We'll see how this affects us tomorrow... Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but will link to others when they are posted.

2009 PWC Korea: Level 3 and He Means it!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:33:43 -0800

Flight | Results | Photos 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...

2009 PWC Korea: Task 3--Zero to Hero to zero...

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:40:25 -0800

Flight | Results | Photos 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:

Take a chance and screw the start
Crawl very slowly, and nearly alone (thanks to that start) upwind through the canyons.
Catch a serious screamer out of desperation canyon to 3000ft higher than I've seen in Korea.
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.
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...

2009 PWC Korea: Yesterday's Results, Today Task Cancelled for Wind

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:14:36 -0800

Results | Photos 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!

2009 PWC, Korea Task 1: Windy and Rough and Buckets of Fun!

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:16:18 -0800

Flight | Results | Photos 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??

Opening Ceremony Traditional Dances

Opening Ceremony "Electronic Performers"

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!