Bright 321, Day Seven

Today was similar to yesterday, same 5km start around Mystic and first TP at Smoko. From there it was upwind to Blackfellas, then way upwind to Valley Homestead, then downwind to the Antique Shed, then across the valley to the goal at Porepunkah airstrip.

Tunneling upwind was key, taking only the strong climbs (like the one shown in the photograph) and picking good glide lines was how you did it.

Despite the task committees excellent efforts to get us out of the mountain weather, the same pattern of afternoon thunderstorms stopped the race after 2 hours. When a tasked gets stopped, interesting things can happen. If you were climbing when it was stopped, not good. If you were at the end of a big glide when it stopped, you benefit because you were farther along the course. It's just the way the game gets played.

Early in the race, I was on glide near Clearspot when I heard the dreaded fabric crunching sound nearby, followed by the whumph of an opening canopy, followed by more fabric crunching sound and another opening whumph. I looked over my shoulder and saw the happy ending: a Boom 4 flying forwards with the pod facing backwards... The pilot spun out, hit a core, and started turning.

No one in the trees, no reserves tossed, but one pilot did launch with no leg straps or chest strap fastened, luckily for everyone he was able to get into his pod, clip in and fly the task...

All in all, it was a good way to spend the day. Tomorrow is the last day of the comp.

Scoring results can be found here here.

Stay Tuned