Rat Race, Day 2

Today's task was very similar to yesterday's, and despite being a little longer at 42k, the winning time was under an hour, still short of the minimum task time of 1.5 hours.... Jamie Messenger (GBR) had the winning time. 110 Pilots launched, 57 made goal.

Goal was the Mule LZ again which is toward the end of the applegate valley and seems to be the task commitees goal of choice when the forcast calls for moderate North winds. The valley has a fair amount of small but steep spines that run perpendicular to the valley floor, especially in the last couple kilometers before goal, and coming in low can be a bad idea...

On our way back to HQ from goal in the big orange school bus they rented for the comp, someone spotted not one, but 2 gliders in the trees back in one of the above mentioned canyons. Both pilots probably just got too low back in the lee side, and got flushed and couldn't glide to an LZ. Luckily there were no injuries.

Lots of people in goal today. Climbs were topping out at around 6k today under pure blue skies. The forecast looks a little better for the next 2 days, the climbs should be a little higher, and maybe some Cu on the way.

My race went pretty well, even though I made a couple of errors, just a moments break in your concentration can cost you when it comes to time critical decisions...

Another fine day of riding the skies...

Results are here.

stay tuned.