Task 3 - Chelan Open

The last task of the 2008 Chelan Open was a huge triangle - 73 miles (118 km) to be exact. Conditions were really good, light wind, Cu at 11,000 ft, and it was cold aloft, 35 F...

Dean Stratton won the day, completing the course in 3:48. That put his average speed at 30.5 km/hour, that is fast! My flight was a little slower (way slower) it took me 5 hours and 42 minutes to get home... and I was really lucky on course, 2 very low saves and for the final glide, we had to cross over the rim of the Columbia gorge, which I cleared by a mere 25 feet... and then had to ridge soar with tons of bar to get across the river and to goal at the soccer field.

I was way under-dressed and spent a lot of the day shivering like mad. This flight was the biggest triangle I've ever done, and the longest I've been aloft - 7 hours.

So we only had 3 tasks, but they were all good ones. Chelan is a great place for XC when it's on, and it was on for the last day.

Results are here

Over and Out!

Task 2 - Chelan Open

Blown out today, but tomorrow looks great.

Yesterday we had a 68 km task going straight to Okanogan. The field split into 2 right at the start, the upwind group crossed the river and the downwind group took the direct line. The downwind group was the larger one.

The direct line had some tough spots right after the first glide - the lift was broken and drifting hard, I was one of the people to sink out at the airport, so I can't tell you much about the task except that Cherie Silvera won the day.

41 in goal, 985 points for Cherie. Mike Steed is first overall.

Stay tuned.