RAT RACE TASK 2

Conditions were similar to yesterday, but a little better and maybe a little more active - I saw a few comp gliders coming apart and loosing big chunks of altitude. I also saw a reserve toss right over Woodrat just before the start. The pilot got injured upon landing and I don't know the extent of the injuries... I may post more about what I saw as it could be helpful to others, but not at this time.

I must mention that Sam Mulder showed showed his selfless character when he side hill landed just below the top and went to help the pilot. (Sam is a firefighter and has first responder training). Well done Sam and hats off to you! I hope you got all the poison oak off of you. David Norwood also top landed to help, hats off to you also for putting yourself at risk to help another pilot.

More about the task:

We decided to keep the start similar but move goal to Dark Hollow which is in the Medford valley. As usual the transition to Rabies was hard for the sport gliders, there seemed to be a little wall of wind just before the ridge. Tomorrow we are going to think about making Burnt ridge the first turnpoint as it seemed to work quite well today.

The scores should be our very soon, but I know there were 20+ pilots in goal.

Bill Hughes won the day, I came in right behind him, and then Paul Murdoch and Bill Belcourt, not sure what order those two finished.

Results will be here.

A little about what makes this comp special: tonight I sat in one of the evening classes put on by a couple of the real pros of our sport and I am thinking of how much the people in the room are learning, the information transfer is worth 10 years of trial and error, unbelievable value. Tomorrow's class is one I won't miss - tricks on using speed bar.

Just the daily courses are worth the 395 bucks... seriously. But then we get to fly what looks like to be every day, and get mentored by pilots that know so much more than we do... and the social scene is off the hook. The river is really nice too.

Cheers

Brett