17 Juli 2010

Task 5: 134 km around 4 turnpoints

Big task today for iffy conditions - the prediction was for cirrus and cu´s, the cirrus disappearing and the cu´s shading up to 90 %, yet light winds and good climbs. Oooops - waaaay wrong! The cirrus took over, the cumulus disappeared, so did the thermals, therefore we had strong wind...
It was difficult to slow down after a day like yesterday, and unfortunately some guys from my team hit the deck too fast. Hard work, we had to cross several passages with no or just very difficult landings and a cloudbase that never got higher than 2200m. After the 3rd turnpoint on top of a ridge, I would have had to fly headwind low into the hills and just decided it is safer to turn around, see if I can get up higher (nope, not at 7pm today) and try again. Instead I landed just in a field next to Ager. I was disappointed that I could not join Andre in goal and score more for our team, but when I found out that even Jonny beat himself up quite a bit with a tough landing at the last turnpoint, I wasnt too unhappy that I didnt dare more. My Red Bull Team mate Jonny is usually Mr Smooth Landings, but today he apparently smashed his intruments, luckily he is sort of ok apart from some scratches and so is the glider. I definitely would have like to see Jonny Durand win this meet, especially for the confusion of an Aussie winning the Euros :) Now he needs a small miracle to still win. But then who knows - magic happens!
Alex won the day ahead of Gerolf and Jamie´s darl Carl, the British guys made quite a lot of points for the team today and will move way up in the rankings. I heard something of around 24 in goal, but as I wasnt there, I still have to confirm that.
I was lucky to be back so early. Oli apparently landed on a field in quite high terrain, while Markus tried the back way and landed at yesterdays goal in vila mitjana. The guys are not back yet, just Andre and Gerd.

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