25 August 2016

Day 7: 80km and award party!


Results here! On the last day of the Brasilian Nationals, the wind was a lot stronger on take off, but the prediction for thermals was good, so we were hoping for a nice day. The task was about 80 km around 4 turnpoints.
I am ok with strong wind take offs, but my helpers on launch were not quite ready to let me fly, so it was a bit scary. Luckily I could just pull it off and start into the task with a lot of adrenaline, racing along the ridge with the guns.
Just before the waterfall turnpoint, I had to stop to get high again. That should have been the last thermal of my day! On the high plains in the flatlands, the wind was really strong and seemed to kill any kind of lift. I glided to a huge field and landed in a breeze of about 35km/h, still one hand on the base bar, one on the upright.
Looked like nobody went to goal. Glauco Pinto won the day with 51km, I was in 10th with 44km - not a bad result, after a very exciting start!
A nice Brasilian couple came up to me, they really liked my glider and took some photos. Then I was on my own for a while until a herd of cows came a long to keep me company. 
Later in the evening, there was a barbecue and the awards party at the house of one of the pilots, a beautiful place for celebrating the week we had, with music, drinks and food.
Jonny Durand won the Open Nationals ahead of Andre Wold and Nene Rotor. Carlinhos Niemeyer and Glauco Pinto qualified for the Worlds team next year as well as Andre, Nene, Davizinho and Rafael Mello.
I was pretty stoked to finish 16th overall and first woman, in an area I have not known or flown before, surrounded by top pilots. A good start for my worlds training!

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