Red Bull Day Five, Task Three

Today was a mixture of climbing to base at 18,000 and astonishly fast descents to the dirt. The task ran down the Roaring Fork Valley for 15 miles to the "Monastery" turnpoint out in the flats behind Sopris, then back to Highlands before a fast glide to goal. Again the launch was Ruthies, due to what looked like a stable day but wasn't. The launch window opened at 12:00, and soon the sky was filled with fish dangling on thermal hooks. At one point a massive vertical gaggle  formed off launch, which marked the thermal incredibly clearly. It was cool to see 30 gliders snaking into the sky in a column. The air was strong and the climbs good, by far the best I've experienced all season. The strong conditions took Cherie Silvera for a ride, which ended well when she deployed and had a clean landing. Josh Cohn went DEEP into the canyon below launch, so deep that everyone on launch was running to the edge for a look. He climbed out very low and very deep in the rotor, a hell of a good accomplishment.

Conditions on course were excellent, but a strong wind up the valley meant forward progress low was near impossible. You had to stay high--very high, up to 18K, which was still a bit below base. I had an interesting run-in with a hawk at about 16,000 feet; I joined his thermal, and he immediately pulled up and got right on my trailing edge. I could see his eyes checking my wing out, then his feet lowered toward my trailing edge. Not wanting to see what they would do, I flapped my wing and he backed off, but we shared out thermal for a thousand feet or so before he tired of my company and bailed. I like bird interaction in the sky, they are often curious about what the hell this thing with a human dangling below it is doing in their air.Maybe they think the paraglider is a bird and I'm nothing but a really good kill?

As usual I don't know how the rest of the field scored, but I made goal tenth and last. About half the field dirted at the near the Monastery in the strong valley wind. I flew into the turnpoint fairly low, with the ground below littered with gliders, which I expected to join shortly. Luck smiled, and I got out low before climbing to base and gliding back toward the Highlands turnpoint, but on the far side of the valley. I had a battle to get back to Highlands, but the day was really turning on so the upwind glides went well. I repeatedly pegged my speed bar today, far more aggressively than I've ever felt comfortable doing on a comp glider. I know I can recover the Rocket from an accelerated collapse, something I was somewhat unsure of doing on a full comp glider, so perhaps for me flying a 2/3 is more effecient as well as fun.

A few stories: Mark Horvath went to base, (do the math), then lost it all and landed in about five minutes. Bill Belcort displayed his usual rat terreir tenacity and did battle for over five hours before landing near the first turnpoint, and Rob Whittal and John Pendry made goal on their 2/3 Protons in top ten despite the upwind flying. At this point they are in the money for both the serial class and the open class, which shows what good pilots on serial gliders can do. A few pilots (myself included) have had film problems, so the scores being circulated are at best provisional. I wanted to post updated scores today, but they're changing rapidly, I'll do so as soon as the solidify. This isn't due to poor scorekeeping, just tight competition and difficult sectors. Every aspect of this comp has been really first-rate so far.

The evenening's entertainment program was first rate. Ron Young won the hang glider aerobatics comp (and $3,000) with a slick routine, just edging Aaron Swepstein by less than 12 points out of over 3,000. Three tandem rigs (actualy one tandem--Oathar flying tandem on his Rocket and Micky on a Sigma 4) launched with base jumpers dangling; seeing the passenger go flying off the gliders and into space was just wild, every tandem pilot's worst nightmare and totally insane looking, a body just wheeling through space above the ground. One skydiver had a hard time releasing until perhaps 800 feet off the deck, and his chute only opened about 200 feet above the crowd. I can't describe the feeling of watching someone fall through space so close to the ground, only to land cleanly in front of the crowd.  Chris Santacroce threw a base jumper off in a huge wingover, then full-stalled his passengerless tandem before throwing a sweet (intentional) spiral all the way to the ground; his harness went through the grass before he pulled out of it with style. The paragliding aerobatics of all varieties here are definitely wild to watch; I've never seen so many people so far over their wings.

Event organizers Chris Davenport, Oathar Lawrence and Dave Bridges continue to put on a really first-class meet.