Red Bull Wings Over Aspen, Task Four and party.

The predicted winds weren't apparent on Wednesday, which meant we had another task. The task was supposed to be fast, just racing around Highlands, Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk in the mellow conditions and light wind. A few competitors probably found it that way, but anyone who didn't jam the course in the first hour and a half was in a for a violent day when the wind picked up out of the north; since we were basically going cross or up-wind to all the turnpoints, and all the turnpoints were on ridges, it was suddenly common to being gliding into a turnpoint well below it. I learned a LOT about thermalling in the lee today, some of which I might want to try again. Time after time I would watch gliders battle along upwind until they sunk below ridgeline, taking a pounding, then get established in close to the hillside and climb out. Who would of thought? I would follow, as did most competitors.

The maneuvers clinic started early when Chris Davenport went lee and took a beating in the rotor, but landed safely in the aspen on the side of Aspen Highlands. He came over the radio with, "Ah, this is Dav, I'm in the trees but I'm all right." Charles, Safety Director, asked if he would need assistance to get out of the trees. "Ah, yes, I will." Everybody could see the bright yellow of the glider/reserve hanging in the trees, and Chris watched as we crossed back and forth over him. Strangely, many people thought that he had said, Gadd, not Dav, and assumed it was me in the trees. This rumor was to grow.

Minuit went in not longer after, expertly piloting his Beamer reserve into a succulent aspen grove. On launch a non-competitor took a bad whack and spun it into the trees, but only bruised his lungs a bit, a nice outcome. Out on course things were rowdy, I saw some great whacks today for sure. I rarely take major deflations, but took more than I have in the last year combined: I was quite happy to be on a serial Rocket, it recovers so well even from the non-tested "rag" position. The air was especially engaging when gliding upwind into the Butttermilk turnpoint, situated where a large gentle upslope drops off precipitously. I repeatedly would glide toward the steep hillside, dropping like a rock with the bar stuffed, then get whacked and have to retreat, climb back out, then try it again. I wasn't willing to just totally dive into the lee to get up to the turnpoint, but after watching a few other competitors do it I finally gave into the dark side and did it too. It didn't work the first time, although the air was nice and smooth once you got across the "eddy line," just like an eddy in a river...

Eventually I got fully stuffed up a canyon and lee enough to climb out, but not before spending an hour and a half thermalling on alternate sides of a canyon perpendicular to the wind. One side was sunny and lee, so I would climb up that, get stuffed, then ridge soar up the windward side, glide back into the lee, get stuffed, repeat. I almost didn't make it out of the canyon at one point, the Aspens were looking pretty good--the lee wind blowing up my canyon was so strong I couldn't glide "downwind" much at all! Once I committed and got in close on the sunny lee, it really was like being in a river eddy, all nice and smooth even though you knew the wind was ripping over your head at 20 just a few hundred vertical feet away. I climbed out in a strong enough thermal that it blocked the rotor (thermals have lots of inertia apparently), and then did the glide over the turnpoint and onto goal. I actually kissed the ground when I landed, those four hours were among the more interesting flying I've done in recent memory. I've flown stronger air, but rarely anything so choppy that caused so many deflations. At one point I seriously considered flying out and landing, but it seemed like the places I was getting worked here relatively safe (lots of altitude,) so I had a good profanity session and got my psyche back up to continue doing battle. Sometimes throwing a good stress-releasing wobbler all alone in the sky is very therapeutic.

Josh Cohn made it into goal in Sixth overall, while Rob Whittal and John Pendry continued their dominance of the serial class to also make it in early. Chris Santacroce and I came in within a couple of minutes of each other (almost last) for the top Norte Americano Serial places. At goal I also learned that apparently I'd crashed into the trees, then abandoned my glider and run for the airport to make a flight to Austria, where Othar and I are competing in the Dolomiten Man adventure relay race. I did have a flight at 3:45, but was stuck up a canyon with no good landing options about then, and with only one turnpoint out of five left there was no way I was going to go land anyhow.

Bodo Genz won the open class, Josh Cohn won the US nationals on a comp glider, and John Pendry won the serial class.

There were no serious injuries at this year's nationals, a marked contrast to last year when we had three people in the hospital at the end of the meet. Most people were flying serial class gliders which probably helped a fair amount, but I also got the sense that people were more aware of the risks involved with flying in comps. Josh won on DHV III wing, and he was also the only top-ten pilot in the US nationals flying a comp wing. Josh is a good pilot and quite possibly would have won had he been on a serial wing, but I think we're going to need two classes for nationals in the future. If the winner is on an open-class wing, then it's only going to encourage others to fly them too. I liked competing on my Performance Rocket, especially in the rowdy air, but it was dead obvious that the full comp gliders still go better upwind. I watched three of them do so, it was frustrating for sure. John Pendry placed in the top ten on his serial wing, which proves that serial wings can be flown with the open wings, but most people aren't John Pendry.

I'm on a flight to Italy, where Othar and I will compete in the Dolomiten Man race. I can't help but having flashes of how good this comp was. Parties every night, clean organization, good tasks, it shows what can happen when you put a good crew of people together with a good budget. Red Bull has really supported flying around the world, they deserve our thanks for one hell of a good meet. Dave Bridges ran it well, he's off to Tibet for a climbing trip also.