Superfinal Day 5: a not-so-large task :)

More pics are here.

A far cry from yesterday.  This morning it was overcast, which in itself is not such a bad thing for here...often in Valle a cloudy morning presages excellent afternoon conditions after it burns off.  But in addition to being cloudy it was blowing down, hard, on launch (NE catabatic flow from the volcano), which I've never seen here before so wasn't sure if the usual generalization of cloudy morning = excellent afternoon would hold.

Nobody was keen to get their glider out and it was very relaxed on launch until the task committee announced 2 provisional tasks.  With a few wind techs tossed off launch it was confirmed to be lightly soarable (reports of 2m/s) so one of the provisional tasks was confirmed and it was time to fly.

Our reception upon landing.

I'm not sure where 2m/s came from, it was more like 0.2m/s, and very few discrete thermals, more like areas of generalized lift.  So soft compared to previous days.  It took forever to get above launch because every time somebody would find something "solid", all the other pilots would glom on and of course that was the end of staying in any sort of core!  But together we managed to claw our way up to 2500m and then it was rather fun light soaring of the Penon: it was so smooth and mellow we could work our way very close to the rocks, much closer than we would dare on a thermic day.

The start was 10km around La Pila but when the start time came, practically nobody went!  It sure was strange to watch pilots still milling around at Espina trying to get high before attempting the glide to La Pila (it was completely overcast, and the previous definition in the clouds had transitioned to a more uniform grayness) even though it had been OK to go for some minutes now.

Eventually, in two or three gaggles, we decided it was time to head out over the flats.  One gaggle tried the westerly route, while our gaggle tried the more easterly route.  I chose this route due to the small hills along the way, which I was hoping would trigger some sort of lift.  I think most other people were thinking the same thing as we all beelined for the hills but they just weren't producing.  In fact nobody was turning in anything, and it was clear this was pretty much going to be a gliding contest.

With no obvious lift our gaggle pushed as far towards La Pila before turning around to land in a small village which seemed convenient to the main road.  The field we chose initially seemed to be fine with what appeared to be various small humps of brown grass, but on final glide turned out to be nice football-sized rocks.  Perfect.  And of course all the village kids were streaming out of their houses and screaming "aqui, aqui" so we had the additional challenge of avoiding rocks + moving kids.

The retrieve van was already there so I'm thinking the organization must have realized there would be many pilots landing out towards La Pila and pre-sent the vans out there (otherwise it's a 1.5 hour drive around from launch), which was very thoughtful of them!  As we drove away we could see a gaggle of maybe 12 pilots still in the air but not sure if they made it very far.  I'm pretty sure nobody made goal and given that so many pilots landed out I don't think it'll be a very valid day.

Despite the task being too ambitious for the day's conditions, and once I was able to get above launch, I really enjoyed the flight.  It was so mellow and mild which is so unusual for here that the gaggles (once we achieved terrain clearance) were really very nice to be in.  So long as nobody tried to be greedy and everyone co-operated in the areas of generalized lift, everyone gained and very few people actually sunk out before the start.

Superfinal Day 4: big task!

New photos are here.

I think the task committee is trying to lessen the number of pilots in goal; today it was 145km (119km real distance) and it was gonna be a stretch to make goal in the allotted time.  Yet again we were sent all over the place, doing huge crossings back and forth across the flats and the mesa and this time no clouds to mark the way (at least initially).

We had one reserve deployment right at launch but none on courseline...we did however have some mayhem in the start gaggle as the thermals were a bit punchy and gliders were wriggling all over the place.  Every time I heard a collapse above me I cringed, anticipating somebody's glider coming down through the gaggle and taking me out as they went past, but nope all the pilots were very skilled and kept their machines more-or-less in flying mode.

The start was a 14km entry around Llano but we also had to tag the actual TP which meant we had to fly way over the flats against a cross-headwind and no clouds to mark obvious lift.  It was a bit of a stretch but just about all of us managed it and climbed out on Llano and then it was time to run the ridge to La Pila.

Tagging Serro Colorado and heading for the Monarca ridge.

Another big crossing of the mesa via 3 kings and we had to take lift away from our courseline just to stay high, but tagged Serro Colorado (behind Torre) and then headed for the Monarca ridge and lots of nice clouds.  This was actually the easiest part of the route since we had clouds to mark lift and lots of pilots were around to help us along.  We could see the lead gaggle making their way upwind to recross the mesa back to La Pila: a long slog against the SW wind and it was already 3pm.

I suspected we weren't going to have enough time to finish the course by 5pm with that headwind but our gaggle gamely kept on, tanking up on lift across the flats until we reached St. Augustine.  The wind was about 20kph and a direct headwind, and we somehow had to cross the mesa to the Wall, tank up, and then still head for La Pila before returning to the lake.

The gaggle tanked up on the last cloud over Jovan's and then we headed for the mesa.  Not much penetration despite lots of bar and most of us were dropping like flies, heading for the small bumps on the mesa, not finding much, and landing in various fields behind St. Augustine.  I landed next to the Maguey-Serro Gordo road for an easy retrieve and most of the rest of my gaggle landed within a few km's of me.  My tracklog is here.

Meanwhile the lead gaggle had managed the upwind crossing, made La Pila, and were heading for the lake.  But the goal closing was 5pm and many pilots didn't make goal before this time, so they only got credit for their 5pm location despite landing at goal.  I think "only" ~60 pilots officially got credit for goal so there was lots of retrieving going on for the organization.  Personally I was able to make 85 of the 119km which isn't so bad.  Since we still had so many pilots in goal today, I'm thinking the task committee will make things yet more technical in the coming days since we'll be allowed to recuperate during the upcoming mandated rest day in a day or two.

Superfinal Day 3

Flight is here.
Pics are here.
Results are here.

OMG yet another awesome day, this time with clouds and generally light winds.  This meant the task committee set a nice ambitious task of 103km, taking us all over the place: after Divis it was over the flats to the other side, then out to a rather remote TP before returning to civilization near the Monarcas and back to the lake.

I didn't feel as pummelled while waiting for the start like yesterday...with all the cloud action there was plenty of space to hang out so we didn't have to deal with a "death gaggle" very often.  But it was still nice to finally be flying someplace, even if it was just to Divis.  And yes, another reserve toss #1 on the way to Divis so the organization sent a rescue helicopter once we were all out of the area.

Heading to La Pila

There was a bit of south wind on the way to La Pila which made the going a bit slow especially trying to make it across to the windward side of the mountains.  Not much cloud action over there too so we had to work together a bit more to make it across and to the Llano area from yesterday.  Here we had clouds!  And really nice ones too, base was about 3600m and it was cold!, lots of pilots doing the hand-swing-thing on glide.

Our next TP was actually not that remote, but the direct route didn't look that nice with few clouds and lots of canyons, whereas if we detoured to the east and went further into the mountains, there was mucho clouds and base was more like 4000m.  At this point it was nice easy cruising under the cloudstreets, doing upwards of 60kph and a wonderful view of the volcano (it looked so close!), until it was time to rejoin with the Monarca ridge.

The Monarca ridge was indeed working (too well it seems as we had reserve toss #2 in the general vicinity) and then it was time to leave the juicy clouds and look for a convergence line.  There was one, not well-set-up, but enough to reach the other side and the final push to Serro Gordo.  I could see pilots ahead of me appearing to have trouble penetrating the SW wind as the lakebreeze had set up on the other side of the convergence and they were going to Serro Gordo low, landing at the base of it, etc, and generally not doing so well.  It looked like Serro Gordo was going to be my downfall yet again.

Yep, this time it was the horse ranch in the saddle between Serro Gordo and Escalaria, and I could see pilots heading out to land all around me, so I wasn't alone in not making goal.

So even though this is the 3rd time missing goal by something like 10km, I'm still really happy with my flight.  The task committee is setting some really imaginative tasks and it's an eye-opener to see just where you can go on a paraglider.  The scenery today was just stunning especially in the high country to the east, and I'd love to do some more tasks involving this area.

Superfinal Day 2

I had another awesome day today!  This time it was very blue with high cirrus shading things out at times, and the thermals were definitely snarkier.  Task today was longer than yesterday's: 92km from launch to Divisidero, Llano (to the SE of launch, across the canyons), Monarcas, Serro Gordo, and then the lake.

Heading for Divis

Tracklog is here; photos here; results will eventually be here.

I launched right as the window opened, so by the time the start came 1.5 hours later, I was already tired from the pummelling I was receiving at Crazy.  Lots of shouting as pilots were trying to fit into the small thermals and (mostly) succeeding.  I was *so* happy when the start happened, just so I could finally go someplace and gain some breathing room.

The rush to Divis was really fast, and we had our first reserve toss about 3km from the actual antennas.  With the rescue helicopter on its way, it was important for all of us to get out of there so no time wasted getting back to 3 kings and pushing back to Espina and out of the helicopter's way.

It was a bit crosswind to Llano, across large canyons with lots of power lines and inconvenient places to land out, so I took it slow along with some other classic EN-D's, staying high and avoiding the sinkhole areas I remembered from previous years.

After tagging Llano it was decision time.  The direct line to the Monarcas involved lots of canyons, small (or no) LZ's, and powerlines.  I saw the big guns going for the straight-a-way route but I was too chicken for that, so I opted for the safer route via launch and Penitas.  Marina was with me at this point but she opted to split the difference and I lost sight of her as I climbed out over launch (apparently there was a free-flyer in the trees at launch but I never saw them, so they must have been rescued already) and dove over the back to Sacamacate.

I don't really like Sacamacate, it's too close to Penitas which is usually rough and turbulent, but with the SE wind it was the place to be.  Frisbeed my way over to the usual convergence zone and then started making my way over to Monarcas.  No clouds to mark the convergence, and it was definitely weaker than previous days, but it was there and very useful to make it across to the TP.

At this point I heard of another reserve toss at the Monarca ridge, but the pilot landed safely in a field and was able to self-rescue before the retrieve showed up.  I was busy trying to get high enough to penetrate back to Serro Gordo, but the high cirrus that had been coming and going all afternoon was now here with a vengeance.

Joanna and I (very) slowly made our way upwind towards St. Augustine but were forced to hang out on a small hill in the middle of the valley while thing shut down for a while.  I had to spend 30 minutes fighting for any scrap of lift in the overcast and essentially went into survival mode.  I flew out to land so many times, but at the last minute was able to find enough to return to the hill and eke out another 5 minutes before repeating the whole process again and again.  It was torture!

Finally the sun came back out and we were able to climb out enough to cross to the garbage dump thermal and get up on the plateau.  But it was now 4:30pm and the task deadline was 5pm.  Would we make it in time?  The high cirrus was coming back and the thermals were shutting down, and Joanna and I made a last-ditch effort to cross to Serro Gordo and the 400m cylinder.  I was so close!  I was watching my countdown: 500m, 480m, 460m, 440m., 430m.... and then the trees were coming up at me and I had to decide to risk a tree landing or turn away before 400m.

My retrieve crew!

Well I took the safe bet and turned away, knowing that was my last chance to tag Serro Gordo as it was shutting down and most things were in shade.  Joanna was higher than me and was able to tag the cylinder and then go on glide for the lake, landing short but getting an extra few km's on me.  Meanwhile I was landing in the town of Serro Gordo, when I noticed a truck following me.  Retrieve?  Nope, it was the policia estatal and they were on patrol when they saw me landing and decided to liven up their usual routine.

So I had a nice audience of police officers who kept the mobs of kids from me so I could pack up, and then offered me a ride to HQ, but not before the obligatory photos and questions (where was I from, how old was I, how much did my gear cost, was it cold up there, did I like Mexico, etc).

So I arrived back at HQ in style with the police lights going and an escort of armed police right to the front door.  Much more interesting than landing at the boring goal field!

So in the end, despite me not making goal, I had a fantastic day and am quite satisfied with my flight.  I covered a lot of territory I don't usually cover, and the fight to stay aloft in the shade allowed me to practice my patience.  I ended up spending over 6 hours in the air today so I'm rather pooped, but at the same time completely stoked about the flight.  Unfortunately, because *not* making goal carries such a huge penalty points-wise during this comp, I'm probably not going to get much for my efforts :(

Superfinal Day 1

My tracklog is here; photos are here.
Official results are here.

A pretty awesome first day!  The task was a "medium"-sized task; not too big so as not to tire everyone out the first day, but longer than yesterday's.  This time we had to fly out over the flats to Santa Maria (waaay off the end of Espina), then over the plateau and behind Valle to Elefante, push back into the wind to Escale, and then the lake.

Initially there was a pretty strong inversion that we kept bumping up against...around 3000m, and it was rough until you could punch through it.  But once the start happened it was pretty straight flying to Santa Maria, there was tonnes of lift on the flats.  But progress was sloooww as there was a lot of south wind (more than the task committee expected as I found out later).

On glide for Santa Maria.  Slow progress but plenty lifty.

Heading for Elefante it was much faster flying, but it was a bit funky at Maguey and at one point the entire thermal was filled with female pilots.  Our girly gaggle finally got high enough to head over to Serro Gordo and then it time to figure out how to get to Elefante.  I had been thinking about this all during the flight and was hoping for some sort of convergence to help me along; yes! again it was there and able to get up to cloudbase and start the very fast (I saw a spike of 80 kph, 1/2 bar) downwind dash to Elefante.

The problem with the convergence is that it doesn't extend to Elefante, but more towards Saucos, so at some point we all had to leave the convergence and head into the blue.  I could see pilots getting very low after tagging the TP so I changed my strategy to tag Elefante, detour to the convergence near Saucos, and then fly underneath it upwind to Escale.  Joanna was with me but opted to try the more direct route back and I lost sight of her; the rest of the girly gaggle had gotten a bit of a jump on me and were a couple of km's ahead of me.

Finally I was able to push into the convergence and felt relatively safe from an outlanding behind Valle.  The wind was very strong from the south so it was a slow uphill slog, but I was able to skip from cloud to cloud in the convergence and make it Jovan's before they petered out.

I usually don't see the lake from this direction.
Blue hole here and the convergence is off the photo on the left.

Escale was only about 5km in front of me and I was at cloudbase about 3600m, which is usually enough to make it especially with a 1km radius.  Ronny Helgesen was just ahead of me so I went for the TP.  I could see a gaggle to the north of Escale, quite low, so I figured I was on the right courseline by taking the south route, but I was wrong!  The south wind was howling past Escale and I was plummeting.  You'd think 3600m would be enough to tag Escale and thermal up on the sunny windward side, but the ground rises up quite rapidly so you end up losing height faster than usual.

I was trying to penetrate to the windward, south side of Escale but I ended up tagging  the last TP about 30 seconds before being forced to land up on the plateau.  Ronny had tried the same tactic as me and he got shot down a few minutes before me so we ended up landing in the same field.

Retrieve was awesome and a truck arrived just as we walked to the road so we were back in time to join the goal-makers in the download lineup.  About 95 people in goal with several pilots just landing short.  One tree landing as a pilot didn't quite make the glide over the trees to goal, and Goran reports that he can now vouch for the efficiency of the helicopter rescue team :)  Several pilots landed in the water (although not deeply) due to congestion in the landing approach as well as insufficient empty real estate to finally put down in.

So, other than the 1 tree landing the day was quite successful from a safety standpoint.  Lots of pilots in goal (always a good thing), and personally I'm quite happy with my result.  The pilots here are so good, and so fast, that it takes everything I've got just to barely keep up with them.  I thought I was gonna land back at Elefante but managed to get myself out of that blue hole and back to the safety of the convergence, so at that point everything else was gravy.  And of course, landing with Ronny "Mr. Task Committee", meant I must be doing something right if I can outland with an excellent pilot like him who flies here more than I do.

In retrospect as I approached Escale and saw how windy it was, I could have dove into the north leeside and tried to get up there.  I saw pilots on the north side, low, and perhaps they ended up climbing out of there when I couldn't see them anymore, and ended up making the easy glide to the lake.  But hey, it's a learning experience and if we get more S vs. SW wind at Escale, I may avoid the direct line to the windward side the next time, unless I can climb higher beforehand!