The day dawned with a chill in the air... again. I guess it is winter here after all. At any rate the variation today was the cirrus which induced the task committee to set a 91km task from Piano to Divisidero, Llano, Monarca, Cerro Gordo and eof SS 3km from Torres and then goal via the safety TP (Torres @ 400m).
The drier air gave few clues about lift and the cirrus had little effect from what I could tell.
The run to Divisidero was fast and furious from 3,500m ASL. Primos threw his backup after taking a big collapse with a twist. Looked like something that just wasn't going to recover low down. He landed in the trees a few seconds after the white pumpkin blossom bloomed. He got airlifted out by the resident chopper which was hectic according to the hapless pilot who said the wash from the rotors broke the branch/tree he was snagged in dropping him a couple of meters.
The run to Divisidero was fast and furious from 3,500m ASL. Primos threw his backup after taking a big collapse with a twist. Looked like something that just wasn't going to recover low down. He landed in the trees a few seconds after the white pumpkin blossom bloomed. He got airlifted out by the resident chopper which was hectic according to the hapless pilot who said the wash from the rotors broke the branch/tree he was snagged in dropping him a couple of meters.
The return was interesting with the majority of the field stopping to climb at least 1km off to the right of the course line giving HansB and I a free lead out bonus run to Maguey and Espina before hooking up again on the way to Llano. Llano proved to be relatively easy and a tidy gaggle got up shortly after to make the glide toward Monarca.
This turned into a bit of a dog show as we got to the plateau 10km out from Monarca a little lowish and had to scrape to get up before re-grouping and taking Monarca on the tree line.
After that it was a free for all with about twenty pilots in the running behind one solo pilot who slipped the net. The run to CG was fairly straight forward with everyone staying out of trouble and completing the task. A strong showing by team USA with Eric, Josh, Jack and Nick all arriving with the first group along with my team mates, LucasB & JeremieL plus one or two Swiss. We were all going pretty fast at the end and I could not detect any advantage between the Ozone & Nviuk at the top end of the speed range.
Our team (Niviuk) was first yesterday and probably top three today!! Rock on!!
Unconfirmed news: Luca Donini (ex-world and European champion) landed under reserve in the trees near goal after the safety TP.
2 comments:
Thanks for update Andre!
Great news Orbi!!! Fantastic results. You make us proud buddy. Keep on blogging and flying like a wizzard
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