Copa do Mundo - Brasil 2023 - Pico do Gavião, Andradas - Tarefa 4 (após 2 dias de descanso) 67km.

Eu apreciaria feedback quanto à qualidade desta tradução do inglês para o português.

Esta é a minha terceira visita a Andradas. Estivemos aqui em 2017 e 2019 e voamos quase todos os dias. Também voamos em Poços de Caldas em 2010 (visível do lançamento), mas isso foi em abril e choveu praticamente todos os dias. A razão pela qual viemos a Andradas, como explicado anteriormente, é devido à 'Teoria das Oliveiras'.

Portanto, ter dois dias consecutivos sem voar em Andradas faz parecer que o céu está caindo. Para ser sincero, provavelmente voaremos novamente hoje, o que resultará em mais cinco dias de voo, o que é incrível em termos de consistência para qualquer local de competição em todo o mundo.

Quanto à tarefa de ontem, as condições foram muito mais moderadas em comparação com as tarefas anteriores. A base estava 2.000 metros mais baixa, com atividade térmica suave e ventos leves. O comitê de tarefas atingiu um pico criativo ao definir uma tarefa de entrada-saída de círculo concêntrico, o que exigiu tomadas de decisão críticas por parte dos pilotos, ao contrário da procissão normal que caracteriza as competições da Copa do Mundo.

Você verá pelas trilhas na imagem abaixo que várias rotas eram possíveis:

Estou feliz em relatar que finalmente coloquei as coisas em ordem e fiz boas escolhas. Usei a rota da escolha minoritária sob uma rua de nuvens no eixo norte/sul para chegar à meta em um tempo razoável, cerca de 10 minutos atrás do líder, seguido por Russell (+18min) e Khobi (+24min). Jon foi forçado a voltar no início, pois o vento mudou mais abaixo. Russell ainda está entre os trinta primeiros, e Khobi subiu para o terceiro lugar na categoria feminina e tem todas as razões para ser otimista em relação a um lugar no pódio.

O dia foi caracterizado por poucas térmicas, e fomos resgatados pelos pássaros em várias ocasiões. A meta foi colocada na base da montanha, o que tornou o voo final angustiante se você estivesse na margem, já que o terreno se inclinava para cima. Tive que fazer uma curva após concluir a seção de velocidade para cruzar a linha da meta.

Não sou de reclamar sobre equipamentos, e, embora tenha ficado satisfeito com a tarefa, é evidente que o Boom 11, que é o mesmo modelo que usei em 2017, pode não estar à altura da tarefa, e meu arnês também é de geração anterior. Todos os outros estão usando equipamentos novos e isso fica evidente em termos de planeio e velocidade. Configurei meu sistema de velocidade para obter a máxima velocidade, e isso é apenas o suficiente para manter o ritmo nas transições, onde fica evidente que os outros têm velocidade de reserva, já que perco altitude relativa em cada planeio. O B11 ainda é competitivo na subida.

O novo Niviuk parece realmente bom, juntamente com o Enzo 3 de 2023. Os pilotos que voam com o arnês 'Submarine' juram que são melhores, apesar da aparência absurda e das partes moles quando desinflado.

Vou esperar pelo lançamento de algo novo e, em seguida, atualizarei o planador e o arnês.

A nova safra de pilotos de competição brasileiros é muito forte, pressionando forte na liderança.

World Cup - Brazil 2023 - Pico do Gaviao, Andradas - Task 4 (after 2 rest days) 67km

 This is my third visit to Andradas.  We were here in 2017 & 2019 and we flew almost every day.  We also flew Pocos de Caldas in 2010 (visible from launch), but that was in April and it rained pretty much every day.  The reason we come to Andradas, as previously explained, is due to the 'Olive Theory'.  

So, to have two consecutive non-flyable days in Andradas makes it feel as though the sky is falling.  Truth be told, we will fly again today in all probability making for another five days of flying which is amazing in terms of consistency for any competition site anywhere in the world.

As for the task yesterday, the conditions were far more moderate compared to previous tasks.  The base was 2,000m lower with mild thermic activity and light winds. The task committee reached a creative peak by setting a concentric circle entry-exit-entry task which made for some critical decision making for pilots as opposed to the normal procession that has come to characterise world cup competition.

You will see from the tracks in the image below that several routes were possible:

I am happy to report that I finally got my act together making good choices.  I used the minority choice route under a cloud street in the north/south axis to get into goal in reasonable time some 10 minutes behind the leader followed by Russell (+18min) and Khobi(+24min).  Jon got flushed at the start as the wind switched lower down.  Russell is still in the top thirty and Khobi has moved to third place in the ladies and has every reason the be optimistic about a podium finish.

The day was characterised by low saves as we were rescued by the birds on several occasions.  Goal was placed at the base of the mountain making for a nerve-wracking final glide if you were on the margin as the ground sloped upwards.  I had to turn in a bubble after making the end of speed section in order to cross the goal line.

I am not one to complain about equipment, and, though I was happy with the task, it is apparent that the Boom 11, which is the same model I used in 2017, may not be up to the task and my harness is old generation too.  Everyone else is on crisp new kit and it shows in glide and speed.  I rigged my speed system to extract maximum speed and that is only just enough to maintain pace in the transitions where it is apparent the others have speed in reserve as I lose relative altitude on every glide.  The B11 is still competitive in the climb.  

The new Niviuk seems really good along with the 2023 Enzo 3.  The pilots flying the 'Submarine' harness swear they are better despite the absurd appearance and floppy bits when deflated.

I will wait for the release of something new and then upgrade glider and harness.

World Cup - Brazil 2023 - Pico do Gaviao, Andradas - Task 3 (yet Another) 87km

 The wind was predicted north-westerly strengthening to 30km/h+ so we were sent off the north launch with a more sensible start after the protest about the start yesterday.  The potent conditions saw more airspace infringements on the day.  A new law of nature has emerged in Andradas where maximum heart rate is directly correlated to proximity of 3050m ASL.  I watched many pilots spiralling desperately after flying into huge patches of lift that hoisted them rapidly toward the hard ceiling.

I wish  I could share the task with you blow by blow, but my race was over ten minutes before the start where I went from perfectly positioned to holding a detached brake handle after a particularly nasty blow-out and aggressive shock re-inflation of my wing at close to 3000m ASL.  Can't catch a break it seems.  I managed to land safely after a long internal debate about the sensibility of trying to fly the task in strong conditions with one brake.

Jon had the perfect start reaching the first turnpoint ahead of the horde, only to discover, after a successful goal, that he was a few seconds early at the start.  Khobi also had a difficult time.  Only Russell managed to save some SA face by romping into goal in 20th position on the day for a 20th overall.  

Russell, Khobi, and Jon all reported turbulent conditions and 30km/h headwinds on the into-wind leg.  Russell saw 90km/h ground speed and a final glide ratio of 20 into goal.  It took the goal bus three hours to crawl back to Andradas delivering Jon and Russell back to us exhausted, famished, and relieved.

It is debatable if Wednesday will be flyable given the strong wind forecast.  I need to check if my glider is damaged after yesterday's little incident given the ripping sounds I heard and the visible damage to some of the stitching on the risers.

World Cup - Brazil 2023 - Pico do Gaviao, Andradas - Task 2 (Another) 87km

What should have been a celebration of flying started with a similar forecast, but the wind was slightly more westerly starting a cascade of mistakes culminating in a war of words and threats of protest.

The organisers, task setters, and PWC staff are always faced with the significant challenge of getting pilots off launch safely while minimising the pressure at launch, reducing stress of the start, and making the task fair for all competitors.  Get one of these wrong and good intentions are not rewarded.

The trouble yesterday is that the collective intentions were good, but led to maximum stress at launch and the start with a significant proportion of the field feeling hard-done by.  The combination of a large start  cylinder with the first turnpoint placed on the far side of the start cylinder implied that to be competitive you had to fly almost twenty kilometers before the start window opened, on a day where conditions allowed a slow trickle of single launch opportunities.  In other words, not all pilots could launch on time to make it across to the start.

....And so the war of words began soon after the task was flown and the goal buses were on the way back to HQ.  To the credit of the goal setters (drawn from the experienced pool of top Brazilian comp pilots), Rafael Barros immediately apologised unreservedly for getting it wrong after the first complaint was posted on the whatsapp group.  

What was less impressive was the pace at which the virtual shouting degenerated into mud-slinging.  It was entirely regrettable to see Goran provoked into response after counter-response where threats were made.

The facts are that: despite setting the task to try and make it safe and telling pilots to launch as early as possible at the briefing, it was not possible to get everyone off quickly enough and many pilots were unhappy.  Insisting that 'I told you so' does not make for harmonious cooperation between competitors and organisers.  

Another disturbing turn was being told at the briefing that if pilots did not respect the rules of the air when joining a thermal with respect to turn direction, the turn direction would be dictated to us all day!  In twenty plus years of world cup, this is a first.  

I don't know if protests were lodged, but I think this will all blow over seeing as we get to fly close to 100km every day.  That's why we're here remember?  The best comment of all on the whatsapp group was some monkey satire about the lunch supplied at launch: "The bananas are too sweet".

As for team SA: Russell did us all proud screaming into goal a mere minute down with Jon and KJ late to the start and shutdown by shadow to narrowly miss goal.  Russell is looking good at 24th overall.

I managed to take a tumble down the west slope tying my glider into knots that took half an hour to sort out, so my day was done before I even managed to launch. I took a slow glide into town enjoying a solitary lunch in a quaint little restaurant where I was further challenged with my limited Portuguese, I thought I had ordered chicken and rice but received pork and salad.

I am thankful for the discard system as I have the opportunity to redeem myself in the days to come.

World Cup - Brazil 2023 - Pico do Gaviao, Andradas - Task 1 87km

 I woke to a favourable forecast after a death-like sleep of exhaustion. A four thousand meter cloud base is normally cause for celebration, but sadly the three thousand meter limit makes for stressful flying if you want to avoid being penalised.  Many pilots got it wrong and paid the price with point deductions on a sliding scale.  If you break the limit by a few meters it is not so bad, but break it by one hundred meters or more and you get zero.  There will be unhappy pilots for sure.

The task was set to the west initially followed by a dog-leg north with goal at an airstrip some sixty odd kilometers north west of launch making the optimised task length just short of ninety kilometers.  There were few opportunities for any creative flying, so the inevitable procession saw almost all competitors into goal with half the field into goal within 16 minutes of the winner.  The points were squashed up with the first 75 pilots getting 800 points or more. 

I was 16 minutes off the pace and 5 minutes behind Russel who finished in the top 30.  Jon was another few minutes behind and Khobi brought up the back of the field with a hard earned goal.

It seems not much has changed over the last four years in the world cup style of racing.  We may not have covered ourselves in glory today, but it was an adequate performance by team SA given the extreme low airtime and prolonged lack of comp exposure.  This bodes well for the rest of the comp as we have the opportunity to improve.   

There is something perverse about leaving a 5m/s thermal prematurely and just as it begins to accelerate, but I guess them is the rules, so we play along...

 

World Cup - Brazil 2023 - Pico do Gaviao, Andradas - Airborne Again

Why Hello there!  It has been many moons since my last post.  In fact the last blogpost I made happens to be from the same flying site almost exactly four years ago.  Pico do Gaviao: the place where they grow both coffee and olives which appears to be the perfect recipe for a three thousand meter cloudbase and hundred kilometer triangles all day everyday.

So much has happened since 2019 and I don't even know if  'Blogging' is even a thing anymore, but it doesn't bother me: I am in flying heaven enjoying communion with my favorite crew of world-cup hardened companions (Russel, KJ, & Jon). We have been travelling together for more than a decade and it is gratifying to be with people who understand me, have my back no matter what, and accept me as I am.  I have missed these trips more than I thought I could.

Speaking of having unconditional support, one unlucky pilot was arrested at Sao Paolo for a bizarre misunderstanding on the flight over, and was detained over-night in the airport police cells until the world cup pilots could scrape $10,000 dollars together for bail.  I'm not sure what will happen to him after the comp, but he is free to fly for now.  What a nightmare!

Practice Day: Saturday 23 September 2023

You guessed it: potent thermals, high cloud-base, cloud streets, moderate wind.  We flew a quick 65km triangle of sorts which felt effortless in the buoyant conditions delivering 10km glides between climbs in the most relaxing flight I have had in years.  

The world cup has seen some structural changes with new people joining after Ruth and Ulrich retired recently.  Goran is still in charge looking lean and fit and has said they are trying to modernize the world cup.  The local organizer seems very professional as we have come to expect in Brazil.

A shout-out to Ruth and Ulrich is in order. They served the PWCA unfailingly for many years.  We are grateful for their service.

The launch site is probably the best I have ever enjoyed I raved about it in a 2017 post :

We are in Aguas da Prata to fly Pico do Gaviao which quite possibly has the most impressive launch setup of any site I have visited anywhere in the world.  There are launch areas for any wind direction with a coffee shop, cooled water fountain, serviced ablutions, ample shade, and souvenir shop with easy chairs and mobile phone charge lockers.  Auguas da Prata is located in the state of Sao Paulo some 200km+ north of Sao Paulo.  The population is around eight thousand which makes for a fairly quaint atmosphere when combined with Brazilian hospitality.

They have added wifi and hammocks to the perfect setup since that visit.

Three Way Streets

The mission was distance in the days of reliable recovery at my home site.  He or she who flew the furthest was monarch of the mountain and the competition was fierce!  As the peer group dwindled over the years, and the recovery options dried up I took to flying out and return routes and triangles mostly out of necessity.  In one memorable stretch, five of these flights were consecutive hundred kilometer FAI triangles performed on average to poor days in winter.  I had adopted the attitude that every day was a hundred kilometer day and I would go to the mountain without checking the weather beyond severe storm or wind warnings.  

At some point the valley appeared to simply surrender to my irrational determination. Her secrets were finally laid bare. It felt as though the conspiracy of the elements relinquished their hold on the hidden code that is embedded in the universal interplay of fire, earth, and air manifest in wind and cumulus.  There was no struggle.  No wrestling with the environment.  No second guessing nature.  No angst. No gnashing of teeth or clenching of fists nor cursing of gods.  I just felt a timeless state of flow that was somehow balanced despite the dynamic chaos of the inherent physical systems and their relentless entropic vectors.

I finally realised those patterns repeat with eerie consistency...  Never exactly the same, but predictably similar. There was no victory over, or conquering of the elements nor any grand claims or declarations of prowess.  It was as though, in the haze of first light, a glimpse of the underlying patterns in the localised system are seen, or perhaps felt, as remnants of a golden thread that is the path through an invisible maze.  I guess through more than twenty years of flying cross country I had experienced this regularly, but it finally emerged into my consciousness for some unknown reason as an epiphany of sorts.

A cynic might say this is true everywhere and there is no need to frame the fact in mystery or mystique.  It may very well be true everywhere and I have flown most of the 'fly-by-numbers' sites the world cup has to offer where local experts set a course in a prime flying area tailored to the conditions for the expert horde to fly together.  It is quite another matter to go solo in the flatlands and to remain airborne for the entire duration of thermal activity throughout a random day covering significant ground in the process.

The question of familiarity with flying sites and the generalisation of what represents that familiarity as exportable 'patterns' is demonstrated by the very best pilots who can 'flash' new sites in the language of rock climbers.  These pilots regularly arrive at an unseen site and dominate whether by standard routes or Beta-breaks.  How is this possible?  Why does it happen so often?  Most likely it is by intuition borne of experience and instinct honed from the emergent heuristics of trial and error.  The keenest intuition and sharpest instincts belong to the best...  and, as with any knife, the quality of the cutting edge depends on the source material, the manufacturing process, utility, and care of the knife.