Monarca Task 2 by Jack

Day two of the Monarca was a 58K race to goal. Conditions were quite active with cloud base around 3000 meters. I managed an excellent start and flew with the lead gaggle for over half the race before falling a bit behind. I'm slowly but surely getting braver with my speed system.

A couple of gliders went into the trees today with no injury. Seattle pilot Meredith was one of them and probably has the world record for the number of tree landings. One reserve toss yesterday and two today I believe.

Wil flew well again today. Needless to say he's quite happy with the Omega 7. He's making good decisions, keeping his glider pressurized in sometimes challenging conditions, and having lots of fun doing it. He's really gunning for a top 10 serial class finish but the competition is quite stiff.

A high speed, 3 dimensional chess game pretty much describes the game we're playing. One minute you're at cloud base mashing as much speed as you dare, the next minute you're at trim speed concentrating on your next climb. Always shifting gears, constantly watching other pilots, evaluating your line against the lines of others near you, looking for birds, watching the clouds, constantly evaluating your strategy and changing it as the conditions change. Not only do you have to evaluate your own decisions, but the decisions of others as well. I write down the wing numbers of the top 15 pilots or so and have them right on my flight deck so that If I see one of the top pilots I can watch them more closely.

Today my final glide to goal was about 8 K. My 6030 said I had it on a 10 to 1 which is pretty marginal but I had two other wings racing me in so I decided to just go for it. I pushed as much speed as I could given the conditions and just barely cleared the tree line before the goal field. I had just enough altitude to make a turn into the wind at goal and loose maybe 50 feet before I landed! A bit too close for comfort but I did manage to keep just ahead of the other gliders. I have a ratchet block system set up with 4 mil speed bar line now which is helping my legs make it through these long flights....

US pilots are doing pretty good so far. Brad Gunnescio came in 3rd place today so should be top 5 overall with the next results after 2 tasks.
http://www.monarcaparaglidingopen.com/