Monday Task 2

All I can say about today is that me knees are killing from trying to keep up with these guys and gals!! Never have I seen such a strong field of pilots who are all pushing pushing pushing! Today was pretty fun but very tiring... an 88k race to goal with the first part of the race very fast in the mountains under strong thermals and much flying at cloud base. Then the course went out onto the flat lands and things slowed down considerably. Lots of decision making today so was quite challenging deciding the best line to take, and the best route to fly the course. I kept up as best I could and kept with one of the two lead gaggles throughout the race. The two lead gaggles went in two completely different directions for the valley crossing so was quite interesting. The one problem I still new to work on is closing out the race.... Seems like this is the most consistent mistake I make. Once again today I was still going carefully headed for the turn point that was way out in the valley, thinking that "nobody is going to make goal" and "I just need to get as far as I can and take every little scrap of lift which I find. Then a few pilots came in above me and flew right through the thermal I was working and pressed on. About that time I looked down at my instruments and realized that I was already in final glide position, and had been for awhile!! It said I would be over goal with over 500 meters to spare... so I finally shifted gears and raced in as fast as I could... Sometimes even though you still have a turn point in front of you, and goal is behind you, you still need to be racing on final glide! That mistake cost me considerably... I finished 21st, and should have been 10-12th. One of these days I'll figure out how to stay focused at the end of the race which is where I seem to lapse in concentration...

Tomorrow the wx looks great again. Today it was windy when we got up on the mountain but it gradually let up and we had a really fun task....

The pictures are of an over grown cemetary which is behind the water spring where we stop to fill up our water bottles on the way up to launch, and the 2nd pic is of the women who are preparing our lunch up on launch... a real treat!