Oh my what a week it's been. I think this is the most I've flown in a week at a US comp, or the most I've flown in a week in a paraglider ever. I think I'm well over 25hours of flight time and I don't know how many kilometers I've flown but it's a bunch. Today we knocked out another 116k with excellent racing conditions. There were around 30 pilots in goal and many pilots had nice long flights.
Tomorrow is the last day and supposedly we were planned to have 7 possible flying days. I'm hearing some nasty rumors that we may not fly tomorrow because the meet director wants to take the day off to give his tired staff a break. The weather is looking pretty good so I say "LETS FLY!!" It will be interesting to see what happens. They didn't post the overall results this evening because if they did, and we don't fly tomorrow, it would kind of deflate the prize giving ceremony cause everyone would already know all of the results.
Had climbs to 14,500 today and I seem to be doing just fine without supplemental oxygen. I've always preached that you should have it to optimize your performance, and you should, but I didn't pack mine this trip and seem to be making do without ok. I've been staying very well fed and hydrated. I drank too full bottles of water today while waiting for the launch window to open, and then I drained most of my boda bag during the flight. I tell myself all the time to relax and breath when things get strong and difficult. This is especially important when a pilot is flying at higher altitudes....
Whether or not if we fly tomorrow, it has been an amazing week of flying and I've learned a ton and had lots of invaluable training in decision making, and accelerating my glider in turbulent conditions. It will really be nice heading to the world cup superfinal with this great warm up under my belt....
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