Seems I was bound and determined to finish what I had started here in Roldanillo 2 weeks ago in proper fashion. I've never been more confident in knowing what I must do to be competitive in such a strong field. Never have I had such magnificent training and opportunity to hone the skills necessary to up my ranking. Never have I been in such a wild ride of mental conflict in skill versus execution! Everything I need I have. Everything I need to know has been demonstrated to me numerous times here in Roldanillo. I couldn't ask for better mentoring, a better glider, a better field to race with - it's all been here and given freely. I don't usually keep a diary or record of my competition flying, but after this experience I am putting it down on paper as this was the ultimate training session and I simply mustn't let it's content drift away. I don't know if I'll be able to execute and progress, or stagnate and fade away. I do know that I have all the pieces of the puzzle within my grasp!
Day 6 was yet again another spectacular flying day. Again my goal was to be a team player and see if I could hang with the gaggle. I started strongly and ended up nicely positioned with the lead gaggle, turning with all kinds of great pilots and heading out on the course line sitting beautifully. Once again, it was a frustratingly easy choice for me to leave the lead gaggle and forge out on my own - chasing a big climb off the course line. Once again the synergistic strength of the strong pilots working together was able to easily overcome any strategic move I thought I might be making, and even though I found a nice climb to base, I was immediately behind once again, with an almost impossible chance to catch up. I made a valiant effort, and was almost successful at the third turnpoint, but the lead gaggle was just too fast and strong, brilliantly getting centered in each climb quickly and efficiently.....
Another day of non-stop smiles at goal with many pilots, along with myself, enjoying one of the best weeks of racing in their flying careers! The Colombian people, especially those in the outlying areas, were so free flowing with hospitality and genuine good will, that it begs one to want to return and do it again. What a contrast to Valle de Bravo where more often than not it's become all about getting more and more $ from the gringos any time and any place that they can - a sad evolution at a great flying site that hopefully won't be repeated in Roldanillo.
The food here is great and the accommodations are a nice 2 star- I'm not aware of anyone either last year or this who experienced any stomach issues from the food or water. Breakfast includes a daily large bowl of cutup fresh juicy papaya or mixed fruits along with scrambled eggs with ham and onions, bread, and a great big glass of fresh squeezed OJ.... all for about 3 bucks. I've had excellent pizza, lasagna, top sirloin steak/potatoes/veggies, nice salads, and one of the best "hamberguesa" creations I've ever eaten from a street vendor....
Because the PWC rules only allow 6 days of flying if they are all fully valid, which they were, the 7th day - Saturday - is a free day for flying, shopping, or R & R. I chose the R & R! after 44 hours of flying over the past 2 weeks. There was a big party last night with all you can drink for only 15,000 Colombian pesos (about $8). I passed as I was afraid that the French pilots would all get too drunk and beat me up!! Honestly though, I just wasn't feeling it for drinking and socializing....
Tonight is the awards party and then a painfully early getup at 3am for a 7am departure from Periera... I finished in the 20s, and am happy with the whole thing considering the invaluable experience I've gained. I wished I'd had a better finish as it would have brought more WPRS points to our nation's ranking and maybe helped get a 4th position at the FAI Worlds this summer. As it was it looks like we should improve from our 10th place Nations position with Nick and Josh finishing so strongly.....
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Roldanillo Day 5
My game plan for day 5 was to try and work on my gaggle flying and be a better team player. My starting ability has really improved, partly due to the features of the Compass Cpilot. I started again beautifully, and was positioned well on the first glide. I was behind Brad G who was leading out, and having a nice glide... Most of the gaggle was to my right, either at my same altitude or higher. Not 5 minutes into the first glide, the air mass in front of me seemed to just separate. I found myself in serious sink while Brad, less than 500 meters in front of me, was in zeros or better. The entire gaggle to my right was also doing just fine, but my situation was quickly changing. I couldn't dive back in under the gliders to my right, as the terrain situation wouldn't allow that as a safe move - just nowhere to bomb out in that direction. Instead, I was forced to fall off to the terrain along the valley floor, and then work to get re-established. I took the biggest drilling since I'd been in Roldanillo, also finding the strongest wind I'd experienced as well. I was literally down to almost not penetrating with as much speed as I'd dare to push. I eventually rounded the ridge really low, and started the long process of getting back in the race. It was a struggle, and by the time I had recovered, I was more or less out in the valley, while most of the field had disappeared on course in the mountains. It was slow going from there with no gaggle to work with.
It was another great racing day, and there was no catching up to be done with such talented pilots gaggled up and racing strong. Myself and a few other stragglers brought in the red lantern to goal just barely making it when the sea breeze came in strongly across the valley. It was one of the more tense moments I've had here as I found myself with 3 others on a ridge well into to some light to moderate terrain, with only sketchy hill side lzs as possible landing options. There were better fields out front, but a huge power transmission line was just before. A safe landing became the top priority, so we started ridge soaring to gain enough altitude to go over the back to a safer landing spot. Just when the heart rate was starting to climb, we spotted a gaggle of vultures in front of the ridge who were struggling to keep good form in a huge thermal that was letting go. We all just rocketed to cloud base and were able to make the final glide to goal. I left on a 3 to 1 glide and only had 150 meters or so left over the goal....
From 8th overall to 104th on day 4, and up to 83rd on day 5 - whoo hoo here I come!! The heck with the score - the flying is so beautiful and fun here it's hard to get too bent out of shape on the results.... tomorrows gonna be another great race day!
It was another great racing day, and there was no catching up to be done with such talented pilots gaggled up and racing strong. Myself and a few other stragglers brought in the red lantern to goal just barely making it when the sea breeze came in strongly across the valley. It was one of the more tense moments I've had here as I found myself with 3 others on a ridge well into to some light to moderate terrain, with only sketchy hill side lzs as possible landing options. There were better fields out front, but a huge power transmission line was just before. A safe landing became the top priority, so we started ridge soaring to gain enough altitude to go over the back to a safer landing spot. Just when the heart rate was starting to climb, we spotted a gaggle of vultures in front of the ridge who were struggling to keep good form in a huge thermal that was letting go. We all just rocketed to cloud base and were able to make the final glide to goal. I left on a 3 to 1 glide and only had 150 meters or so left over the goal....
From 8th overall to 104th on day 4, and up to 83rd on day 5 - whoo hoo here I come!! The heck with the score - the flying is so beautiful and fun here it's hard to get too bent out of shape on the results.... tomorrows gonna be another great race day!
Roldanillo Day 4
Day 4 proved a turning point for me in terms of scoring well, but also provided the most amazing landing out experience I've ever had. After a poor start and then catching up well with a strong gaggle, I became overconfident coming off a 2nd place finish the day before, and reverted into a mindset where I was able to make pretty much any mistake.... and the mistakes poured out of the processor one after another until I found myself alone, far off the course line, sinking into a rather steep valley with few landing options and no shortage of power lines.
An extremely technical approach and landing found me on a nice hillside full of field workers preparing and planting coffee bean plants. I had landed myself right in the middle of the Rochela Coffee Plantation. I spent the next 6 hours being buried in hospitality unlike anything I'd ever experienced over the years of xc. From the field workers who helped me with my glider and transported me to the main plantation facilities, to the top managers who drove me around the plantation for 2 hours, including a breath taking vista high up in the mountains. They fed me a most excellent meal with delicious soup and mouth watering chicken as good as any I've ever had. I toured the stables, learned everything about the evolution of a coffee bean from the plant to the grinder, and honestly didn't want to leave when the retrieve finally found me that evening.
An extremely technical approach and landing found me on a nice hillside full of field workers preparing and planting coffee bean plants. I had landed myself right in the middle of the Rochela Coffee Plantation. I spent the next 6 hours being buried in hospitality unlike anything I'd ever experienced over the years of xc. From the field workers who helped me with my glider and transported me to the main plantation facilities, to the top managers who drove me around the plantation for 2 hours, including a breath taking vista high up in the mountains. They fed me a most excellent meal with delicious soup and mouth watering chicken as good as any I've ever had. I toured the stables, learned everything about the evolution of a coffee bean from the plant to the grinder, and honestly didn't want to leave when the retrieve finally found me that evening.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
PWC Roldanillo Day 3
Today was a good day for me! Flew pretty well the first few days but today was a day when many things came together. It was a full on race day with beautiful cummies, lots of birds, light winds and pretty much a perfect PWC race to goal. I didn't start so well, but quickly started to execute my plan which was to stay in the mountains for the first half of the race while it was still early, and then take a straight line down the center of the valley to the goal. You know what? After reading through this before I post, I must admit, that I had a perfect start, because I just positioned myself so that all I had to do was dart out into the valley start cylinder, and then right back into the terrain, which put me instantly in a position to get in front. When I say I didn't start so well, I guess what I mean is that the majority of top pilots were starting out in the valley, and were much higher than I at the start..... Shame on my (sorry Bill!) for letting my visual sight picture get in the way of what was really happening!
They mixed things up a bit today in terms of the task call. Goal was an airport at the center of a 15k cylinder. You first had to tag the goal waypoint, and then fly the 15k outbound so that you were completely outside of the cylinder. Then reverse course again and race the 15k back to goal.
I hooked up with X PWC champ Yasson Savov now sponsored by GIN early on and we raced the entire race together. It was great to get up to cloud base and just keep hammering the speed bar losing very little altitude and only stopping to climb in the strongest cores (usually marked by a gaggle of Colombian vultures). The vast majority of pilots had headed out to the valley early for the start, and were having a good go of it out there, but they just couldn't compete with the stronger and more frequent cores we had in the mountains. There were 4 of us at one point, but one (another R10.2) took a big frontal whack and by the time he recovered he had lost much altitude and never caught us back up. I'm not sure who the other pilot was but his glider seemed not to be able to keep up. Yasson is flying the 2 liner Boom proto and it's going quite well, definitely on even par with the R10.
Russ Ogden, flying his glow in the dark R11 proto, was just a thermal behind for almost the entire race, but never saw us out in front of him. He thought he'd won the day and was surprised to see Yasson and me at goal when he arrived!
Colombia has been really enjoyable again this year. Beautiful people, great flying, great birds to thermal with, good food (nobody gets the stomach grunge here that I'm aware of) and spectacular flying scenery. Also something that I really enjoy here is that the local flying community and locals themselves don't come looking for $ for every little thing like they do in Valle de Bravo. It's very refreshing (although I did pay a farmer after one of his trees was seriously pruned getting my glider out last week!) I also pay 2000 pesos to have my glider hiked up the hill for me, but I feel this is fare pay for a bit of hard work....
I hope I can be consistent and keep up the good pace here. On a day like today, there is absolutely no room for even one mental lapse or mistake.... These pilots are that good.... I kept the pace up strongly until the end, and had put myself in position to get the win. I was well above Yasson in the last climb, and left when my Cpilot said I would arrive at goal with 50 meters. The Flytec said 200 feet over and an 8.5 to 1 glide. It really looked good so I left and of course, immediately get the worst drilling of the day. I thought it would be a sure thing to find at least something to help me along the way, but I got low enough that I chickened out, and just didn't believe that I could make it. I found a small thermal and stopped for a few turns, and of course Yasson was right there and beat me in by 44 seconds. As soon as I left my little thermal, I flew into a monster climb with birds climbing everywhere! I just got tunnel vision and lost my situational awareness for just a moment. It would have been a no brainer if I had just believed and been confident to the end..... I'm getting the best training I could possibly hope for here with this great field of pilots and great flying conditions....
They mixed things up a bit today in terms of the task call. Goal was an airport at the center of a 15k cylinder. You first had to tag the goal waypoint, and then fly the 15k outbound so that you were completely outside of the cylinder. Then reverse course again and race the 15k back to goal.
I hooked up with X PWC champ Yasson Savov now sponsored by GIN early on and we raced the entire race together. It was great to get up to cloud base and just keep hammering the speed bar losing very little altitude and only stopping to climb in the strongest cores (usually marked by a gaggle of Colombian vultures). The vast majority of pilots had headed out to the valley early for the start, and were having a good go of it out there, but they just couldn't compete with the stronger and more frequent cores we had in the mountains. There were 4 of us at one point, but one (another R10.2) took a big frontal whack and by the time he recovered he had lost much altitude and never caught us back up. I'm not sure who the other pilot was but his glider seemed not to be able to keep up. Yasson is flying the 2 liner Boom proto and it's going quite well, definitely on even par with the R10.
Russ Ogden, flying his glow in the dark R11 proto, was just a thermal behind for almost the entire race, but never saw us out in front of him. He thought he'd won the day and was surprised to see Yasson and me at goal when he arrived!
Colombia has been really enjoyable again this year. Beautiful people, great flying, great birds to thermal with, good food (nobody gets the stomach grunge here that I'm aware of) and spectacular flying scenery. Also something that I really enjoy here is that the local flying community and locals themselves don't come looking for $ for every little thing like they do in Valle de Bravo. It's very refreshing (although I did pay a farmer after one of his trees was seriously pruned getting my glider out last week!) I also pay 2000 pesos to have my glider hiked up the hill for me, but I feel this is fare pay for a bit of hard work....
I hope I can be consistent and keep up the good pace here. On a day like today, there is absolutely no room for even one mental lapse or mistake.... These pilots are that good.... I kept the pace up strongly until the end, and had put myself in position to get the win. I was well above Yasson in the last climb, and left when my Cpilot said I would arrive at goal with 50 meters. The Flytec said 200 feet over and an 8.5 to 1 glide. It really looked good so I left and of course, immediately get the worst drilling of the day. I thought it would be a sure thing to find at least something to help me along the way, but I got low enough that I chickened out, and just didn't believe that I could make it. I found a small thermal and stopped for a few turns, and of course Yasson was right there and beat me in by 44 seconds. As soon as I left my little thermal, I flew into a monster climb with birds climbing everywhere! I just got tunnel vision and lost my situational awareness for just a moment. It would have been a no brainer if I had just believed and been confident to the end..... I'm getting the best training I could possibly hope for here with this great field of pilots and great flying conditions....
Roldanillo Day 2
Wow, if that isn't a long day of flying, I don't what is! 6:30am get up, breakfast, load up and an hour drive up to launch in a pretty descent bus, typical time spent getting ready..... Launch around 10:40 for an 11:40 race start. 6 and a half hours later, landing with Josh and Nick, 7 k short of goal which was 125k around the course.
Weak conditions for much of the race with a few nice climbs thrown in here and there. Brad G and I had a beautiful start, but then ran into difficulty being out on the flats so early in the day. Well before the 2nd turnpoint I was a few gaggles behind and decided to spend the rest of the day just flying on my own and working on getting myself re-established in the next climb. Was very successful in doing this and quite enjoyed the flight, although it turned into a marathon later in the day. It turns out nobody made the goal, with one American, Eric Reed being 2nd closest.
When I finally did join up with a gaggle in the last climb of the day, I ended up turning with Josh and Nick, which was a big surprise to me - I had been certain that there would be at least a few large gaggles in the goal.... It looked like half the field landing with in 4 k of each other....
A nice easy landing on a beautiful grassy farmers field, but then a two hour walk out before we finally met up with retrieve. Another 2 hours driving and not back to HQ until 9:30......
More later......
Weak conditions for much of the race with a few nice climbs thrown in here and there. Brad G and I had a beautiful start, but then ran into difficulty being out on the flats so early in the day. Well before the 2nd turnpoint I was a few gaggles behind and decided to spend the rest of the day just flying on my own and working on getting myself re-established in the next climb. Was very successful in doing this and quite enjoyed the flight, although it turned into a marathon later in the day. It turns out nobody made the goal, with one American, Eric Reed being 2nd closest.
When I finally did join up with a gaggle in the last climb of the day, I ended up turning with Josh and Nick, which was a big surprise to me - I had been certain that there would be at least a few large gaggles in the goal.... It looked like half the field landing with in 4 k of each other....
A nice easy landing on a beautiful grassy farmers field, but then a two hour walk out before we finally met up with retrieve. Another 2 hours driving and not back to HQ until 9:30......
More later......
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Ahhhh Colombia!
Decided to start up the blog again as many people have told me how much they've enjoyed it. Some might know that the main reason I was doing the blog was for my mom who recently passed on....
This is my 2nd trip to Roldanillo, Colombia, which is in the Cali - Armenia - Periera region. Last year we flew everyday, and this year has proved just as fruitful thus far. Last week was the Colombian Nationals, which was filled about half with Colombian pilots, and the rest with others from around the world - many coming early to fly a warm up contest before the PWC Roldanillo, which kicked off today.
The first 2 days of the first comp were more or less a disaster for me. I did not come prepared to fly, and was very fortunate that I wasn't injured on the first day when I refused to give up scratching until it was too late to find a good lz. I did have an lz picked out, but hit a nice big bubble of lift just as I was turning over some trees into the fiield. The bubble turned me back about 90 degrees, and then it was too late to make my landing so in to the trees I went. When I came to rest the bottom of my harness was literally brushing a nice patch of yard just outside a farmers barn. I unhooked and stood up, not a scratch on me, and was then able to admire my handiwork and see my glider perfectly on top of a large tree, with all the lines perfectly and hopelessly tangled. Ultimately, it was only about a 2 hour adventure with some serious pruning of the farmers tree, and I had my glider back with only a small bit of damage.....
The 2nd day I bombed out right away and then watched a couple of large gaggles of dhv 1-2s climb out and head out on the course line. That night I hit up my super mentor, Bill Belcourt, who shared a bunch of his great wisdom with me to help get things sorted out in my head. The next day, the 3rd task, I tied for 2nd place!
It seems another season of Red Ozone R10.2s, with a bunch of new Boom 2 liners out there as well. The playing field has been greatly leveled now as all the manufacturers have been hard at work creating their version of the R10. The new UP 2liners are going quite well, and seems the new Boom 2line protos are doing pretty good also. There's a bunch of 2 line gliders out there and I can't even keep track of them all. Last week I made a very long glide with one of the IP5 protos, and it seemed pretty competitive with the R10 but no better....
Today was a good start to the PWC and tomorrow looks good as well. Today I had the best start I've ever had in a PWC event, surfing way up the side of a nice cloud just a few minutes before the race start. I flew well, but had one slow down where I spent too much time chasing other gliders around and never really getting the nice core. I never recovered from this mistake as that part of the race was just too fast to play catch up. Later you really had to shift gears and slow way down and many pilots bombed out by not taking even the smallest climbs and pushed on to find big sink and landing....
Making goal today in the top 20 was very motivating for me and a real confidence builder after last week. Trying to successfully up your game with this crowd is no easy task as the PQ (pilot quality) is quite high at this pwc. I have much work to do, and I must again thank Bill for being so generous with his mentoring skills.
It's funny, but even after having such a good year at home in the US, when I get out there with so many storng pilots, I still feel like I have so much to learn.....
This is my 2nd trip to Roldanillo, Colombia, which is in the Cali - Armenia - Periera region. Last year we flew everyday, and this year has proved just as fruitful thus far. Last week was the Colombian Nationals, which was filled about half with Colombian pilots, and the rest with others from around the world - many coming early to fly a warm up contest before the PWC Roldanillo, which kicked off today.
The first 2 days of the first comp were more or less a disaster for me. I did not come prepared to fly, and was very fortunate that I wasn't injured on the first day when I refused to give up scratching until it was too late to find a good lz. I did have an lz picked out, but hit a nice big bubble of lift just as I was turning over some trees into the fiield. The bubble turned me back about 90 degrees, and then it was too late to make my landing so in to the trees I went. When I came to rest the bottom of my harness was literally brushing a nice patch of yard just outside a farmers barn. I unhooked and stood up, not a scratch on me, and was then able to admire my handiwork and see my glider perfectly on top of a large tree, with all the lines perfectly and hopelessly tangled. Ultimately, it was only about a 2 hour adventure with some serious pruning of the farmers tree, and I had my glider back with only a small bit of damage.....
The 2nd day I bombed out right away and then watched a couple of large gaggles of dhv 1-2s climb out and head out on the course line. That night I hit up my super mentor, Bill Belcourt, who shared a bunch of his great wisdom with me to help get things sorted out in my head. The next day, the 3rd task, I tied for 2nd place!
It seems another season of Red Ozone R10.2s, with a bunch of new Boom 2 liners out there as well. The playing field has been greatly leveled now as all the manufacturers have been hard at work creating their version of the R10. The new UP 2liners are going quite well, and seems the new Boom 2line protos are doing pretty good also. There's a bunch of 2 line gliders out there and I can't even keep track of them all. Last week I made a very long glide with one of the IP5 protos, and it seemed pretty competitive with the R10 but no better....
Today was a good start to the PWC and tomorrow looks good as well. Today I had the best start I've ever had in a PWC event, surfing way up the side of a nice cloud just a few minutes before the race start. I flew well, but had one slow down where I spent too much time chasing other gliders around and never really getting the nice core. I never recovered from this mistake as that part of the race was just too fast to play catch up. Later you really had to shift gears and slow way down and many pilots bombed out by not taking even the smallest climbs and pushed on to find big sink and landing....
Making goal today in the top 20 was very motivating for me and a real confidence builder after last week. Trying to successfully up your game with this crowd is no easy task as the PQ (pilot quality) is quite high at this pwc. I have much work to do, and I must again thank Bill for being so generous with his mentoring skills.
One thing I do know is that following and doing the same thing as someone else always results in me being lower and behind.
When you go the the PWC you do not want to just "fly with the leaders", you want to fly as a leader. One is a defensive state of mind, the other is offensive. You want to have that offensive leader state of mind. This divorces you from group thinking, and allows you to capitalize on opportunity that others will miss just following the group. Followers look to leaders for decisions, leaders look to followers for information to make decisions.
It's funny, but even after having such a good year at home in the US, when I get out there with so many storng pilots, I still feel like I have so much to learn.....
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