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.....
1 comment:
Hi Jack. Thanks so much for taking the time to post some heartfelt comments and flying experiences. Great reading! I was at the Chelan PWC Task 5 standing next to Philippe, while you talked about not feeling well before launch. Then, in the LZ alongside Philippe with my own video camera as you chuckled about giving up your landing to give a "high-five". I posted the video on Youtube if you ever have time to waste -- search with my name. Good luck and be cautious.
Rusin Van Dyke, Helena, Montana
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