I've never sweated so much in my life - this I am sure of!! Sometimes it's difficult to stay hydrated, even when drinking water constantly. I'm easily going through 5 liters or more water per day. I was never much for cold showers but I haven't reached for the hot water faucet yet! The posada I'm staying in now is pretty nice - they have a pool to enjoy and I have a small jucuzi tub in my room which I fired up yesterday. It was great for doing some laundry also! Wednesday, March 18, 2009
I've never sweated so much in my life - this I am sure of!! Sometimes it's difficult to stay hydrated, even when drinking water constantly. I'm easily going through 5 liters or more water per day. I was never much for cold showers but I haven't reached for the hot water faucet yet! The posada I'm staying in now is pretty nice - they have a pool to enjoy and I have a small jucuzi tub in my room which I fired up yesterday. It was great for doing some laundry also! 
These ladies are keeping plenty busy with the competition pilots. I've been just barely treading water so far physically. Still somewhat sore from a hard landing on the 2nd day. Just hauling my 65 lb glider bag around in the heat is difficult. A little sun burn and a few blisters on the feet from walking around in sweat soaked shoes and socks. I'm hanging in there and taking it one day at a time.....
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Valadares Open Day 4
Well today my race started with a couple of blown launches and then completely missing the start by almost 15 minutes. It was a huge challenge to stay focused and get the Boomerang 6 into the air in a controlled manner. Conditions for launching were extremely difficult with little to no wind which kept switching around from one side of launch to the other. My glider is having it's way with me with a very confusing riser setup and a huge lifting force when it accelerates overhead. Needless to say my confidence was somewhat shaken as when I did finally launch it was uncontrolled and quite sketchy - not characteristic for me at all. At least the large crowd was throughly entertained as I went careening off of launch, almost twisting up in my risers, and dragging my pod so much that the bottom of it was turned inside out..... I don't think I was smiling when I heard all of the shouts and whistles and cheers as I finally got myself sorted out and on my way.
The performance of this glider is so strong that it requires a different technique for launching - something that I'm not used to. My orginal plan to arrive here a day early was to take my new glider and shake it out, kite it, and get used to the different riser set.... that never happened and I just jumped off into the deep end with it. It glides and climbs like a dream but is by far the most demanding glider I've ever flown. So now I get to get up early tomorrow morning and go have a little kiting session with my wing down at the main landing field by the river. I can't afford any distractions on launch, especially with a heat index every day of well over 100. It's also difficult dealing with 150 pilots that with few exceptions are very talented. It seems that everyone makes the decision to launch at about the same time as we all watch the day develop. Then if there is no wind on launch to speed up the launch process, it can become very frustrating watching the clock tick down towards the race start time while everyone is jockying for a launch spot, and many pilots are having difficulties.....
I started the day in 8th place overall, after taking 8th yesterday, and 2nd on Sunday. My inability to make the start today cost me plenty I'm sure but tomorrow's another day so I get to hit reset and try again. I did make it to goal today but I was like 50 th or something. It was a much better flying day than the past couple of days and the thermals were much stronger. I almost sunk out late in the race with several other pilots when a high layer of thick cirrus clouds blocked out the sun. I struggled for a good 20 minutes not climbing or descending and although I know I should never think that I'm going to land, it really looked like that was going to happen...... About two thirds of our group did sink out but I was able to hold on long enough for the sun to poke through and start some light thermal cycles and then a half a dozen buzzards marked a beautiful late afternoon thermal which took me all the way to cloud base.... from there it was an easy 9 k glide through the last turn point and then to goal. It would have been much easier had another pilot not tried to pass me on the way.... I figured it was as good a time as any to accelerate my glider and see what it could do. It was very fast and the other glider gave up trying to catch me. I had my first landing where I was able to land on my feet - and to top it all off, I was the last pilot on the first retrieve bus so I didn't have to wait 3 hours like last night to get back to GV!
The performance of this glider is so strong that it requires a different technique for launching - something that I'm not used to. My orginal plan to arrive here a day early was to take my new glider and shake it out, kite it, and get used to the different riser set.... that never happened and I just jumped off into the deep end with it. It glides and climbs like a dream but is by far the most demanding glider I've ever flown. So now I get to get up early tomorrow morning and go have a little kiting session with my wing down at the main landing field by the river. I can't afford any distractions on launch, especially with a heat index every day of well over 100. It's also difficult dealing with 150 pilots that with few exceptions are very talented. It seems that everyone makes the decision to launch at about the same time as we all watch the day develop. Then if there is no wind on launch to speed up the launch process, it can become very frustrating watching the clock tick down towards the race start time while everyone is jockying for a launch spot, and many pilots are having difficulties.....
I started the day in 8th place overall, after taking 8th yesterday, and 2nd on Sunday. My inability to make the start today cost me plenty I'm sure but tomorrow's another day so I get to hit reset and try again. I did make it to goal today but I was like 50 th or something. It was a much better flying day than the past couple of days and the thermals were much stronger. I almost sunk out late in the race with several other pilots when a high layer of thick cirrus clouds blocked out the sun. I struggled for a good 20 minutes not climbing or descending and although I know I should never think that I'm going to land, it really looked like that was going to happen...... About two thirds of our group did sink out but I was able to hold on long enough for the sun to poke through and start some light thermal cycles and then a half a dozen buzzards marked a beautiful late afternoon thermal which took me all the way to cloud base.... from there it was an easy 9 k glide through the last turn point and then to goal. It would have been much easier had another pilot not tried to pass me on the way.... I figured it was as good a time as any to accelerate my glider and see what it could do. It was very fast and the other glider gave up trying to catch me. I had my first landing where I was able to land on my feet - and to top it all off, I was the last pilot on the first retrieve bus so I didn't have to wait 3 hours like last night to get back to GV!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Racing like crazy in Brazil
Sorry friends and family for being so late getting to my blog. It has been seriously hectic for me since I boarded the flight from Anchorage last Wednesday morning.
Things started somewhat uncomfortably as I was forced into the jumpseat from Anchorage to Chicago, the longest scheduled 737 flight in the world. Things went quite smoothly in Chicago. Traveling international jumpseat I wasn't too sure of how things would work. My plan was to take United from Chicago to Sao Paulo. This worked splendidly and I was seated in Business class up front in a seat which actually reclined into a laying down position. Nice 4 course meal, drinks and then pillows and a blanket and I actually slept rather comfortably for 7 of the 10 hours of flight. Wow! Anchorage to Chicago, and then to Sao Paulo and I hadn't spent one cent and was actually rested. What a deal.
The honey moon ended about an hour after we landed in Brazil when I discovered that my bags, being marked with "standby" stickers, were left sitting on the ramp in O'hare. Some very special treatment by the agent in Chicago who didn't bother to call down to the ramp and have the standby bags boarded after I was given a seat. No problem, I thought, they will just send them the next day and I'll get them soon enough. So much for my warmup day but thats no big deal. I went on with my trip catching my flight from Sao Paulo to Belo Horizonte, and then another regional flight from Belo Horizonte to Governador Valadares. Well of course I spent half of the next day on the phone explaining that I just had to have my paraglider because I was in a competition which was starting the next day. "No problem - your lugguage arrived from Chicago this morning and we'll have it expedited to you and you'll receive it no later than 10 pm." So I relaxed somewhat not realizing that I was just being fed the standard fare of bs to placate me so I'd stop calling them. 48 hours later, after numerous opportunites for them to send my bags had come and gone, the luggage arrived.
The first day of the competition had come and being without my gear I ended up begging to borrow gear at the last minute. A US pilot who is here as a tour guide to visiting pilots offered me his harness, which was a much smaller size than I normally fly with. One of the top Brazilian pilots, Frank Brown offered me his SOL Tracer comp glider as he had a brand new proto type glider to fly. I had my instruments and helmet with me so at least I was able to race the first day instead of sitting out waiting for my gear. It was interesting flying a very different competition glider but the flight was excruciating as the harness was way too small and I was very uncomfortable. I did manage goal but was very slow arriving.
On Sunday, day 2 I had my gear and was excited to race. I'd never even taken my new Boomerang 6 out of the bag so I was a bit apprehensive about that. After nearly crashing into another woman pilot who had blown her launch and was down below me, I got away from the hill and was instantly amazed at the feel and performance of my new glider. It seems for the first time I am really on equal footing with the best gliders out there. I'm very happy with it but must remember that conditions are mild here and I can't really pass judgement until I fly it in stronger conditions. I flew well yesterday, taking second place for the day (so I'm told but haven'tactually seen the posted scores). There were some pilots who flew a bit further than I, but I received more leading points for pushing out ahead and taking more risk than those behind. I did have a rather hard landing and tweaked an ankle, but thank goodness I decided to wear my lace-up ankle braces which clearly prevented a far more seirous injury. This new glider is a very different animal than I'm used to, and so far, landing it with no wind has been a bit challenging. I'm rather sore but nothing serious....
We had thunderstorms and tons of rain over night, and conditions didn't look so good this morning for having a task, but in classic GV tradition, things dried out, cloud base gradually rose throughout the morning, and we were able to have a fun task of about 45 K. After the very first glide from the start cylinder, I don't know for sure, but I've been told that 40 or more pilots sunk out right away. The conditions were quite light and there was some serious decision making to be made very early in the race. I took about a half a dozen turns in this gaggle of at least 100 gliders and decided right then and there that this was just crazy and dangerous. There were all these pilots circling in a small bubble of lift and gradually sinking lower and lower. That was some serious gaggle suck and I decided that I was going to press on and that if I sunk out it was a good safety decision and that was that. Well, I didn't sink out and was able to get established after scratching around for about 10 minutes in a pretty good climb which took me all the way to cloud base. I flew part of the race with a gaggle of about 8-9 gliders, and then part of the race by myself. Only a few pilots made the goal and I landed about 7 k short... Might have made the top 10 for the day and I was happy with my decision making through most of the flight. Towards the end the day was shutting down and I made a good plan to use the rest of my altitude, and then changed my mind after I'd flown half way to where I thought I would find a thermal. I made a 90 deg turn and by the time I flew to my new destination I was low and couldn't find anything to keep me going. Even the buzzards were scratching around in very light conditions and wern't able to climb at all.....
This morning I moved from a small box of a room which was in the centro area to a Posada which is out on the 'island' and is much nicer. A couple of the other US pilots are staying here so it's nice to be with my flying friends.
The organization at this comp is quite marginal at best. I guess there was quite a bit of political wrangling about which organization would run the competition, and the group which is running it is making plenty of mistakes. But we are racing, getting retrieved (eventually), and having a great time. The next comp will be the PWC (paragliding world cup) and will be strongly organized and run so am looking forward to that. The competition at the Brazil Nationals is strong, but the pwc will be far stronger. I suspect that I will be 'schooled' in many different ways.... I'm just excited that I get to particiapate in such competition as the pwc.
I have to sleep now and 'reset' and do it all over again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.....I'll try and post some pictures when I can....
Jack
Link to the official Valadares Open website for results and other info. They are very slow in posting results and have had multiple scoring issues..... The last two digits of each of the "Task" lines are the date. The only scores posted so far are for March 14th, the first race day which was Saturday.
http://www.xcbrasil.org/reg/FVPO2009/?a=rs
Things started somewhat uncomfortably as I was forced into the jumpseat from Anchorage to Chicago, the longest scheduled 737 flight in the world. Things went quite smoothly in Chicago. Traveling international jumpseat I wasn't too sure of how things would work. My plan was to take United from Chicago to Sao Paulo. This worked splendidly and I was seated in Business class up front in a seat which actually reclined into a laying down position. Nice 4 course meal, drinks and then pillows and a blanket and I actually slept rather comfortably for 7 of the 10 hours of flight. Wow! Anchorage to Chicago, and then to Sao Paulo and I hadn't spent one cent and was actually rested. What a deal.
The honey moon ended about an hour after we landed in Brazil when I discovered that my bags, being marked with "standby" stickers, were left sitting on the ramp in O'hare. Some very special treatment by the agent in Chicago who didn't bother to call down to the ramp and have the standby bags boarded after I was given a seat. No problem, I thought, they will just send them the next day and I'll get them soon enough. So much for my warmup day but thats no big deal. I went on with my trip catching my flight from Sao Paulo to Belo Horizonte, and then another regional flight from Belo Horizonte to Governador Valadares. Well of course I spent half of the next day on the phone explaining that I just had to have my paraglider because I was in a competition which was starting the next day. "No problem - your lugguage arrived from Chicago this morning and we'll have it expedited to you and you'll receive it no later than 10 pm." So I relaxed somewhat not realizing that I was just being fed the standard fare of bs to placate me so I'd stop calling them. 48 hours later, after numerous opportunites for them to send my bags had come and gone, the luggage arrived.
The first day of the competition had come and being without my gear I ended up begging to borrow gear at the last minute. A US pilot who is here as a tour guide to visiting pilots offered me his harness, which was a much smaller size than I normally fly with. One of the top Brazilian pilots, Frank Brown offered me his SOL Tracer comp glider as he had a brand new proto type glider to fly. I had my instruments and helmet with me so at least I was able to race the first day instead of sitting out waiting for my gear. It was interesting flying a very different competition glider but the flight was excruciating as the harness was way too small and I was very uncomfortable. I did manage goal but was very slow arriving.
On Sunday, day 2 I had my gear and was excited to race. I'd never even taken my new Boomerang 6 out of the bag so I was a bit apprehensive about that. After nearly crashing into another woman pilot who had blown her launch and was down below me, I got away from the hill and was instantly amazed at the feel and performance of my new glider. It seems for the first time I am really on equal footing with the best gliders out there. I'm very happy with it but must remember that conditions are mild here and I can't really pass judgement until I fly it in stronger conditions. I flew well yesterday, taking second place for the day (so I'm told but haven'tactually seen the posted scores). There were some pilots who flew a bit further than I, but I received more leading points for pushing out ahead and taking more risk than those behind. I did have a rather hard landing and tweaked an ankle, but thank goodness I decided to wear my lace-up ankle braces which clearly prevented a far more seirous injury. This new glider is a very different animal than I'm used to, and so far, landing it with no wind has been a bit challenging. I'm rather sore but nothing serious....
We had thunderstorms and tons of rain over night, and conditions didn't look so good this morning for having a task, but in classic GV tradition, things dried out, cloud base gradually rose throughout the morning, and we were able to have a fun task of about 45 K. After the very first glide from the start cylinder, I don't know for sure, but I've been told that 40 or more pilots sunk out right away. The conditions were quite light and there was some serious decision making to be made very early in the race. I took about a half a dozen turns in this gaggle of at least 100 gliders and decided right then and there that this was just crazy and dangerous. There were all these pilots circling in a small bubble of lift and gradually sinking lower and lower. That was some serious gaggle suck and I decided that I was going to press on and that if I sunk out it was a good safety decision and that was that. Well, I didn't sink out and was able to get established after scratching around for about 10 minutes in a pretty good climb which took me all the way to cloud base. I flew part of the race with a gaggle of about 8-9 gliders, and then part of the race by myself. Only a few pilots made the goal and I landed about 7 k short... Might have made the top 10 for the day and I was happy with my decision making through most of the flight. Towards the end the day was shutting down and I made a good plan to use the rest of my altitude, and then changed my mind after I'd flown half way to where I thought I would find a thermal. I made a 90 deg turn and by the time I flew to my new destination I was low and couldn't find anything to keep me going. Even the buzzards were scratching around in very light conditions and wern't able to climb at all.....
This morning I moved from a small box of a room which was in the centro area to a Posada which is out on the 'island' and is much nicer. A couple of the other US pilots are staying here so it's nice to be with my flying friends.
The organization at this comp is quite marginal at best. I guess there was quite a bit of political wrangling about which organization would run the competition, and the group which is running it is making plenty of mistakes. But we are racing, getting retrieved (eventually), and having a great time. The next comp will be the PWC (paragliding world cup) and will be strongly organized and run so am looking forward to that. The competition at the Brazil Nationals is strong, but the pwc will be far stronger. I suspect that I will be 'schooled' in many different ways.... I'm just excited that I get to particiapate in such competition as the pwc.
I have to sleep now and 'reset' and do it all over again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.....I'll try and post some pictures when I can....
Jack
Link to the official Valadares Open website for results and other info. They are very slow in posting results and have had multiple scoring issues..... The last two digits of each of the "Task" lines are the date. The only scores posted so far are for March 14th, the first race day which was Saturday.
http://www.xcbrasil.org/reg/FVPO2009/?a=rs
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