Photos from top to bottom:
Pilots headed off from over launch towards the start cyclinder.... Why was I taking pictures instead of launching early and being up there with them? Those are the pilots who won the day.....
A fmily affair... one of the top German pilots and UP test pilot with his family before launching....
The south launch with most pilots just standing and waiting for a cycle to come up the hill so they can be on their way.... Again, why was I taking a picture instead of being out there ready and waiting also? All these pilots flew far along the race course today....
Getting ready for the task and safety briefing...
I think in many places in Brazil, the spiders would win the battle if you stumbled into one of these huge mazes of webs.....
Last night I was abrubtly awakened by a deafening blast of thunder and lightening. It then proceeded to rain buckets for an hour or so.... I awoke to complete cloud cover and 100% humidity.... But Governador Valadares is known for it's ability to offer up flyable days even when the weather doesn't look so good. We headed up the hill and found ourselves in the clouds. We all relaxed and socialized for a few hours when sure enough things started to break up somewhat and pilots started to get ready. It was very overcast with a low cloud base but it looked like there would be a chance that they would call a task. They indeed did call a task even though conditions looked marginal at best. Pilots who launched early just barely soared above launch altitude. I was hesitant to launch because I didn't want to fight a bunch of gliders in weak conditions just above launch. Thinking about the first day, however, I realized that in the pwc you get scored for even the shortest flight so I'd better get going.
Once again I really struggled getting my glider launched. The launch winds were very fickle and would come up lightly on one side of launch, and then the other. I tried the north side of the launch which is kind of flat and requires a very strong backwards run to pull your glider over head - and then you can turn and run forward. I tried this twice (each time waiting in line) without success. My ankle injury from last week was seriously impeding my ability to do a reverse launch so I was resigned back to the other side where the hill is much steeper and more manageable for me given my current maneuverability. I finally had a "cycle" of wind come up the hill in my favor and had a nice clean launch, but once again I was very late for the start, and almost the entire field had already headed off toward the start cylinder. I hooked up with a few stragglers and gained the little bit of altitude I could without going into the clouds. I then headed out on glide and proceeded to make multiple mistakes which had me on the ground I think it was 22 minutes after I took off. As I was dripping sweat trying to fend off the young (and not so young) kids who were pestering me to help me fold up my glider, I looked up to see pretty much the entire field of pilots climbing out in the rapidly improving conditions and heading out on the race course.....
I'm not exactly sure what's affecting my decision making.... The first day pretty much everyone just sunk out after the first glide but even on that first day I made two critical mistakes.... the first being I flew most of the long glide with one of my wing tips lightly tucked which was detrimental to my glide and caused me to land shorter than I would have... I never looked up to notice it... The 2nd mistake was completely missing the first gps turn point as I was so focused away from my instruments looking around for any signs of lift. I had to turn around and go back to tag the turnpoint and that cost my an easy top 10 finish in my first pwc task....
Today, when I look back on my short flight, it was a comedy of errors for me. I suppose I could attribute my actions to being sick... Usually when we're sick we can still function and perform adequately for what we do.... I'm not so sure that playing this game without being 100% or better is likely to produce good results. Perhaps it's trying to perform in this arena with a far more competitive field than I used to. These pilots are all top pilots and they are all used to racing with other top pilots. If you're not in top form you just can't play with these guys.... quite simple, really. Once again it's not so much the physical skillset which is the determining factor - it's the mental ability to execute in 3 dimensions - do it correctly the first time, everytime, and do it in a timely manner....
The frustration comes because I may not have competed in the world cup before, but I have competed in some strong international competitions and done consistently well. I finished seventh place at the Monarca this year which had several of the worlds top pilots in attendance.....
The weather forcast is poor, but if we fly tomorrow, my goal is going to be to see if I can just follow and learn for a flight and see if I can get my head back in the game, or at least try and figure out what my issues are....
