Some 97km race to goal today, with a 1km exit cylinder around B03, the little volcano SE of launch. Not many clouds today, so the start gate waiting was less stressful, with less people suffering reduced visibility. After the start we had to come back to the piano landing, then straight out into the flats SE of launch and to the B27 (Santa Maria). Lots of pilots chose to go via Maguey and even further east, but that proved to be a real mistake as the direct route was much faster. From B27 we had to go to B36, with a 2km radius around the turnpoint there. The very large majority went via the launch area, but Yassen and myself took a SW line over the high ground, with Micky von Wachter following a few kilometres behind. The circumspect route was much faster as we had a good tail wind all the way, we arrived high at B36 to find Gasper searching low, and Stefan Wyss coming in high. From there it was easy to use the gaggles as thermal markers back towards launch, and Yassen, myself, Stefan and Andi Aebi took turns pushing out and going on. In the end we had the final glide all to ourselves, arriving within a few minutes of each other, and with maybe 3-5 minutes down to the next wave (which I believe Ronny led). So once again I guess I’m moving up the rankings, glider is finally going straight and turning both ways equally well, and I wasn’t even tired on the landing.
Good ceiling today, around 3400m right from the beginning, meant that Yassen and myself actually never got even half low. I do hope this is a sign of things to come, as it sure is a way more relaxed form of comp flying.
Had Rob and Ty interview me on the landing so that Caroline can show it to Nora – she likes it when Daddy is on TV J. I think there should be a good dose of leadout points for myself today, one day she’ll understand and appreciate that too!
Danish team mate Morten also in goal, sadly Marcus isn’t. Dunno how we’ll ever kick the Norwegian arses if we don’t all make it to goal every day… Stefan Rolén is on the terrace here next to me reattaching his risers to his lines after a reserve deployment right after launch. He’s safe and sound, and the canopy is too, but he’ll be up late fixing some snapped lines I think.
We’re doing the long-awaited UP team dinner tonight, I have been up at the DiPao restaurant to reserve a table for 12-14 people, looking forward to seeing how many actually show up! Those who don’t won’t get their t-shirts!
Ronny is styling, Andi Aebi is styling (as predicted), Luca Donini just seems to ALWAYS get it right, and there’s a clear trend here now. The Czechs are just absolutely unbeatable in the team rankings, they don’t seem to know the word ”mistake”, very impressive. Fantastic flying it is too.
In memory of our friend Stefan Schmoker, we miss him and try to honour him by flying our butts off,
Cheers from Valle de Bravo, Mads S signing out for now,
