Forecast was so so for both days, wind light and variable, high clouds and weak thermals and it materialized as predicted. But it was nice to see everybody after long winter and fly over green Dunlap valley. Flowers just started to bloom.
Saturday's task: DNLNCH 49917 LASTCH GRNY 49917 DNLNCH RNGSTN and goal at DAN's LZ looks easy on the ground, but in the air it was a different story. Just after start was opened high clouds almost shut down thermics and most of pilots push forward quite low. I had a slow start and was probably last one on course. I recently bought a Helmet HD Camera which allow me to capture several interesting moments:
Stephan's collapse from Alex Gagarin on Vimeo.
I know that proper route after LASTCH was to come back to main ridge and go to launch area first and then cross to GRNY, but I just did not feel I should push for it and DAN's LZ was so inviting that I can't resist:
Only Josh made goal, Timo second and Susan 3d. I'm #14. Saturday's Results
Sanday task was exacltly the same except radius over RNGSTN was increased to 1 km, but still nobody made it. Several pilots had problems on launch I captured Kansas:
Kansas launch from Alex Gagarin on Vimeo.
After Saturday's warmup I feel much more confident and we (second gaggle) even tag GRNY, but could not made it back on main ridge and again I landed on DAN's LZ. Sunday's Results
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