WCPC Day 5 - Task #4

For a day that looked like none of the 'wind-techs' could stay up at 1pm, the day turned out to be lots of fun. A 38k task was called with 6 valley crossings and then a downwind leg to Purcel in the Applegate Valley. Start time for the task was 3pm.

The lift was very spotty and low but most of the pilots got into Rabies on the way to Fly-Air for the first valley crossing. When the leaders got to the ridge they found absolutely nada. I was about 1k behind the leaders and found a small core in the valley that gave me 100-200 ft/min. for 5 minutes and allowed me to fly directly to the first turnpoint and snipe the thermals from above. This put me in the race for a while but I managed to find myself low & alone twice today. The leaders raced smart and read the day well. Josh Cohn won the day with A.J. in second and Marty Devietti third.

I had another good start and flew well for the first 30% of the task. I was often at the top of the stack with the lead gaggle. Then I made some subtle but critical errors that put me low and alone. I had one very low save that really invigorated me for the remainder of the task, but flew dumb the last 2 legs of my flight. I went down about 5k short of goal. Today's task went to the good technical tacticians who knew when to race.

I think, psychologically, an interesting thing happened today. Many watched as the wind-techs dropped out of the sky & were not optimistic about getting around the task. It looked to me like there was an early mindset of impatience and a willingness to go on an early death glide. The caused many early landings in the LZ either on the way to or from the first turnpoint.

The task was devalued due to the early casualties and short task length. I placed 21st today.

Scores are HERE

My flight is HERE

The top 5 overall are:
Greg Babush
Marty Devietti
Jeff Wishnie
Hayden Glatte
Jack Brown

The top 5 Serial class are:
AJ Frye
Josh Riggs
Paul Murdock
Brett Hardin
Meredyth Malocsay

I am now sitting 7th in the Serial class and 23rd overall. 2 more tasks to go.

More soon.