2011 Rat Race - Day 6 - Task 6

The weather in Ruch is treating us well this week.  Today was fun.  The task was well built for the conditions and the pacing of the day.  I didn't get a useable photo of the task board but the task was:

• Exit start from Burnt 
• Bald Mtn.
• Burnt
• John's Pk
• Jacksonville
• Donato - Total distance 65km

I had a very good start and the first leg to Bald was lots of fun with some ballistic climbs and nice lines along the convergence.  Those who mapped out the best lines had significantly better transitions than those who allowed themselves to get low in the cascading backside of the convergent shear.

I was running well, watching Jimmy and Hayden duke it out for the Serial Class title.  My climbs were good and made fast time until I got to Burnt.  At this point I lost Hayden and Jimmy and had to change gears for the transition to John's.  The Jacksonville area and Medford Valley were producing thermals, but they were more fragmented and much weaker than those we'd flown in for the first two legs of the flight.  I felt that I had set an appropriate pace for the conditions, but left one very unproductive bit of lift to search for better - only to watch in vain as the glider in the bit-o-lift started to climb well, behind me.  I tried to return to the climb but the bubble wasn't found and I was soon setting up to land 8km from goal.

Some of the R-11/R10/Boom8/UP Edge armada rolled into John's with sufficient altitude to make a balsy glide to goal and squeak over/around the hill just prior to Donato's field.

Today's Top- 5

1. Josh Cohn
2. Nick Greece
3. Nate Scales
4. Farmer
5. Eric Reed

The photo is at Donato's LZ.  33 pilots made goal today.  It's Saturday morning now, and the day looks similar to Friday, so I'm looking forward to a great final task.

Results are at http://flyxc.org/2011RatRace.html 

Tim