Green Swamp Sports Klassic 2017 - Task Five

Morning or Day 5

Day five of the competition brought stronger south winds that were supposed to turn more west later in the day. The task committee decided not to get too creative and just repeat task from previous day - Quest to Leeward Air Ranch. Same task but potentially much faster.

Tom and I discussed what I've done not optimally on that route, so I was very excited to try and fix it. An opportunity like that was a nice gift.

Our team was second in line. Jeff launched first, and I a few minutes later.

Jeff Curtis ready to take off

Launch director, Spinner, running along with the cart on take off

With winds 10+mph it was a bumpy ride. We rolled through strong lift, but I decided not to pin off, and get everything a tug pilot would give me.

He finally waved me off, and I went up like a rocket - solid 500 fpm.

Lucky climb. First team to launch (seen below) wasn't as lucky.

6 minutes later I was in the wispies, radioed that I was going on course, and set on a long glide to the next cloud.

Initial climb is done. Ready to race. 

After a few clouds lined up for me without need to take a detour, I started to think of going for time. I was racing! I would leave climbs as they were getting softer, without waiting to get all the way to the cloudbase.

This time around, I also went over the villages. This option that seemed a bit intimidating yesterday was just fine today.  When I approached that junction, I could see that there were actually LZs I could use. And a few clouds were forming over the housing development anyway. I recharged a few times flying over that town, never getting low.

Recharging over the villages

On the last leg, I freaked out a bit and stopped to recharge even though I had plenty of altitude, losing some time. It wasn't necessary as I arrived at the goal with 3k altitude to spare. Actually, for the last 3 miles I had the bar to my knees and was I still going up. Ama-freaking-azing!

Flying fast

I arrived first, flew around for a bit trying to lose altitude. It required some effort. I could have easily flown farther than the task called for.

Monkeying around... because I can...

First!

A U2 pilot beat my time by 2 minutes, but with 6% handicap that sport2s get, I still won the day. Felt good. It didn't improve my comp standing all that much, but hey, cannot get it all, right?

...

Jeff also made the goal, and because he was very consistent he moved into first place in the comp. Day 6 is blown out, so we probably have only one task left. Jeff has real shot at keeping his first place. Congratulations, Jeff! A job well done.

Task results:  https://airtribune.com/2017-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task2281/day/sport-class

Comp results: https://airtribune.com/2017-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task2281/comp/sport-class

Recording of my flight: http://doarama.com/view/1270697

Green Sport Landed

Goal gets filled in.