Fly Victoria Paragliding School

Day 7 was a tough day for the pilots deciding the task. We flew so far 6 out of 6 days and organizers wanted us to fly one more day to finish the competition with a task that is not too long (hard retrieves) or too short (easy task after so many great flights). On top of that the weather conditions were not the best so they had to delay the start time a couple of times before we had good enough conditions to fly. The task was set for a 50 km flight going south of the take off, then north, back south and landing at Inspo LZ. The start time was at 4pm and that should’ve given us enough time to fly and make it back to the headquarters for the awards ceremony.

This was probably the most difficult flight of the week due to the light lift but we were all enjoying it anyway. On my way back from the second waypoint the mountain was pretty much in the shade and we were all dropping like flies. I flew toward the valley to join a couple of pilots in a thermal, they left and I worked it until there was nothing left trying to gain time hoping for more sun. The last waypoint was especially difficult since it was away from the mountain and there wasn’t much lift left.

On my last attempt to gain some altitude I flew over the spine with another pilot and slowly we started climbing. A few more pilots joined us and climbed better and higher than me. I felt the pressure to leave before them, tag the waypoint and glide to the goal which was my last mistake of the competition. After tagging the waypoint I tried to go on glide over the valley side but my glide wasn’t good enough to make it. I decided to hug the mountain as close as possible to get the extra lift needed to make goal but to my surprise it didn’t help at all and put me down at 2.5 km from goal.

At the end I’m glad that I participated in this competition since it was the best of the year for me even when I didn’t win. I made it 4 times to goal, 2 times with in a couple of kilometres of goal and one half way there. My top result was 7^th place and the worst 27^th. The organization was great and so was the retrieval crew. We flew everyday, well thought tasks with a good level of competition pilots. I’m now officially hooked on competitions again and I can’t wait for the next one.

I guess I didn’t mention “The Fluffers”, eh? Well, this is a new concept “Utah style”, even new to me after so many competitions. I sure I’ve had never seen anything like that. You better watch this video made by Bernard…=)

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