Back in the Saddle

Well after struggling for days in the river of emotion in Piedrahita, looking up constantly to some of the nicer XC skies we've ever seen, it was finally time to get airborne again yesterday for some free flying.  The organizers are still supporting all the pilots who have remained with retrieve and live trackers, so seemed an ideal time to see if we could make some distance.

The day was a bit off from the past several, but still had some forecast downwind potential.  Things were rather difficult at first with weak climbs and just all around slow conditions, but the reach of the R11 allowed me to stay in the game until things switched on.  Gliders were pretty much scattered everywhere by that time so I ended up going solo initially which I was really hoping to avoid.  My plan to fly with Josh quickly evaporated as he got away to the pass before I did....

It took awhile to get above 2000 meters and finally off on a nice glide. My next climb began with my first major collapse on a 2 liner - after almost 250 hours.  It was an extremely violent thermal which completely balled up the glider.  I tucked and brought the B toggles momentarily down to my chest  - kind of a default position, and things progressed and recovered nicely from there.

At Avila I got low and wasn't seeing much in tailwinds so considered landing or making my way back to Piedrahita.  I stayed with it awhile longer and found a nice climb to the limit "3048 meters", a number you become infinitely familiar with here when flying xc in this area.  At the top of climb I found some tail wind and the day was turning on so decided to take advantage of the retrieve and see what I could make of it.

From there it was just a beautiful XC flight on a NE track from Avila, about 245k.  Joined up with some French pilots for awhile, but they took off on a Northerly track as they were "flying" towards home and would just land and join their team vehicles.  Lots of fun flying with sailplanes and endless beautiful scenery. Plenty of birds to share the climbs with as well. Got to really enjoy the full potential of the glider and made good time considering the conditions and never got low between climbs.  My normal physiological "hook up" proved invaluable as I was able to drink my entire water bag over the 7+ hour flight and enjoy staying nice and hydrated.  A Goo every hour or so is minimal but does the trick.

Brad joined  in with many pilots and finished first with a 60k fun task set around the Piedrahita area and had the only important outcome - to finish ahead of Yasson Savov!  Josh made the challenging out and return to Avila and back to Piedrahita.  Melanie logged some massive out and return kilometers as well!

I think Piedrahita being an "afternoon site" is somewhat of an understatement!  We were getting easy climbs to 3000 meters after 8pm, and landed at 9:30pm after a boaty final glide which seemed to go on forever in the mix of sunset and moonrise.  Joined up with Luxemburg pilot Greg Knudson for the last few hours and we enjoyed the remainder of the flight together.  Retrieve following and regular surface wind reports from Jeff made for pretty much the dream XC flight in one of the world's premier flying sites.... A huge "Respect" and thanks to Jeff and Rob and all who made this Spain trip possible despite the very sad outcome...

Jack