Task 6 - last day

After the tour of the Greek Orthodox Monestary we spent about 3 hours on launch waiting for the low cloud base to lift. Many of us thought that the day would be called, and it would have been a fun day to go slack-line with the Jackson boys on some gigantic old growth trees. Eventually base lifted just barely enough to allow pilots to launch and the task committee called a task.




Pretty much everyone struggled all afternoon to stay in the air. Back at the ranch in the evening Nate told stories of flying super light ridge lift for large distances followed by frisbeeing zeros for even longer distances. Translation: Nate is an incredible pilot and managed to turn circles in zero lift that just barely allowed him to coast like a Frisbee, neither sinking nor climbing, to within a few kilometers of goal. Nate's patience won him the task for the day, and certainly the most difficult 300 points of the entire comp.

I landed back at the ranch. Here is my track log.
Ajay and Little Pete waiting for base to lift:



Launch director John Ivey:
Retrieve driver Forrest:
Paragliding's storyteller, Billy:
Paragliding's er, uh, animated party monitor, Patrick:
Meredyth Malocsay:
Hayden:
Jack:
Little Pete:
More after the jump...

Greek Othodox Tour

Super low cloud-base today and it doesn't look like we'll get to fly. While we waited to decide whether or not we would drive to launch our hosts from the St. Nicholas Ranch and Retreat Center where kind enough to give us a tour of their cathedral.































More after the jump...

Rain Party

After task 5 was called for rain the pilots huddled under the porch where the internet signal was the strongest and the momentum rolled into beer drinking, margaritas and an eventual late night extreme table tennis match.

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Tim, what did you say?Everybody at the playground made up.


Hanning on the table tennis court:
More after the jump...

Day 5 US PG Ntls.

Today's task was eventually called because of rain. Most pilots had dirted when the task was called. Once again I was confined to the valley. I broke my second speed bar line of the week today. Follow the jump for more images and a track log you can open with Google Earth.


The Flying Scotsman:

Pine's mother must have had a gut feeling that he would grow into his given name:






Oh, I finally got to use the condom catheter system that Nic Allen helped me put together. I still get stage fright and it takes a little bit to get things flowing, but talk about relief. This new device has made flying more than a couple hours very very enjoyable. I'll admit it is a weird request, but if you want an idea for when July 16 rolls around here you are.

My track log.


Hayden entering the day's task:
Stratergerizing:
Entering routes into the electronics:






More after the jump...