Monarca T6 - Second Yeees!
Wow what a nice task against of all ods said by the forecast. Like 40 km to fly with elapsed time race. Day won Yasen, me came second and third one Mantra. I was a bit late at start but later I went alone and pushed more and came fast to goal. Weather for today was not so good in forecast. Lot of cloud coverage and a lot of wind but at the and below cloudbases it was very good with nice climbs and not so much of wind. Decision of te task comity was to make first par tinto the wind and rest with back and side wind which was very good decision.
Start was standard 5 km exit around Piano but this time it was elapsed time (Speed run) with 4 gates starting at 12:15 with each 15 minutes. I Decide I ll og on first to make some leading poins as day looked ok and with bad experience from yesterdays late flight. We all climbed at Espina to go for first TP Divisadero. I got in last moment low so I waited 10 more minutes on Espina but I did not want to wait second gate as my oponent Bret allready left. I decided I ll thermal only strong thermal to catch them. I took nice convergence tovards La Pila but than got low going to ridge towards Divisa. I flew the ridge and on Divise at 2km radius I got only climbs so I speeded up and cought leaders climbing fo La Pila. At 4 km radius of La Pila I took route towards Espina and nice thermal that got me under cloudbase. Others stayed back so now I was alone flying valley shortes way to next TP the takeoff. I cought one more guy with Mantra on the way and I saw Daniel on Stratus in front and I knew Yasen is somewhere there. We made nicely TP takeoff and wwe had just to mek the goal in Valle (La Torre). As the clouds over Sacame and St Augustin looked dark I was little bit afraid to go under so I choosed to go back to Penon and than with backwind into the goal over Meas as the Mesa had blue hole over. At Penon I saw pack behind me but in front of Penon. I wa at that time allredy climbing nicely behind Penon in nice thermal to the cloudbase as I knew I ll need the altitude to make over as we had cloudbase 3000m and the mesa is 2600 heigh. First I glided to goal on trim speed just to make Escalera (I saw below me Daniel with Stratus landing) but when I passed I pushed more to make more points and made it nicely to Valle 7 minutes behind Yasen. Yasen took route under dark clouds straight from takeoff and that got him faster time. Daniel unfortunately went 200m lower than me and could not make it. Other pack behind got little bit stuck on Escalera to make it over but they made it. Penso took second gate but still 7 minute more time than me. I think that will not be enough to make me first but still good. He was flying more agresively and he deserved first place. I was more conservative and that made me second overall. Lot of pilots in goal today and most oft he people happy including me. results at www.monarcaparaglidingopen.com
