Task 8 - 61km
Michael Sigel,
18. January 2018
Today started slow, as it was raining most of the night and even in the morning. That’s why the organization delayed the transport to 10. The take off was covered in clouds and the rain made the ground wet and dirty. The task was a - 8.5km entry around A15 (goal north of Zarzal) - 400m radius around A15 - 23km Exit from A15 - Goal in A15 As on the previous days, it was tricky to launch, as clouds forced to organization to close the window several times. As a result, some unlucky pilots got off too late and had no chance to race in today’s task. Lucky me I got out early, after waiting in light rain on the takeoff. Out in the air it was not much better, many cirrus clouds made it difficult to climb. The entire field was climbing in very weak thermals. However, conditions improved and we could start at cloud base. We managed to cross the valley and hit the first turnpoint. Now he had to decide: fly North or South. Both directions did not look very promising and the field split up almost 50/50. Our group went back South and we were still struggling with the opaque cloud cover and weak climbs. However, as soon as we reached the mountains, we found better thermals and managed to fly faster. As we hit the 23km exit cylinder, I pushed more than the others and had a better line, which put me in a nice position 300m higher than the rest of the field. When we flew back to Roldanillo, I found a nice 2m/s thermal, while the group did not find lift in the shade. While the others were scratching on the hill, I was under cloud base and could push out to the flatland where the sun was shining again. However, the sink was massive and I was really low when I finally found a good climb. Now it was all about climbing well and push to the goal and be faster than the Northern group. Finally the Northern route proved to be much more difficult and I arrived 6minutes before the rest of pilots. Yael was pushing hard, but did not catch the last thermal well, same for Alfredo. The rest of the Swiss team went North and Andreas was the first one that arrived from the North, but was missing the Exit cylinder by 10m…. Arrival time: 1. SIGEL 02:00:00 2. WIRTZ 02:06:38 3. REBORD 02:06:38 4. CARON 02:06:41 5. DONINI-N 02:06:41 6. GENOVESE 02:06:47 41. MARGELISCH 02:09:37 44. STUDER 02:10:07
