Today was awesome. The weather was perfect, I had a great time flying plus I didn't come in last! Ok, I do have grander goals than that, and there were some hiccups today, and...I'll just start over.
The weather really was perfect today. My strategy was to launch early after being one of the last ones off the hill yesterday and then having such a short flight. As I merrily started setting up my gear and grabbed my flight deck I noticed that my gps was missing. The one piece of equipment that is VITAL to competing. I looked everywhere...then saw a mental image of it sitting in my laptop bag back in the rental house.
After calmly walking away to a quiet spot and hyperventilating for a couple of minutes to avoid a complete meltdown, I returned to my gear and found Derek had gotten a loaner GPS for me from one of the other pilots who had an extra as a backup. Gratitude is too small a word to describe my feelings for Chris, and happily karma prevailed & it looks like he came in 2nd place for the day!
So with the little voice in my head berating me constantly for such a stupid mistake I didn't hold much hope for a good flight. Beating yourself up is tiring and I was exhausted before I even launched! In spite of it all I ended up having a really nice launch and caught a great thermal right away. I flew around and just mellowed out for half an hour clearing my head before the race started. I got about half way through the course before landing, which is a personal best for me (not even counting the fact that the gps wasn't the same model as mine & I had to figure it out in the air!). With everyone else flying in the same great conditions my score ended up being 49 out of 68 in my glider class. That might not sound terribly impressive until you realize that my first year's overall score was second to dead last. Things are definitely improving.
Scores are here for those who like to follow along: http://www.flyxc.org/2010ratrace.html
- open class is all paragliders, even the fast & shiny competition wings.
- sport is DHV 2 & lower (me)
For pilots who know the area the task was Woodrat LZ (exit start) - Rabies - Burnt - Woodrat - Rabies Peak (I sunk out trying to get this one) - Ruch - Purcell.
1 comment:
Keep up the great work Martina, and congratulations on your flight! Glad to hear that you were able to borrow a GPS - we've all been there.
I am impressed that you took a tandem course in the States - congrats on doing so well (as per usual!)
Hoping to fly with you when you get back - good luck with the rest of the comp!
Post a Comment