WCPC Day 7

This morning I packed up my tent and headed into Jacksonville to book a hotel room. The forecast for Sunday looks good, so I'll stay down and fly after the comp. But I want to watch Roger Federer in the French Open, hence the hotel room (or that's my excuse after a week of camping in the rain).

The weather forecasts were more promising for today, with lighter winds and no thunderstorms. Everyone headed up the hill full of optimism. Because it was the weekend, we had a reasonable number of wind techs (Mark was there as well); they launched and it was obviously easy to stay up. The task involved some 'fishbowl' flying then a run to Donato. I launched around the middle of the gaggle and generally had no problems getting high. Cloudbase was still relatively low (around 5,500 ft) but the lift was better and the wind less strong than previous days.

I followed one glider on the crossing to Rabies and arrived with plenty of altitude; Meredyth got a nice thermal on the other side of the ridge and I was able to get in below her. Sam and Rich Hass joined me in the thermal and we got some altitude before heading towards Rabies Peak. Sam headed out before me, I got up to cloudbase (where the flying was a little rough) before following him.

I was generally a bit more conservative with my altitude than the other pilots; Sam headed out ahead of me, I was flying behind Wade and Tim for much of the time, with Dave following a little behind me. After a few turnpoints, I had to cross from Woodrat back to Rabies again. I had a string of clouds in front of me and winds were very light so I decided to try the crossing from only 5,200 ft. Two thirds of the way across I decided to turn back and work up at Mid - I saw Brett was there and expected we could work together to get high. But no; I got a lot of sink heading to Brett and a lot more once I arrived; within 2 or 3 minutes we were in the LZ. I found out later that a number of other pilots had worked up from low on Rabies on the second crossing, so I probably made the wrong choice when I turned back. But the real mistake was not getting higher before leaving Woodrat - I was trying to save a little time.

Only 15 pilots reached goal, which was lower than I expected - conditions were decent but not great. Eric Reed won the day to complete an 'eventful' comp that included a tree landing on day 2 and a reserve ride yesterday. Matt Beechinor got first place overall. Brett got second place for serial wings. Sam had the best DHV-2 result. The difficult, windy conditions made progress really hard on a lower performing wing. There were no 1/2 wings in the comp, no DHV-2 wing reached goal and only one 2/3 wing reached goal (Peter Warren, who won the Serial class).

Given the poor conditions - very unusual for Woodrat in June - the comp results were 'all over the place'. I've never seen as many hot comp pilots on hot comp wings sink out. Brad G. and Rob S. were 1st and 3rd at Dunlap and here they were 10th and 19th!

Flying at Woodrat normally involves good interaction with the locals, and this competition was no exception. The Haleys, Paul Murdoch and the local club have gone to a lot of effort to cultivate a positive image for paragliding and it has paid off. The Haleys deserve a big thanks for their efforts - organizing a comp in bad weather must be even harder than doing it in good weather.

Personally, I was just glad the comp finished on a positive note with a decent day and a decent flight. My next comp will probably be the British Open in France in August and I won't be camping there!