Rat race Day 5

Today was forecast to be the best day of the comp. Climbs expected to 7000, but they went to over 9,000.
Wind at launch didn't kick up and the valley winds were light.
Brad G. had top land to get a knot out of his glider and ten minutes later so did Kansas. Good entertainment...

Brad G. Top landing

Ian told me launched in the race early, bombed out and missed the start, relaunched and then flew the whole course landing after the second turn point 5 hours later after hitting the head wind to Prospect. Which is west of hwy 238 near Provost / Grants Pass.
This is where I also picked up Gaza, Scotty Gee and about half of the racers.
Winds aloft at 9,000 ft were reported as East wind and at 6,500 ft as West.
After Prospect they had to climb out to fly to Johns turnpoint east of jacksonville, then turn around and goal was Mule LZ near Applegate dam / lake. Huge task. About 20+ actually freaking made it. Crazy good day, maybe best ever here at Rat Race.

We only had a couple of incidents reported. Two tree landings with self extraction proved minor, bushes maybe.

Another we had a gal lockout in a spiral right in front of launch after taking a 70% collapse and flew into the trees just below mid launch but directly above the road to Squires peak.

I drove to the road below and hiked up to find her hanging about 8' up sitting in her harness quite shaken up having missed all the huge trees and resting in some smaller oaks.

I had her climb down and jump to me. Easy. Forest got the glider with a small tear on the leading edge.

Alot of driving today for the old Bronco, up Applegate to Grants pass, down hwy 238, up Applegate to Grants Pass, down to Jville, out to the lake. 6 hours of driving and chasing. Whew

Wonder whats gonna happen today?

Reaper