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Aug
12
Written by:
Jeff Shapiro
8/12/2009 9:42 PM
Today was one of those days. One of the days of racing that you remember for a long time. There are a few places in the world that the conditions allow for experiencing all of what good cross country racing has to offer and Texas is one of them.
Todays forecast was for a 20% chance of overdevelopment but after yesterday's gust front experience and having a lesser T-storm development forecasted, as well as how the sky looked, we were all pretty dubious that it would be good. The wind in the lift line was light and switchy. It seemed as though there was very little energy in the sky. Even still, the field quickly lined up to launch.
We indeed found the conditions to be soft and almost everyone became quite social. We all tried with intent to gain position at the edge of the start cylinder. Jeff, Zippy Davis and I were there and in decent position for the first start but the team came to the conclusion that conditions were improving and it would be faster to wait the 15 minutes for the next start. As the next clock ticked over we were topped up and led out under flat bottom cu's that were going up 5-700 fpm. We connected to a street that allowed us to dolphin fly for what felt like a long way and I thought for sure we were going to get to fly the course as fast as we could. Zippy, Jeff, Davis and I were spread out and when the street ended Zippy faded left to the west and hooked up with Derrik Turner with Larry Bunner just behind. I pushed off the end of the street with hopes that I would find a buoyant line across the blue hole (which turned out to be around 7 miles across). I think Jeff stayed behind to top out at the end of the street. I got hammered with sink (imagine that) and had to deviate 90 degrees to course line to a cloud that I hoped was working. I went from "going to groveling" in one glide;-)
I managed to hook up with a couple of Red Tails (hawks) and one very pissed off Prairie Teircel who helped me to climb back out to base. I made another critical error at this point. Zippy had been reporting strong climbs on his line so when I saw them off to my left (and from cloud base they were reachable), I fixated a bit and made the glide to them. When I was 1/3rd of the way across the blue hole, I could see that the line I was on by myself curved back around, flat bottomed and black all the way back to course line. I will never know what would have happened if I went that way but I remember yelling out loud at myself for being stupid. Oh well, another lesson.
When I got to those guys, the clouds had built. We were going up but the shade had taken over and the ground was dark. I noticed OB come in under us and he looked really low. I remember thinking that if anybody could dig themselves out, he would and we pushed on. In the next climb, he was even lower and at one point he glided toward the road. I looked for his shadow and honestly thought he might land. This will come into play later.
I flew a slightly different line to a cloud and hooked up with James Stinnet and Mark stump on a ATOS. After a soft climb (we had all switched gears at this point and slowed down a little to attempt to stay high) we went on a long glide toward the next cloud closer to the last turn point. When we got there it was obviously dying as it didn't yield any lift, so we kept driving ahead, getting lower and lower.
There is a point in a race when, to go fast, you sometimes have to keep pushing. Even if it means that you end up gliding until your low. I've seen Jonny and others do it and had done it a few times myself but every time I do, it creeps into my mind that we might drive it into the dirt (because I've done that too). We did find a climb, from low, one glide from the last turn point. It was here that I see OB's undersurface 1500' to 2000' above and going to the t-point. Unbelievable. Its still amazes me how dynamic this sport is. Everything changes so many times all in one flight. I was smiling and inspired.
It got blue at the turn point and we struggled a little to get to goal. I stayed hooked up with Stinnet and this time Bill Soderquist was with us but lower. We went on glide and I watched from a little behind as both guys flew under a cloud and didn't get it, pushing on. We were pretty low in relation to final glide and as I searched where they hadn't and luckily found 400 up and stopped. Looking ahead I saw Soderquist search and get low (I think he had to land shortly after, drifting with zeros for a while). Stinnet found something and started turning a half a k ahead. I had altitude on him so I felt like if I left right then I would get to him at his altitude and we would climb for what most of us really like to do, race into goal at full speed;-) James is a really cool guy that spent some time living and flying in Missoula so I was stoked and knew we would have a good one. Unfortunately for both of us, his climb broke up and he left just as I was almost to him (I also found nothing). We were looking at almost 14 k's with a 13.9 to 1 to make it in to goal. It was going to be close and I honestly thought we needed another climb to have a chance. After all that, I really wanted goal.
We went on final glide anyways (without much of a choice). I had about 400' on him. We were getting closer and closer but not finding anything to turn in. The goal had a 1k radius and it was going to be close. I saw his shadow over the dirt and watched him as he turned to land less than a k from the edge of the goal cylinder. I was bummed for him but had to worry about myself as there was now nothing but small fields surrounded by power lines ahead. I stayed at full rope but unzipped just hoping that I would find a bubble to push out in. I ended up not finding a thing and pulled in to gain energy, pushed out to clear some power lines by 20', stuffed it into ground effect to have enough energy to clear the barb wire fence that split my "chosen" LZ so that I could land (down wind, full rope;-(. Luckily for me, Belinda had reported very light wind on the ground I as I went to my up-rights, I heard the tell tale song on my 6030 that I had crossed the goal cylinder. I flared for my life and landed in the middle of the field. The owner of the farm came right over, turned off his electric fence and kindly helped me get my glider out to his front yard, mowed grass and all;-) Don't know the results yet. I am quite obviously stoked to have had the opportunity to have an experience like today! I think Glen won the day with Zipp maybe in second. OB made it in 5th or 6th and I think I was 7th. What a day!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD
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