Rat Race Tasks 2 and 3

June 18

Rat Race Task 2
Yesterday's tricky flying and the vigorous activities of the previous night had the hawaiian boys all in bed early. The campsite was eerily quiet.

We had another short fast task today to the same goal as yesterday. The race was over in slightly more than an hour but not without a couple gliders in the trees, one landing high up on ridge and a guy landing in a paddock near goal and being set upon by an 'attack Llama' (in his initial panic he reported it as being an emu). It seems Llama's are like goats but with much more fur and malice. They guy was OK, but didn't escape without a physical and psychologically beating. Luckily someone was there to capture it on film for everyone's amusement.

Today was a first for me at a paragliding competition - a hot lunch on launch. We were served up baked potato with all the fixings before the first briefing. Mike and Gail Haley do the little things so well - coffee in the morning, keg at goal, fresh watermelon and lemonade when you get back to HQ at the end of the day. Little things that make you feel like you get something for the time and money invested in these comps.

57 pilots in goal today broke the task 1 record of 51.

Task 3
Some days are unexpectedly fun. We sat around on launch waiting for just one wind tech to get above launch which didn't happen for hours. The task was revised and re-revised from an original 61km out and return to a 20km individual race to goal via 1 turnpoint. A party had been scheduled forthe goal field wether we flew there or not so it was good to have some kind of flying. The winners race time was just over 16 minutes. It doesn't really rate as a serious comp task but it's about as much fun as you can have at a comp when you launch, climb out, fly into convergance just before the start gate then glide around the course without turning to land at goal with BBQ and beer. 71 pilots did just that, a new record. It was also a record for the lowest validity day with the winner scoring 123 points. Also the record for the most fun ever on a comp task.