Rat Race Tasks 4,5 and 6

June 23
The Rat Race finished today with a total of 6 tasks. After the first 3 short racy days we had the first 1000 pt day with very well called 76km task. Conditions were tricky around the first turnpoint but stellar elsewhere with some people hitting 10,000ft. It was the longest task ever for the Rat Race and 31 made goal. I was really happy with my flying on the task. There were some difficult transitions and a lot of patient flying to get to goal. I managed to get to goal in 16th place and the only time I was really trying to fly fast was when I knew I had a glide to goal. To this point I was having the comp of my life having made goal 4 days straight - flying safe, conservative and having a blast - yeah OK so that means I'm slow, but damm it's fun!

Day 5 had a heavy inversion trapping everyone around launch height and the task was cancelled shortly after the start due to this and strong wind. The last 2 days were very windy but 2 more tasks were completed in somewhat marginal conditions. Both days the crux was getting to Burnt ridge east of launch - if you did this you got to goal, if you didn't you were in the LZ.

US pilot Dean Stratton won 5 of 6 tasks and the comp overall. Our own James was second in the masters and Heike was second female.

Can highly reccomend coming over here next year for anyone looking to escape the rain, the comp is well organised and Mike, Gail and their volunteers do the fun side of things better than anyone.