US Nats - Final day

The last day of the Nats looked promising with light winds forecast and the possibility of reaching 12,000ft. A 112km task was set to the north and with a course line running directly along the spectacular Abert Rim, everyone was excited for a good task and visual feast on the final day. Sadly it wasn't to be. There was some quite consistent wind before the launch had even opened and conditions for the first 10 minutes of launch window were just passable for those confindent with very strong wind launches. The rest of the launch window wasn't sensible for anyone though a few die hards did get away with it. With over half the field still on the ground, the task was belatedly cancelled shortly after the start time.

Overall winners:

1 - Frank Brown
2 - Dean Stratton (US Champion)
3 - Kyndel Bannister

Women:

1 - Kari Castle
2 - Meredyth Malocsay
3 - Cherie Silvera

All the Lakeview winners:



The attendance at Lakeview was far less than expected, only 65 started and several departed after task 3, apparently it was due to Lakeview's reputation as a windy, rough place to fly. Maybe it is, maybe we just picked a bad week to be there, that said, the area still gave us 3 days, took people to 16'000ft and set a US record for task distance, you can't really argue with those numbers.

I was all set to head for San Francisco after the Nats when standing on launch on the last day, Peter Warren (see front row right hand side in the above pic) said he and a few others were going to fly the Shasta valley next week and welcomed me along. Mt Shasta is the 14'000ft volcano I mentioned earlier, it loomed up on the horizon on the first flight I had at Woodrat. So I cut off my plans to go directly to San Fran and am taking a little spin on the dune buggy of fate, always the best way to travel. More soon.



Topping out at 12,000ft shortly after the start on task 2. Gavin is in the centre of the photo.