Monday, September 6, 2010

Dutch Flatlands day 1, task 1

Saturday was the first day of the Dutch Flatlands competition. The day looked very good from the beginning, but after the first starts it was soon clear that the day was more difficult than it looked.
I had a disaster day. Not a single thermal in my first tow. Restarted and got towed through a thermal at low altitude. I hesitated to release and when we hadn't encountered anything else a minute later, I decided to release at 350 m and return to the spot. I couldn't find anything decent anymore and was forced to land a second time. Very bad decision. I wasn't in a thermal, so I shouldn't have released before I got to release height. It's as simple as that.

I took a third start, but the trike had an engine failure at 100 m. I was disappointed in myself and gave up, because I thought the day would come to an end soon, it was 16h30. That was the second big mistake, because the sky looked good until 18h30. I felt more and more stupid by the minute...
So, that was a minimum distance day.
Thanks to Sander van Schaik for the picture. By the way, Sander produces a very nice hang gliding calendar every year.

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