Race and Rally starts tomorrow!

The Flytec Race and Rally is pretty special when it comes to hang gliding competitions. As far as I know, it is the only rally. We start it at Quest, near Orlando and we hope to reach Huntsville, Alabama. It all depends on the weather of course, but I'm really looking forward to fly in a new place every single day.
And it is a new comp, so anything is possible again :-)

Rob Kells Memorial - Final task

Day 6 of the comp was canceled due to strong winds and day 7 looked really good when we started the task we had an out-and-return to the NNW. But that took us into the shade caused by overdevelopment in a front just north of us. I was in the leading gaggle with Curt, Zippy and Paris, but I lost height in a very weak thermal where the other managed to maintain altitude. So I had to go out alone in the shade, heading for the dark storms (still far away) and I knew I probably just was going to glide as far as I could. And that's the way it turned out to be. I landed 700 m short of the turn point.
Paris managed to work the thermal best and managed to return 6 or 7 km and won the day. Jonny flew just a few meters less and won the comp from Dustin on the last day.
This picture was taken after task 5, landing back at the ridge.

Fast day until it shut down

For the first time this comp, we were having goal at the place we launch (Florida Ridge). Here's a picture while towing:

A 111 km diamond shape task was set going in the direction of Fort Myers and back. I had a really fast run with Zippy and Shapiro until I failed to gain anything from a cloud street. That made me miss the last thermal with Zippy, who came in goal 20 minutes before me. I had a really slow leg after that missed thermal, but it was even worse for others. 3rd in goal and 4th for the day. Jonny took a later start gate, but was 7 minutes faster than me. My best performance in this comp. I think I'm back in the top 10 :-)

Why is Jonny that much faster?

Yesterday, Jonny was way faster than anybody else. While talking about start gates and people out in front who could be his thermal markers, he told me that they didn't help him, because they where all circling in weak lift. I compared our track logs and indeed, Jonny's vario profile is completely different than mine. His vario averaged 1.9 m/s, mine averaged 0.9 m/s and the glides where comparable...

Jonny only turns in good stuff, I have to learn how to find that.

Trying to be smart - failed

Yesterday's task was a 120 km mostly crosswind task. I had a difficult start, almost had to land and relaunch, but had a low save and could make the 3rd start gate. I was in a nice gaggle with Dustin, Andre, Davis, Julia, ... Just before the first turn point I was looking at the clouds and I thought the gaggle made a strange move going that far west. I decided to take a slightly different route and 2 minutes later, I saw the gaggle coming my way. I thought I had just done a nice move. Not so, I stupidly missed the first turn point and realized that 5 km later. I tried to turn around, but had a strong headwind heading there and had to land a the turn point. What a stupidity and what a missed chance!

Rob Kells Memorial - Day 2

Strong winds today, with rowdy thermals as a consequence. Quite a roller coaster ride. We had a 122 km task with a 15 km start cylinder and everyone was convinced it was going to be a late, but fast day. Which it was. I saw a nice cloud developing on the edge of the cylinder short before the 1st start gate and I got very high there, but my timing was off and I had to return because I was going to lose to much time if I started then.
I took the second start gate, which was probably early, so I was alone during the first half of the flight. About halfway, after the first turn point, I got low and lost a lot of time. I feared I would have to land and had to work broken lift for quite a while before it really turned on again. That was also the moment that I saw a whole armada of gliders (well 7 or 8) come my way. They took the 3rd start gate and caught up with me. One thermal later, I looked like a complete rookie when Jonny and Jeff Shapiro outclimbed me in a spectacular fashion. I somehow didn't catch it and they were right in the core. Still a lot to learn...
I came into goal 6th, having started a start gate earlier. In the provisional results I'm 7th for the day and I don't think that's going to change. That also puts me in 7th overall. A good day :-)
And Jonny made a video about yesterday's (where I had the rare opportunity of seeing him come into goal) and today's task:

Rob Kells Memorial - Day 1

Today started with a windy sky and difficult conditions after launch. Low, weak thermals under an almost overcast sky. We had an 80 km task and I managed to jump the 3rd startgate, so I'll have a 13 or 14 minute time penalty because the start gates were 15 mins apart.
We had to cross some 'unretrievable' terrain after the start and I didn't really want to do that with the low altitude we had. Only after drifting far enough to the west, I could see the road on the other end of it and I decided to go. Just to soon, as you know. Anyway, the day got better and I had a really good climb 15 km out. I had 9/1 to goal, but hit sink on my way to goal and was seeing 6/1 numbers. I needed a few turns in a thermal 2 kms out of goal to make it. I was happy to be there. To my surprise there were fewer gliders there than I expected. I think I was 5th or 6th in goal. We landed next to a prison and the sheriff wasn't really happy about that...
So with all the difficult conditions and apparently also other people with bad start times, it's waiting for the scores to have any idea where I ended up.
Click the map screenshot to see more flight details. We were low for a large portion of it...