Last Day of the Valle de Bravo Competition

[lplehmann]

Here is my final logbook entry for the El Peñon competition at Valle de Bravo, Mexico. For those who have never flown there, it is one of the most pleasant, reliable and civilized places to fly in the world.
Pete

February 26: Final El Peñon Comp Day
34.0 mile goal
2:32*

Fishbowl race in very strong conditions and with clouds that varied in reliability over the course of the day. Perfect landing to end a really good comp.

As is customary at this meet, the final day was run as something of a fishbowl race, with us never getting very far from the Piano landing field in which the awards ceremony and party were to be held. The task proved a bit more challenging than expected, but I did make goal after about two hours in the air. The 15-mile final glide with the Sport was touch and go, but I just made it in with a tiny bit of lift at the end.

We had clouds that worked reasonably well, and the strongest lift I experienced during the entire trip. Indeed, it was so sharply strong that it re-awakened my latent tumble spooks during a nasty, rotorish climb behind the El Peñon peak. I was, as always, slow, but it is so much fun to get into goal on the last, party day with lots of locals coming out to join the festivities. I am just sorry that my buddy Ric fell victim to the wickedly strong sink that accompanied the strong lift, and that Mark Gardner missed the day due to an attack by Montezuma, still angry after all these years.

The winner of the meet was my friend Daniel Velez, the Colombian National Champion, and my only regret is that the very young Swiss champion Damien Zahn was not on the podium after screwing up on the prior day. The kid is astoundingly good.

The whole meet ran wonderfully, with the weather being its usual Valle reliable self. In fact, this year's meet had better conditions than the past years in which I have flown it. We had far less of the pure blue-sky, high-pressure days with their occasionally teeth-rattling turbulence. The flying was fun, the flying community friendly, and the support staff helpful. This year also had a fair number of new, younger American pilots present. Not all flew in the comp, but seemingly all of them experienced personal bests in their flying, a testament to Valle's amazing conditions. It was heartening to see actual young, enthusiastic hang glider pilots.

https://ayvri.com/scene/0o5vo13mj6/cl06 ... 6nm0i54ldd

[mcgowantk]

Thanks for the write up Pete. I enjoyed hearing about the flying from you and Knut. It does look like a fantastic place to fly.

Tom