Wednesday: When my vario showed 6000 feet, I cheered aloud. I am the Sky Goddess! A new personal best for me. I reminded myself to do what Paris says when you lose focus -- take a breath, re-center. The climb wasn't over yet. I milked out a couple hundred more feet. I felt happy, though chilled. I had been hanging out around the field for an hour, trying to get high, and it was almost 4:30. Crew is only allowed to fly after all the competitors have launched, unless you are chosen as wind dummy. It seemed like a waste to not use this lofty position to rack up some miles, though, even though it was late. I headed to Coleman, about 23 miles away, where I landed after another hour.
Picked a huge field by the turnpike. Landed well. I am awfully conservative but the XC will have to be on my terms for now. Flying with the top pilots has made me realize their incredible skill level. Chris doing loops on final. Jonny standing in his control frame at 5000 feet, filming his students, commentating, and going up at 700 per minute. Many of these pilots are not even aware of how much multitasking they do. I can now look for landing fields and my next lift while I thermal. But I need to think out my approaches still. The glider is not yet just an extension of my body.
Back to the good stuff. After landing, I discovered my diaper had not really worked and my gin flask leaked. My harness smelled interesting, and not in a good way. The Sky Goddess reeks. I bolted for a clump of trees and changed into the shorts I store in my harness, just in case some one decided to stop and chat with me before I found a ride home.
Paul picked me up, since he opted not to fly. He has flown all previous 3 days of the comp, and tried for the task the last two. He completed both tasks, and was 4th fastest of the rigids Tuesday. Pretty amazing, huh? But yesterday (Wednesday) he was sore and wanted to rest up for Florida Ridge. Besides, some of the competitors complained about him flying the tasks. The management said it was OK but I guess some of the guys felt embarrassed about getting spanked by a rookie.
I received the dubious honor of being wind dummy Tuesday, and was sent up at 12:30 into marginal lift. I scraped around for half an hour in rat sh** before decking it. No worries about being swarmed over by the gaggles. No one wanted to fly in view of my obvious struggles. Later, I flew again for an hour more, but I felt exhausted. Cranky. Not happy.
I think this comp is teaching me to focus on one thing at a time, or at least not so many. I ride my horse in the mornings before the pilot meetings. Then I crew, then I fly. Then we party. My parents are visiting, too. Yesterday I skipped my horse. Skipped the party Tuesday night. Well, I attended but then decided to nap in the truck while Paul ate. Kissed my parents good night and crashed. Much better to not do everything, even if it all sounds like fun. Yesterday I was much better as a result.
Anyhow. The comp is actually really fun. I had said I would never attend -- because the memories of the accidents here were so painful -- but it is OK. We have parties each night, and we even got a free bus ride and tickets to the Hard Rock Cafe so we could listen to Bob's band. The women pilots have been very supportive. Tova, from Australia, made me promise to not give up flying. Karina, the woman's world champ, spent a long time telling me about harnesses and gliders yesterday. Kari liked my watch. In fact, almost everyone is great. Full of help, full of kindness. Sunny and Kristen visited from Highland for a couple days, too. What a treat to see them.
Fly safe, flare well.
Lauren
free flying the Flytec week at Quest
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