The day started slowly, a forecast for rain plus a take-off capped by a cloud delayed our usual departure at 9am to 10:30am. Once on take-off, conditions did not look so bad. So that we took-off for a 67km task. When waiting for the start gate to open, it was quite obvious the 1m/s average climb we had around the peak would become weaker in the flats, not to mention an absence of lower clouds on the direct route to the first turnpoint. Because higher clouds we had, and only one additionnal turnpoint before the goal. So basically we had to complete a out-and-return task, first leg in the dark and facing wind. Which proved to be tough.

(no pictures today – I took again the small video camera – even without the plastic casing the sound is awfull, just enjoy looking at the clouds and the gaggle)

Take-off

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Something fresh for my 901st flight: video blogging! A perfect slow day, a magnificent task. And a shitty mike. You may grab a bit of english gibberish with imperceptible parts in french. I am so pissed off the sound did not work. You could shut it down as well. Anyway, I uploaded the videos below, that is for the souvenir, and for the pictures. The point today was about patience, staying airborne, changing gears when possible, and making it to goal before the task deadline. Which I did for 25 mere seconds… Luca wins the day with Stefan and Joachim close-by. Many pilots land in between ESS and the goal line. Tricky task until the very last meter indeed!

From the hotel to the meeting point

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Today I got the start right. On time. At the right place. With the right guys. During the first transition, and the first transition only, I experienced again this cool feeling of leading the pack. Anyway, the race is won after the last glide, not at the end of the first one. We had an interesting task to complete, turning clockwise around the Ibituruna Peak, let’s go.

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So we had the first task of the 2013 SuperFinal. An overcast sky was not looking too good until noon, a front is announced from the South for the next days, nevertheless the Meet Director sent us on a not-so-easy out-and-return trip to Engenheiro Caldas. Honorin is the winner of the day, taking the right amount of risks to validate as low as possible the (cylindric) End of Speed Section, say 100m AGL, find a thermal savior in order to gain 1000m and glide to goal 8km away.

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6:36am. Skype bell is yelling on my cellphone. Then on my tablet. What the hell, I was sleeping so well! Who’s that? Well, now I am smiling, my 21 month old son just understood the purpose of the green button next to my face on his mother’s iPad… An opportunity to spend the 24 missing minutes making faces in front of my screen. Life can be good sometimes.

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