Nepal Open Paragliding Cup 2013, Task One

Nepal Open Paragliding Cup 2013

First Task Day, Feb 28th, 2013 

The tiger in the bus was quite polite, in the air he was ferocious.  Pawel Tomaszews.

What a day.  A task of 48.5km was set starting with a run up and down the ridge, then over to the Dumpus Green Wall, to the Green Wall then to SS and Goal near the end of the lake.  Gliders were climbing above the towers when we arrived on take-off, it was looking epic.  I was the third glider to launch, seconds after the window opened, and immediately found a climb and rode it to 2100m.  Then Entry start was at Matradunga, so I went over to Torrie Panni and found another climb up to 2300m.  I used this altitude to glide out towards the SS cylinder for a reference.  With plenty of time before start I chose to search closer and closer to the entry cylinder for a high thermal.  I ended up being kinda low at start time and tagged the cylinder a couple minuets late, and approximately mid pack.    Lesson:  be patient, there is nothing wrong with hanging out high at the top of the stack for 20 minuets, waiting for start.  

The ridge run back to the towers was super buoyant and after fueling up again near Torrie Panni I decided to head to Korchon, instead of following the 40 pilots who were in front of me on a straight course to Dumpus.  This decision put me on a much slower course line.  Lesson:  don’t make risky decisions to try to pass the whole pack, catch up by following, not by flying on your own.  

Reaching Korchon low I tried to believe whole heartedly that there would be a thermal for me.  There was.  I saw that my friend Ivan Ripoll had also chosen that route, and about 15 other pilots were suckered into following us.  The lift was scrappy and eventually we left at 2400m.  On the glide to Dumpus the lead pack was heading to Korchon for the final Green Wall turn point.  I was elated to see my friends and teammates Wil Brown, and Pawel Tomaszews nipping at the heals of Ajay Kumar and Jamie Messenger, in the lead gaggle.  

Super star organizer Egor, reminding me to push full speed

Dumpus worked fast, then back to Korchon.  I was flying in a gaggle with Ivan Ripoll and Nando Silla Martinez.  We found some strong, somewhat rowdy,  leeside thermals and got to around 2600m.  During this climb I saw a pilot who was right next to me cascade down about 500m and throw their reserve.  The pilot is O.K..  Seeing this event got my heart rate elevated and encouraged me to tighten in on the core.  I had a good glide path over to the Green Wall and passed a few gliders.  Ivan and Nando chose a different line and had to work hard just to make the Wall.  Soon I was turning in a 4 meter per second thermal after tagging the cylinder, and climbing to 2890m before heading out from the Main Peak.  I was able to glide the whole way to SS and Goal, with full bar most of the way, and 150m to spare, passing a few lower gliders.  The beer in the landing field tasted good, and hanging out with friends was a joy.    

approaching the Green Wall

Wil Brown had tagged the end of speed section third and very low.  The pilots near him at the time said he must have landed.  He clawed his way up for an hour, and made it to goal.  Yeah Wil.  Pawel also stuck with the lead gaggle and made it into goal 5th.  Results can be found here:http://www.nepalopencup.org/

Flying with over 100 other gliders on course and racing was truly special, a first for me.  The air seemed electric when the start happened and 100 gliders went from hang out and wait mode to full speed ahead mode, very cool.

I heard about two other reserve deployments, other then the one I saw.  I don’t know if they were all participants.  Thankfully I have not heard about any injuries.