Last Day

When the forecast for the last day called for a greater chance of overdevelopment and higher winds, I knew that day 6 was going to be important. I blew my final glide and landed a couple of k's short and thought my comp was over. Luckily, when we woke for the last day, the sky looked a bit more promising and by the time the spot landing contest was over, it was blue and looking as though we would indeed get to race one last task. I knew O'Brien wanted a "real" task for the last day and was psyched when he told me that they came up with a 90+ mile dog leg (shaped like a "7") that would hopefully keep us away from overdevelopment.

Jeff O'Brien getting "race ready"


The group gaggled up over the airport with most of the field trying to gain height to work toward the edge of the start circle. I felt most were thinking that we should go earlier than later because of the chance that the sky would blow up and stop the task. The clouds were getting thick and the lift was getting stronger. The first 110 k's of the course were almost directly down wind and with a stiff tail wind, would prove to be fast.

Me and Zippy getting yanked out of the cart- photos by Karen Johnson



My team was a bit quicker to get to the best cloud at the edge of the start cylinder and were much higher than myself along with Derrik Turner and Chris Zimmerman. They called over the radio that they were going when the first clock turned over but we (Derrik, Chris and I) were still 800-1000' below them and were forced to take a few more turns, leaving after them by over a minute.

Luckily for me, by the time we got to the next cloud, Jeff, Zippy, Glen, Davis and others were climbing in 350 fpm on the far side of the cloud, still 1000' higher but I found 800 that turned into 1000+ fpm which allowed me to catch up quickly. We were getting higher than previous days, topping out at over 10,000' MSL.

James Stinnet proving that he can still fly a flex wing very well


Mark Stump- one of the nicest and most helpful guys on the circuit


The group was gliding with airspeeds between 55-60 mph and climbs of 7-900 fpm. It was classic Texas racing. As we approached the Turn point however, the ground was getting darker caused by the shade from quickly growing cu nims. We got social and grouped up with OB coming in higher from the left and Davis, Glen, Terry, Zippy and I finding a climb just before the t-point. It was only 200 fpm (which at this point, we were thankful for) and we gained just enough altitude while drifting away from the turn point to dive in and tag it. Most kept going but I flew through 50 up and Glen, Terry and I stopped, thermalling at 3/4 VG trying to squeeze the max lift out of every turn. I could see Davis and Zippy trying to dig themselves out from low a half glide ahead and watched OB and several others land. The red dust form the gust fronts were approaching and there was lightning on 3 sides of our position. It was quite surreal to be climbing in smooth, light lift with three guys while surrounded by what felt like a group of hungry lions. I left our climb right after Davis decked and flew toward Zippy who was in zero to 50 up. I came in 100' over his head and Glen followed (I think Terry had just landed behind us). We were the last ones in the air at this point and I got the feeling that Glen wasn't going to go unless Zippy did, to hold onto his position in the comp (which was winning;-). In the end, the potential danger proved too great a motivator and we left on glide to the ground. Because of altitude, the placing for the day was where we were in the last thermal. Glen was first, I finished second for the day with Zippy just a couple hundred meters behind me.

Up and coming pilot, Eric Donaldson.


Ben Dunn, smiling as usual


Luckily, it was enough to make up a little for the previous day's final glide mishap and to slip past Larry Bunner (who flew really good this comp) for 5th overall. OB finished 4th, Derrik (who landed just short of the turn point) held onto 3rd. Zippy was 2nd and Glen Volk won the comp showing that his experience and skill is a benchmark for the rest of the US pilots to try to beat. It was a great comp with 7 tasks over 7 days and brilliant task selection by Davis, Jeff and Glen which kept us mostly away from overdevelopment and allowed for long, challenging tasks each day. We raced hard and in the end it was how a good comp should be. The best pilot for that particular race was on top of the podium. Well done, Glen.

Glen Volk, Winner of the Big Spring US Hang Gliding Championship


After landing, ZIppy and I broke down as quickly as possible to beat the gust front that was quickly approaching. I knelt down to unzip my sprog door and put my hand in the grass and onto what felt like a spider web. I felt something move and looked down. Under my palm was a black shiny spider with a red hour glass. Sometimes the most dangerous point of a flight is just after landing;-) I pulled out my camera to take a photo and some more video (I had my camera out for several memorable moments during the flight) only to realize that my SD card was still in my card reader from the night before;-( Bummer!
Who says that all lessons learned during a comp are flying related;-)
Cheers