Rat Race

[Brett Hardin]

Hi everyone

Several of us are at the Rat Race, and tonight I sat in one of the evening classes put on by a couple of the real pros of our sport and I am thinking of how much the people in the room are learning, the information transfer is worth 10 years of trial and error, unbelievable value.  Tomorrow's class is one I won't miss - tricks on using speed bar.

Just the daily courses are worth the 395 bucks...  seriously.  But then we get to fly what looks like to be every day, and get mentored by pilots that know so much more than we do...  and the social scene is off the hook.  The river is really nice too.

Anyway, think about it next year, this is my 7th rat race, I hope I never miss one.

ciao

Brett

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BrettHardin.net

[Mark Sanzone]

I just completed 4 days as a volunteer at the race.  What a great experience!  I learned so much just sitting in on the morning pilot meetings and mentoring sessions that are held at 6pm each night.  Mike and Gail run a great event! Also had great flights every day, but you need to have you bump tolerance dialed up.

Mark

PS. Kudos to Tyler's girlfriend Heidi for her first tandem - we flew an hour and got 1500' over! 

[K.c....Pfr]

Wood Rat went off today like a bomb. The Compers flew.....and got to 11-13.5k in no time One wind tech got to 11k in one thermal in just 5 or so minutes(in a tee shirt) The wind kicked up and the high end wings were getting 9kts penetration So the task was cancelled.   The cool thing was..from the time i step out of the van on launch I had good intuition that this place was going to blow the hell up. So,i set up both gliders anyways,just to be ready. Tho i never decided to actually fly.   The task got canceled.....one hang flew but... Im telling you,the thermals were easily 1500....even at high altitute   i learned alot down here......ive made alot of really serious judgement calls.   In the van on the way down i asked the local....How many of these pilot would not have flown if it wasnt for the comp?...He hardly laughed and said....95%   Im good...last thing i wanted to do was blow it on the last day and ruin an entire week. I fly way to much to deal with SKETCH   KC

[Steed family]

Saturday's conditions at Woodrat were fascinating from above, but not fun for those who launched in crosswinds or got pinned to ridges trying to push upwind.  It appeared to me almost like a wave, with lift beginning at Woodrat and sloping up and away over Medford, pretty much forever.  People could have headed north at 14-grand-plus, 2 miles above launch.  My best guess is that the south upper air temporarily reversed the flow in the upper Applegate valley, and for a while up- and down-valley winds converged at Woodrat.  The result was thermals of enormous scale.  I missed the really huge lift, so took a mellow climb and was boating around in fairly smooth air at less than 10,500 ft.  Penetration was not a problem and as I got down to about 8 above the LZ (the start) there was very little drift.  But as I approached Rabies Peak (second turnpoint) it was a horrendous sinkhole and I had to push full bar to escape down China Gulch to the Longhorn LZ.  Interesting end to a solid week of flying, ending with the traditional tossing of winners into the pool, which easily expanded to most anyone who looked dry.  Felt good in the hot weather.  One person was even tossed out of the pool, but she immediately jumped back in.
 
Mike
 

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Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:33:56 -0700
From: yes...@yahoo.com
Subject: CPC: Rat Race
To: mem...@ohga.org; cp...@googlegroups.com

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