Worlds Task Two

Flying in the Worlds

Short report: A good task was had today, plenty of people in goal, and plenty just short.

My view: We've had two tasks, and I've suffered from the same attention deficit issue on both tasks. On the first one we sat around endlessly at base, I got bored and left with Bill. Today we sat around on launch waiting for it to blow in--I was laid out about third in the lines of gliders, and got frustrated at the wait. By the time I was in the air I was hot and annoyed, more so as a glider laid out in front of me as I got ready to launch. If I were really here to compete then I would suck it up and stay focused, but the bottom line is that I'm not all that mentally "in" this competition. That's a weird thing to say about a world championship, but the whole vibe just annoys me. Sit around, cue up, it's just plain aggravating. In the XC comp we launched and flew, and I was happy to be in the air each day. Here it's been a far cry from the sort of flying I enjoy. I'm used to competing in different sports and can normally focus on the task at hand (so to speak), but I just don't seem to have any competition mojo for this one.

After launch today the gaggle flying was really bad--lots of pilots in a small space, with a few people cutting through the gaggle randomly. I was nearly mid-aired twice, and kept leaving the gaggle to find something less messy. I'd get a climb on and then the gaggle would jump into it. That's OK when it's going up good, but the climbs were weak. I was in the lead gaggle to the first turnpoint, but didn't slow down on the way back along the ridge, there were just too many damn gliders to enjoy the air. Eventually I climbed out, then got mobbed again and left before topping out the climb. That was it, I went on glide into a blue hole and then landed close to a road, no enthusiasm left. You can't be flying to avoid other gliders in this sort of meet...

I've had this happen at pargliding comps before--it's one reason I didn't compete much for about five years. Too much time sitting around, too many politics, too many of the things I go flying to not experience. The contrast between this competition and the Manilla XC event is really jarring--good fun flying vs. clusters…

I'll have to figure out why I'm here and what the goal is, at this point I've about had it. I do better with a goal, the last two days I haven't had one and the results are clear. Keith did well yesterday, as did Josh and Tom, so Canada and the U.S. are doing well, good to see.