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Award Winning Instruction
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2010 Monarca Open - Task 5
The start was set as a 2km entrance cylinder around Espina. The turn points were Espina, Divisa, Despue, Espina, and goal was at the lake. Pilots were getting nice climbs after launching, but the extra altitude wasn’t worth as much with the head wind we were bucking on the way to the Penon Zone. Most folks came into the Wall and got established there before moving over to Crazy. The lift was big and abundant and pilots were getting to 10,000 feet. The huge swarm hovered over Crazy Thermal Mesa, and a few pushed into the wind close to the edge of the 2km start cylinder at Espina. After grabbing the start and tagging the Espina turn point, the armada made its way toward Divisa. The gliders mashing bar going pulley to pulley arrived first at ridge top and began ridge soaring toward Divisa. The best line was out front just a bit. The glide was more buoyant on this front line, and there seemed to be less wind. Josh Cohn took this line, made a few turns at the Three Kings saddle then proceeded to blow past everyone and extend a nice lead into the Divisa turn point. Once Josh gets out in front, he is hard to catch. He ended up never looking back and won the day by over six minutes. After pilots grabbed the Divisa turn point we headed back toward Maguey to get a climb before trying to glide back across the valley and get established on the Crazy Thermal mesa, or try to come over the top of the knife ridge toward Espina. There was a really nice climb out in front of Maguey for the pilots who arrived in time to get a piece. The gliders who topped this out had an easy transition, while the others who missed out on this huge boost had a much harder time. The G spot was boosting, and there were also good climbs on the edge of Crazy, but the G spot was releasing strong bits of lift all afternoon. The pilots who transitioned to this spot were rewarded with lots of altitude as they made the move to get the Despue turn point. Some of these pilots came in high enough to the turn point at Despue to turn around and glide all the way back to the Mesa above the Wall. Others came in at or just below the height of the Wall before getting established. There was a significant headwind, and getting to Espina was harder than we realized. The area around the G spot was unleashing and pilots got to almost 12,000 feet here in nice strong climbs. Pilots tanked up and made a move for the Espina turn point. They raced back to the G spot area with a tailwind to find the nice climb that had been releasing there all afternoon. Pilots tanked up to over 11,000 feet before pointing it toward the lake. There was a little luck and timing involved with what kind of glide each pilot got on the way to the lake. Some pilots had nice buoyant glides while other who had left only a few turns before they got drilled into the mesa side of Cerro Gordo. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to which line would work best. Someone could be seen getting a good glide on a certain line, and the pilot just behind was getting drilled. Some pilots had to back off the speed bar if they found themselves on a sinking line. Most of these pilots ended up making the lake, but the middle part of the glide was very sinky for some. These pilots could see that the pilots in front of them who were getting close to the lake were getting buoyant glides, and this encouraged some of them to push on with a lower altitude than they might normally accept. Once at the lake, it was going up just about everywhere so the pilots coming in with marginal altitude made goal and those who already had altitude arrived ridiculously high. Brad Gunnuscio held onto his top spot in the overall standings, and Josh Cohn moved into second overall with his win today. Lucas Bernardin is in third place with one day of racing left. Rob Sporrer reporting from the pit. Photos courtesy of Rasta Chip Hildebrand
¡Órale!  Start Gaggle over Crazy Thermal  On glide to Divisa   Brad Gunnuscio on glide to Divisa  RESULTS |
