PWC Governador Valadares 2009

   From March 21 to 28, I'll participate at the PWC in Governador Valadares together with Alberto Ramia, Micky von Wachter, José Angel Rodríguez, Alejandro Alfonzo, Camila Antonorsi, Raúl Penso, Leopoldo Turco, Alex Popow y Juan Carlos Becerra.
   I was already here in 2005 for the world championships in which we flew in weak conditions. This time, conditions seem to be better, so I hope we get some nice flying days.

March 22 - task 1
    Today, the task commitee set up a task of 70,6 km which I thought to be too ambitious for the conditions. Cloud base was very low and clouds we kind of big, specially at launch.
    The start point was 6 km from launch, so, after I launched (and dropping my purse and cap while running) I climbed fast and flew to the waiting area at about 500 m from the start point. I got there 15 minutes before the start opened and it seemed like forever. The cloud was working pretty well, so the waiting was not so stressful, specially when I learned someone found my purse and cap : )
   When the start opened, we began our glide to the first turnpoint. Everything was shaded and we kept gliding to what it looked like a mass suicide... which was exactly was happened. At about 3 km from the turnpoint, a group turned to the right to a sunny area that only worked for those who arrived high and were able to stay airborne longer. About 40 pilots landed there.
   Surprinsingly, the task was valid because two pilots flew more than the validation distance. A Swiss pilot flew 33 km and a Frenchmen 60 km!
   Tomorrow will be another day...


March 23 - Task 2
    After a super storm last night, the day began doubtful but we went up to launch anyways. A 50 km task was set with 4 start gates due to the poor conditions. With these 4 start gates every ten minutes, pilots could choose when to launch depending on how conditions evolved.
    The first pilots launched and weren't climbing much, so I decided to wait a little. I finally launched to take the last start gate because the sun was coming out a little and was fortunately able to climb right away. Cloud base was very low, so when I climbed high enough and the thermal weakened, I left to see if I founf anything. I turned a thermal with Alex that wasn't working and kept going. There was a small group of pilots turning at the quarry so I went there, and slowly, climbed 500 m and kept going.
    The day seemed to be improving because the sun was coming through the high clouds sometimes and there were cycles of sun and shade. I kept going and found a good thermal which I turned together with Alex and squeezed it for a while, Alex kept going. A shaded cycle came so I kept turning as much as I could and began my final glide...
   The group where Alex and Larry were turned at something but I was too low and wasn't going to make it so I kept gliding and flew 21,5 km.
   I'm very satisfied because the day was very bad and I thoguth it would be just another glide just as yesterday. The winner of today's task was the Italian Davide Licini who flew 39,9 km. Micky and Raúl did pretty well and flew 26,8 and 26,6 km, respectively. Alex flew 23,7 km, Larry 23,3 km, Leopoldo 21 km, Flaco 14,2 km, Camila 12,9 km, Pocahontas 6,3 km, Pollo 5,1 km and Nova 4,4 km.
   Tomorrow's weather should be better, so, let's be patient and we'll see how it goes tomorrow...

March 24 - no task
    The day started really bad and we went up to take off only to wait for the task commitee to cancel the day. We flew down, at least...

March 25 - again, no task
    The day started pretty ugly and the day was cancelled early, but since it improved we went up to freefly. Unfortunately, Leopoldo got his glider wet and it deep stalled and broke a vertebra but with no further complications...
   Everyone on the team did something to help somehow, and fortunately everything turned out ok.
   The forecast for tomorrow isn't very good, but anything can happen...


March 26 - task 3
    Last night, it rained until midnight and we thought the day was going to be really bad... but it wasn't
   We went up to take-off and waited for decent conditions. The task committee set up a task, but since conditions weren't good, the changed it for another one. The new task was an elapsed time of 38,9 km.
   When the window opened, the weather was really bad and it looked like it was going to rain, so I decided to wait just in case they decided to cancel or if it rained or if it improved... The first group that launched was climbing after the first transition but the day seemed to be improving, so I kept on waiting. I finally launched because the day wasn't going to get any better and it was really bad because we glided to some hills 6 km from launch where we scratched for a while just to land right there with about 40 pilots...
   The weather looks better for tomorrow, so let's give our best!
   I landed with Larry, Nova, Poca and Pollo. Micky, Raúl, and Alex reached goal, Flaco landed 12 km short, and Camila was the girl who flew the most.

   More information and official results at http://www.hipoxia.com.br/pwc2009/ and http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/

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