Nationals Day 3

Day 3 was a TAT (AAT) of 3.5 hours but this got changed in the air to a 3 hour MAT with 7 turnpoints. Fortunately I had the B task already in my PDA so was not as put-out as some. There were cus all day at about 11,000ft and it was a classic racing day except for one thing - that very last turnpoint - Radar. Radar is as the name would suggest, a radar station. It's at the end of a ravine, a long long way from any landing fields, way up on a mountain peak, and way out to the east, whereas the good flying was forecast to be in the west. So we had a great time with the first 6 turnpoints. Even from 9000ft I just about had glide to Radar and home, but there were absolutely no cu there, and the glide home was into a headwind and totally unlandable for 30 miles. Most people chickened out and glided straight home from the previous turnpoint, even if that meant getting home early. 5 of us headed out to Radar. I quickly lost glide in heavy sink and by the time I turned Radar I was 1200ft below glide at a zero McCready. I turned and headed back into the ravine getting distinctly twitchy. Did I mention that there was also a broad hill on final glide that I had to clear? Anyhow, it got to the point where I had to bail out and head for a distant area of cropped fields. Just as I started to turn toward them, having completely blown the day, I hit a climb. It got me high enough to carry on towards the finish, and not only that but a cloud street formed leading straight there, in what had been completely blue! I cleared that hill by a good 800-1000ft and then had to red-line to get down. In the end I was 3rd for the day and moved back up to 2nd overall. Whew!

Here's a photo I took of my wing runner just before hooking on, his sunnies caught my eye...