After arriving a day early to get a little airtime and a couple mellow tows it turns out that we get lots of rain heavy wind a broken tent pole and a gallon of water in the tent instead. I was just not prepared for the first day of the comp by any stretch of the imagination. I learned how to put a competition route in my 5030, Garmin and tried to get myself mentally prepared for the first aerotow I have done since last October. The wind was crankin and I had a good launch and tow and refused to get off till the tug pilot waved me off, at 2100' we hit a doosey and he waved me off. I was able to climb to 3900' and when I saw another sport class pilot leave 500' below I did what Linda has taught me well and pimped off him hard. The first mile or so we dolphin flew and gained a little then flew out to a blue hole and got nothing but little blips on the vario. I got as small and tight as I could and pulled full VG and went as far as I could, 7 miles and nothin', I picked a big field when I was below 800' and set up to land but got broken lift at 500' and spent the next 5 min. trying to get a ride back up. No such luck, I waffled between 5-600' then lost it and landed in a bean field a couple hundred yards from a farm house. The farmers wife came out to see if I was ok and was smiling almost as big as I was as I told her about hang gliding. She offered me a ride and gave me some water which was great considering I pulled the drink tube off my Camel Back and had dumped all my water down my back and wished me well. Ron and Bob showed up right as I finished packing up and we headed back.
1flight
7 miles XC
34 minutes
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