After my rest day of the day before, I felt really refreshed and certainly up for making the most out of the day. Last year at Piedrahita I had to wait until the final day to make goal and I was hoping for a repeat performance. The final task was going to be windy, so we did another zig zag task, first to beyond Tolmin, back to the volcano and then to a third turnpoint back near the first, then Kobarid, the hill behind and back to Kobarid.

I got a good start and flew conservatively to avoid getting drilled at the same point as yesterday. I needn’t have worried… the thermals were well established and in places, booming. I got to Tolmin no problem and then got high in a thermal and followed a good line (which others were marking for me) to the turn point. It was really windy by this point and as I passed over the last ridge before the turn point, I realised I would be in rotor from the hill. It got very rough when I turned to go to the next one and I was glad I was out of there. Mal, Malcolm, Emma, Tony and I (and a few others) struggled for ages on the ridge to the east of Tolmin to try to get a climb and progress with the course. I was convinced that if we waited long enough a bubble would release, but after about 20 minutes I was less convinced and I decided to push on. With the strong wind, I thought the ridge would work. It did and I soared up the spur and then got a strong thermal which allowed me to do a slow into wind glide to the volcano turn point above Tolmin. Looking at where the next turn point was, my GPS was telling me to go back to TP 1. Since my GPS and I have been having some trust issues, I checked on the turn point list and foolishly decided that it was wrong and I’d done my bit in the Tolmin valley, so I headed away back to the volcano, where Andy was struggling valiantly to get up again. It was so windy, we were being blown straight over the back of the volcano with each turn and I could see the wind blades in the official Tolmin landing field blowing like mad. Eventually, Andy got enough height to get back to the ridge and as soon as I saw him climbing, I dashed over to follow him. He stopped to thermal up the mountain, but I decided the ridge would be soarable in the strong wind. With the trees thrashing all the way under me, I soared all the way to Kobarid, leap frogging about 10 pilots on the way. In the Tolmin valley the winds are usually east and in the Kobarid valley they are west, so the trick is to work out at which height to be to maximise your downwind glides. I got to the small ridge over Kobarid, bagged the turn point and then set off for the last one on a higher hill behind.

The turn point is in a gully and normally I wouldn’t have gone in there low, but I went in, soared up the slope, but kept missing the TP cylinder by a few meters. Andy came and joined me and I thought it was a bit of a tight spot for both of us to be battling it out in, so I gritted my teeth, kicked a few trees and stuck my shoulder into the cylinder and then ran for it to goal. On the first day, someone told us that Brett always uses TP71, because unless you get a really strong headwind, you can always make it to goal from there. I got to goal with loads of height and landed to find David and Bren running towards me with big smiles to congratulate me. Then they told me off for being such a div for missing the turn point in Tolmin. I did get a promised goal beer though! I needed it after another nearly four hour flight.

To be fair, had I tried to get back to the third turn point in Tolmin, I would have pretty certainly gone down. Most people who were there at the time did, many landing in very turbulent conditions, in howling winds and in fields surrounded by trees/power lines. Emma was injured landing in the winds and from a safety point of view, I am pleased I went back to Kobarid. My aim for the day was to get to goal, and although I didn’t fly the whole course, just to prove to myself I could actually get round a task was the most important thing. Since my results didn’t matter to me, the fact that I only got 30km for the task, when I flew nearly twice as far, was irrelevant.

The post-comp party had great food, free wine and dancing. Some of the pilots are pretty good on the dance floor and one of the LMSC members was determined to get his club fees worth out of his club officials, so had me twirling round, tangoing, etc. At 2am, it seemed like the band was slowing down, so Andy, Bren, David and I headed back to the house via the Kobarid fiesta. Everyone was ballroom dancing round the square and I persuaded my reluctant housemates to have a go. Bren and I went for the freestyle option, then David tried to waltz with me, but was hampered by my constant desire to lead. Andy and I got an upbeat number, so we bounced round the square playing dodgems with the other dancers. Hysterical.

See photos of today.