Geoff writes: Last day of the Piedrahita comp and Judith got to goal, so she is ecstatic (and, by now, probably more than a little drunk). She’ll no doubt be writing a full report Sunday or Monday, depending on her hangover tomorrow. They all fly back tomorrow night. I have no idea of the final results, but I’m pretty sure the Mynd guys she flew out with  – Kai Coleman, Mark Leavesley and Neil Roberts – were all high up in the results.

And in the UK, a wasted trip to the Gyrn, which was flyable right up until the point we arrived, at which time the wind picked up and it started raining. Not quite wasted – a pint in the pub replaced the flying. Well done Ali on, I think, getting higher than anyone else on a training flight! (Apparently people did fly later on, after we’d left).

Goal at Avila!Judith writes: I got to goal!

Forecast was for more westerly winds but no over-development. I decided to take the second bus up. This means you have less time to get ready, but I needed some time on my own to chill out. I’ve chatted and socialised so much this week I felt I needed some downtime before the final flight.

I got up and ready fast. They called the same task as the previous day – a 56km race to Avila. I was pleased they let us do a short task, because psychologically it’s good to fly a task that seems achievable and it was within terrain that I had at least seen.

I launched mid field but conditions were scratchy and there were a lot of free flyers around, who made the thermalling interesting. One guy on an Omega 7 decided to soar the thermal in the middle of our gaggle, scattering us sporadically. I don’t usually shout at people in the air, but I used choice words in every language I speak.

I found it hard going and wasn’t thermalling very well at all. In each task we have been required to thermal left until the start gate and I struggle with this turn direction – my glider likes to go right. Lots of people were in racing mode today and as soon as the race started people dashed off to the pass, some very low. I decided to fly conservatively and not cross until I was high. I got low and struggled along with Ian Miskin and Julian Robinson. Whilst scrabbling around, I started to think how I would feel at the end of comp party if people asked me how I had done and I had to say that I bombed at the pass, and how disappointing that would be. On the other hand, if I could say I got to goal I would be unbelievably happy. This gave me the boost to really try harder.

We all got climbs in different places and I took the ‘Scottish route’, to the right over the high stuff. I was at about 2400m at that point and only got some rough stuff when I hit the inversion. I hung around high until I could see someone starting to circle on the other side of the pass, crossed and flew straight to them. We got up again in weak stuff and headed for the bend in the road, where we were joined by a guy on a Niviuk glider. The three of us worked weak lift and I was convinced that we should push on to the little dark bits of rising ground behind the village where I landed on the first day. I left them and it worked for me… I got a good solid climb and they joined me.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t go on daft glides low, and the wind strength was increasing, so I was quite happy to drift along the valley in weakish lift. It was just like flying a UK XC, except the view was more beige than green. Once I got to within sight of Avila, I was at 2700m and tried to decide when to start my glide into goal. I don’t have a fancy glide angle calculator on my GPS and was too worried about hitting sink/headwind, so I started my glide in at 3km. By comparison, Adrian Thomas started his at 25km. I got to the end of speed section at 2500m and then into goal about the same height. This isn’t smart competition flying, but all I wanted was to get into goal – time taken was of no importance to me. It showed… I was last in out of 89!

I was so happy and overwhelmed when I crossed the line I burst into tears, then laughed my head off and then remembered that I hadn’t taken a single photo on the flight. I snapped happily and then went to burn off my altitude. It took ages – there was a lot of lift about. It was windy too, so it was rough coming down, but I landed fine, kissed the ground and demanded goal hugs from Mark Trigg and Malcolm Davies. On getting on the retrieve bus, Martin was there, as was Ruth and Pat, Folkert from Holland and lots of other friends.

I also got my PB in terms of distance, so I was smiling so much my face hurt.

There was a prize giving in the evening, but not a party as such. I bumped into Nani and Xiliu, but didn’t get a chance to have drinks with them because they headed off to bed in readiness for their first task in the Spanish champs which started on Sunday. I boogied the night away at the Panera bar and got to bed at 5.30am. Great day.

See photos of today.

[All Judith’s task track logs now available on XC pages, see our XC flights].

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