Woohoo, we have been ankle deep in mud, sliding up and down hills - getting pushed around the sky with 40km/h wind shears in the mountains.This is Motegi and why I love it.
The first flight of the competition was from the Twin Ring race track. Four tasks were set, JDG, JDG, PDG and FON.
The two Judge declared goals were to the south east of the common launch point. After launch we had to climb to 4500ft to get far enough over to the east to make an approach to the first goal.
There was a very fast layer of wind at about 2000ft from the east making for an interesting change in direction while in the climb or descent.
My first drop was about 230m and right on the edge of an out of bounds area.
The second JDG had people drifting around in circles in the valley. With only 1800m to cover between the goals it was too close to climb high and drop form height - the combination of speeds involved made it very difficult to achieve. I think some people did but others also lost their markers in the forest trying to do it. I took about 850m in the end as a safe result.
The PDG was again chosen prior to launch and we were given the option of choosing two goals. I got to within 400m of my first option but was at 4500ft and doing 40km/h. It was all too close to descend or drop safely. I flew onto option two but again was on the edge of the window and ended up with a high drop into a swamp area where we could not recover the marker.
The result should be estimated as it was seen by the observer. I think it is about 600m.
The final fly on task was again messed up by me with another big climb required to get over to the goal. Another muffed approach saw a drop of about 420m.
All in all not a good start but I have heard lots of other horror stories along with the rare good result.
As always in Motegi, just sit back and wait for the results....it is going to be a great week.
