Marty DeVietti's XC Paragliding and Racing Blog : Task 4 All USA Team pilots in goal!

Today looked good early on, but we had no idea how good!

I was anticipating some speed bar use, and ate my banana on the chair up this am. Boy am I glad I had some extra potassium to help my legs on the long full bar glide into goal. No cramps, no problem!

We got to our spot, readied our gear and were looking at the 121 km task (75 miles) in no time. Back to our gear, scarf down the yummy sandwich from our lunch bag and huck the fruit which was too small, too tart and not ready. But we were.

By the time we were ready to launch, there were gaggles going up over our heads. Everyone got off clean and it was another perfect start.

I used every minute to get in position and the armada sped off to the east and skimmed under the clouds to the end of the range. Then most headed on a long shady glide to the valley where I got low for my one and only time for the day. I was able to rejoin the group and charge with Nick, Arnie, Josh and Erick to the first turn point where it seemed like all 150 pilots were there too.

Nick was on fire today and boldly led out from slower gaggle climbs and found boomer after boomer.

The glide back to the next turn point was high and crowded. Climb after climb was nothing more than topping off the tanks back near cloud. Eventually we ended up right over town (Sopot) and there was a cloud street to the next turn point on the south side of the valley. We beemed up and over the valley, tagged the point and were looking for a big climb to cross west again, where many landed the day before. It was hard to reach the top so many headed west anyway, marking climbs where yesterday there were none.

The final TP (turn point) was just ahead 12 km or so, and it looked shaded from giant clouds.

Cloud flying has been a problem here and we were warned over the radio that penalties would be assessed for using clouds flying (in the cloud) to your advantage.

Side note:

3 pilots from yesterday were penalized and received a zero score. The gaggle got sucked up yesterday and in trying to get down a near midair collision causes one pilot to stall his glider as the last second to avoid the crash. In doing so, he lost control of the wing, got a huge cravat and line- over (not fixable) and was forces to throw his reserve. He landed safely in trees.

Back to the last turn point glide!

It looked buoyant but that turned out to be the understatement of the week. Once under the convergent gray cloud it was more or less full speed bar to the TP and back again to goal. Rob Sporrer (our team coach, captain, chauffeur, shade maker, sponsor, and 100 other things) was strategically calling out surface wind speed and direction at key points along the day's task on our team radio frequency. He was in goal ahead of us letting TEAM USA know that it would be a fast final glide so we were able to not waste time from the last TP climbing in lift unnecessarily on the glide to goal.

Josh, Eric and Nick were in ahead of me Arnie and Brett (our Canadian roomie). It looked like at least 100 pilots came streaming in. It was great to be part of the armada this time!

When I see that beautiful white stripe on the ground it means I made the 2km end of speed section and now I have all the time I want to leisurely cross it. This is what I look like:

It was great to fly with the whole TEAM and land with them too! We flew about 75 miles in around 3.5 hours. That's like driving straight for 75 miles at 20 mph. When you consider we fly at trim (no acceleration) at around 20-22 mph in a paraglider, that is a fast day! We love this kinda flying!

I've been living in my Pearl Izumi gear, from socks and shoes, to leg warmers, vest, jacket, balaclava and tech T-shirt. Thanks so much for sponsoring me P.I.!!! Thanks to my friend Don Karle and Stacie Schuchardt for the hookup with PI.

Thanks also to all the other sponsors that have decked us out too, like Flytec, FFF, XC Skies, KAVU, Goal Zero, Eagle (and Rob Sporrer for his selfless service to all of us), Super Fly, Uncle Freakin Tony too. There are many others, so I apologize for not listing them all here. You all rule.

Thanks also to my lovely wife Carmen and all my kids for surviving without me. I honestly wouldn't be here if it weren't for her support and encouraging me along the way. Love youuu!