Nirvana

www.terminalx.com.br

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Finalmente... finally. Or final-freak´n-mente!

Won the day, a 100km dogleg task in 1.5h. Just over 60km/h, in a light tailwind. This was a day when we didn´t need to leave the streeting to follow the course line. For the first time this whole trip, I had a good start. High, on time, in position... and waiting.

The first glide was 15km at 80km/h. The second was 10 at 90km/h... Now this is hanggliding racing at it´s best! An unstable day, though, and the sky started to become very unsettled as we rounded the turnpoint. The convergence lines were beginning to overdevelop into lines of thunderstorms. Not only were we racing each other, but we also had to reach goal before the storm front hit.

About 25km out, I was in a good position in the lead gaggle. The next cloud on course line didn´t look very good. The nearby storms were growing, advancing towards us.

Time to make a move, I turned hard left and dove at 90km/h towards a development line that looked to be 30min away from exploding. Dustin was thinking the same thing, and left too, but lower and at a less severe angle.

As I watched the distance to goal increasing slowly, I began to wonder if I had made a critical error. Minutes later I was banked up in a solid 5m/s and with a perma-smile all the way to cloudbase. The short overdeveloping street lasted about 5km... I skipped along at cloudbase, pushing 100km/h. Left the edge of the street, now at a quase-do-able final glide position.

But then the open air was friendly, and as the numbers began to improve, I began to relax... something you should never do. From somewhere in the sky fell a short burst of rain, wetting my glider, and leaving thousands of performance-robbing droplets clinging to my entire wing. But with smooth dolphin flying and careful line choosing, the situation began to improve.

Damn it, I started to forget that everytime you become complacent, a new challenge will present itself between you and the goal line. Immediately after taking a deep breath of relief over the goal-make-ability situation, I spotted some smoke in the distance... it was head on the ground! Despite this often happening in this area, somehow I had managed to be surprised by it!

How can you make goal when you start with a marginal tailwind glide position, and hit a headwind? Well... with a lot of luck, I guess. The good air continued to goal, despite the lack of clouds or thermals.

Looking behind me, the brightly lit white leading edges of about 20 flexwings -blades- advancing, against the black sky... were ominous, threatening. I think I can hold them off long enough... I thought to myself. The goal field continued to approach favourably in the positive air; I could see the goal line and the scattered termite mounds in the field.

The sight of an empty goal field, with only an orange line and a windsock blowing in the breeze, is something that only a comp pilot can understand. I remember the first time that I won a day years ago... as I approached at 100km/h, tears streamed down my face. I had to tell myself to focus and fly the wing. These days I don´t get as emotional but the feeling is still intense. These are the moments where everything makes sense... I am here, and this is what I am. All else is hollow.

As soon as we had tied all the gliders to the truck, the entire sky blew-up into a grand performance of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. The long drive home, in the dark yet strobed sky, in the drenching rain, was somehow calm.