During the first weekend in November we had the FAI2 competition in Iquique in the north of Chile. Based on last years results I had 2 objectives, first in Sportclass and top ten overall.
The first day we started from “alto hospicio”, the typical take off in Iquique and made a “zig zag” task over the city. It was my first longer flight with the Mentor 3 in good termal conditions so I was carefully using the speedbar to see how the glider reacts. I made goal and was really happy with my new Baby.
The second day was again from “alto hospicio”, a similar task with some strategic decisions included that divided the group. I was using much more the speedbar and its amazing how the Mentor 3 glides. I flew together with Peak 3 and Mantra 4 and they couldn’t left me behind. I made again goal.
A great surprise was, to meet Werner Luidolt from the “Nova Pilots Team” at the beach where we landed. He saw the day before my spot message on Facebook and wrote me a message. It´s amazing how small the world is :-)
Take off at the third day was Patillos 40 km in the south of Iquique. We had amazing conditions for IQQ with a cloudbase higher then 1100 meter and not that much wind. It was a great and beautiful task with goal in “los verdes”. I made again goal and was after 3 days really close to the top ten.
The last day was again from Patillos. The prognostic said that we will have more wind so we decided to make the cross as fast as possible to “los verdes” and then a “zig zag” close to goal. I was flying fast and high and was using a lot the speedbar. 10 Km before goal I had a really strong collapse including twist. I was flying on good altitude with backwind and fullspeed. It took me a moment to get the glider back but it was OK. The strong and really fast reaction of the Mentor 3 was still more then I expected. The really bad thing was, that the force in the rotation when I left the twist was so strong that I lost my entire cockpit with all the instruments (I really think its a construction error from AVA ==> Tanto race). So instead of finishing the task, I started to fly over the dunes to look for my cockpit. To focus on the positive things, I found it, landed there to pick it up and took of again to fly to goal. The lucky thing, ALL the instruments are still working :-). Based on this bad luck I could not reach the topten. But it was still enough to get the first place in the Sportclass.
Next competition will be in Santiago (30.11 – 03.12.2013)
Happy landings
SIMBA
Till Gottbrath
Nov 19, 2013 -
WOW, what an adventure! Bien hecho Simba!
But just to be more relaxed: I haven’t had any twist at all so far and I would say that the M3 is most front collapse resistant wing I have ever flown. Sometimes it is also a thing of being at the wrong spot at the wromng time.
Suerte
Till
Werner Luidolt
Dec 9, 2013 -
hey simba!
nice report – next time santiago!
all the best to chile!