On the road to Chelan, WA for the Nationals with a stop over near Yakima for a real bed in a hotel. Being the 4th of July they really like their fireworks in Yakima. I did get 8 hours of sleep.

The Rat Race turned out to be a great event with awesome flying. Brad Gunnucio won the event with Torsten Siegel coming in second and Cody Mattanck coming in third. Good flying by these guys in pretty turbulent conditions and wind. I ended up close to the top third which I am happy about.

The last day of the comp turned out interesting as we had a decent task of about 60 km. There turned out to be a strong head wind to the first turn point and the convergence line turned out to be further north then usual which meant you had to go deeper into the mountains to get it. I ended up flying lower this day and never made it to the convergence line. I did tag the 1st turn point and headed back to Woodrat for the second never really getting high. Finally making it to Rabies I found a decent climb to 6,000 msl and was able to tag the 2nd turnpoint. Heading back to Rabies peak where the last thermal was I climbed close to cloudbase. On my way to the 3rd turnpoint there had been chatter over the radio about a pilot down and missing. The comp organizer called in a chopper to fine the missing pilot and the task was stopped. All pilots were ordered to land. When this happens the task is valid and you are scored by where you are along the course line. Needless to say all pilots were OK and it was a miscommunication.

Overall a great event. We had a great group there from Colorado. Some were in the comp while others were just free flying.

Chelan weather looks to be setting up great for the flying week. The comp starts on Sunday with practice day tomorrow. I am sharing some pics from free flying the last couple of days at Woodrat after the comp, along with the drive to Crater Lake on one of the cancelled days.
Cheers