Jeff (who is in the lead by approximately 500 points) writes:

Chris Smith is going to have surgery on his foot today to screw the piece of broken bone back together in his foot. This is going to shorten his recovery time, and he's still intent on flying in the worlds if there's any way his foot will allow him to fly.

You can find coverage of the Hang On competition here: http://hang6.blogspot.com/.

It was a beautiful day, except the forecast was for light lift, and a low inversion. At the pilot's meeting, Mike had discussion about possibly moving the last few days of the competition to Lakeview, and pilots voiced their opinions.

Pushing low toward the last turnpoint, I rounded it, and turned into the wind for the upwind final glide. Jonny was just ahead working very low on the windward side of a small hill. I joined as he pushed out ahead. I made one circle over the hilltop, but didn't seem to have a net gain in altitude for my effort. I decided to continue to push toward Jonny who was a bit higher and working the next little ridgeline.

He was deep in on the little spine, and the wind was moderately strong. The LZ's weren't that great and we were low, so I just kept dolphin flying rather than trying to surf back and forth. I decided that my numbers looked acceptable considering the headwind and our position, so I made the gamble, and went on final. I could see the goal field, and concentrated on the tree line on the downwind side. I figured the tree line was about the goal cylinder boundary, and headed for the shortest tree in the line. The air happened to be buoyant on the way there, and I was able to dolphin fly over the last houses and trees on my way there. Crossed the goal cylinder with about 200ft., did an S turn, and landed. I'd gambled on my final, and won. Jonny was two minutes behind, followed by Dustin, Jeff Shapiro, Dave Scott, and Dave Gibson. I believe those were the pilots at goal.

Results: http://www.vip2comp.com/?q=node/50

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