Final results

The overall winner of the PWC is Steve Cox, based in Switzerland.

Top women, in 18th place, is Louise Crandall, from Denmark.

Team Kahu results
Grant Middendorf 70
Thomas Rold 91
Harmony Gaw 136
Kat West 147

Overall results

Links to PWC news and photos of task 8 and task 10.

Saturday 26 March: Task 10

The final task for the competition was 54.5 km via two turn points.

The first place getter, Christian Maurer (Switzerland) got 29.7 km along the course line. Andrew Horchner and Enda Murphy from the West Island were 4th and 12th - congratulations.

Grant Middendorf flew 27.6 km for 22nd place while Thomas Rold flew 22.5 km and a placing of 74. Harmony Gaw flew 15.5 km for 100th place and Kat West got caught in a sink cycle and landed at 3.3 km. (See Kat's comments below)

Results: Task 10 and Photos

Comments from Kat

Hola everyone,

The competition is now pretty much finished - today is the last day and the task looks like it will be very interesting. By this I mean that a huge CuNim has developed to the south of the course line - and shaded out the last turnpoint along with it's associated gust front. Fortunately a gust front in Valadares means about 30km/hr - not the howling things we have met in other parts of the world. I just went past the goal field though and watched a tandem land with about 1km hr forward speed - good thing those comp gliders are so much faster huh.

Personally I kind of bombed out again - though bomb out is a relative term as it was a very strange situation. On one hand I am glad not to be hanging in a tree or off a powerline, and on the other I am wondering how on earth I could land at 3000 feet near the top of the mountain...

I landed near a lake perched on the top of Ibituruna, the hill we take off from, about 2km to the east of take off. I was drifting along in weak lift and then got into a huge sink cycle - faced with a downwind run down a treefilled valley with a number of powerlines strung across it, and major sink, I threw myself at the hillside and did a downwind landing into some low scrubby stuff. no injury except to my pride. This weird wind - sink thing I think was associated with the CuNim developing as the predominate wind was easterly, yet in front of take off it was SW - from the direction of the CuNim. So being on the ground was better than some other possibilities.

On the plus side, there is a small holiday village by the lake and I got to have a barbeque, Brasil style, with the locals. Then they drove me back to my hotel in the middle of town. Amazingly nice people and that experience pretty much balanced the "I only flew 2km and landed on the top of the fucking mountain" feeling.

The past couple of days were not so bad though - Task 8 I managed 18km to land by the base of the hill after going out to the first turn point and back. It was a most sociable place to be as quite a few people also didn't clear the ridge and slid down the back side of the hill - the closest we got to the second turn point was when we were still about 2000' above the valley terrain. Middy did quite well - the day really got blue after that and he ended up about 7km from goal. Thomas was midway between TP 3 & 4,and Harmony between 2 & 3. So Middy managed to sneak in front of Thomas again on the rankings.

Yesterday, Task 9, I made 39.6km, two turnpoints and 7km from the third - 14km from goal. Really pleased to get that far as I mucked up the very first thermal - it took 1/2 an hour just to get to base over take off. So I flew essentially with the back gaggle, or on my own. The gaggle came together a bit better after the first turnpoint and turned out to be almost all women and we stayed together for pretty much the rest of the flight. Some low saves and a good extended scratch at the end. At about 2.30 a very thick layer of high cirrus came through, and we managed to scratch out another 10km over the next hour. Not so bad. Harmony was with me pretty much through the flight - we took turns on the get low - get high, and ended up with 60m or so seperating us.

Thomas had a bit of an exciting finish to his flight - he was on the glide to goal expecting to make it with about 50m to spare, just skimming the spurs and then woooah - on the last spur, hidden by the trees, was a power line at about 15m AGL. He was blocked by trees each side (so you can tell how high he wasn't) and the line straight ahead so he stalled / fluffed the glider in for a straight down landing. a bit on the feet and the rest on the back protector. Again no injury except to pride.

Middy was about into Goal about 30th I think, so cemented his lead as the top ranked kiwi. Overall we are in 23rd place - beating Canada but being thrashed by those Aussies.

Tonight is party night, then tomorrow is the prize giving day, and tomorrow night we catch the bus to Rio - where hopefully there will be some beautiful flying soaring the cliffs at Copacobana.

And then home to NZ - it has all gone really fast, but it also feels like we've been here a long time. It will be good to get home and eat properly again, the food here is good but very meat orientated. Combined with the temperature I have lost about 4kg - I'm back the weight I was when I was 20! I didn't lose that much weight in Nepal...

Kat

Friday 25 March: Task 9

It was another dramatic day at goal with over half the field arriving in a twenty minute period! Luca Donini (Italy) made it to goal in 1:48:51 - one second ahead of the second place getter! Andrew Horchner from the West Island came in 11th in 1:50:34.

Grant Middendorf came in 51st with a time of 1:56:19. Thomas Rold went on glide just a bit too soon and landed 200 metres short, to be placed at 110. He had good company though, including Louise Crandal and Steve Ham.

Kat West and Harmony Gaw put in a good effort. Kat flew 39.6 km with Harmony 100 metres further back. Placings were 132 and 134.

Task 9 was 53.0 km via two turn points.

Results: Task 9

Thursday 24 March: Task 8

Thursday's task was 76.2 km via four turn points. Tomas Brauner (Czech Republic) was first in with a time of 4:37:41. 19 pilots made it goal, with the last one in five hours after the start gate opened at 11:40am.

Middy made it to the 69.3 km mark, and 69th place. Thomas got 54.4 km and 87th. Harmony did 35.9 km and Kat 18.0 km.

Results: Task 8

Wednesday 23 March: Task 7

The goal paddock had over half the competitors land within a 15 minute period - a dramatic sight! The 66.2 km task had three turn points, with the start gate opening at 12:30.

Stephan Morgenthaler from Switzerland was first in with a time of 2:01:18. Just under four minutes later with a time of 2:05:13 Grant Middendorf crossed the goal line, giving a placing of 36th. Thomas Rold came in at 2:16:44 and a placing of 81. Harmony Gaw landed at 58.2 km in 115 place and Kat West flew 7.3 km.

Results: Task 7

Photos and press release of Task 7 on PWC site