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Many in goal. The goal was a long ways away so we didn't drive three hours to
it. Apparently there are hot springs nearby which was the draw.

The forecast was for a day better than yesterday, but not quite as nice cloud
wise as the day before that. The winds have retreated to 5 knots out of the
south west.

Belinda and I are in charge of getting the pilots lined up for the ordered
launch from the ordered setup locations. Corinna a few days ago persuaded Karel,
the original meet director, to let the three women setup in a special spot next
to the launch corridor, but still launch in their assigned (earned) order.
Sasha, the very small Russian women, asked us why the women would get special
treatment and stayed in her original spot at first until we moved her the
following days.

Today I found Corinna sneaking into the line early (easy as she was close by).
This came to my attention because Francois was attempting to jump into the line
out of order as she saw Corinna cheating. I quickly told Francois to go back to
the place that I had set her (waiting for her number in the ordered launch) and
then pulled Corinna out of line. She objected but moved.

She further objected to being number 43 as she was 41 in the final standings,
but not the launch order which is made up a  little earlier. Finally I did
mistakenly put her back in the line at 41 ahead of Richard Lovelace.

Francois complained that the women launching late. I told her later to just
apply for early bird status. We let whoever wants to launch early do so. We'll
see if she paid any attention. We give all these women extra help and then other
than Sasha they try to cheat and complain. F**k 'em.

Pilots again got off in 45 minutes and got up (it is 70 minutes to the first
start gate). The forecast was for 11,000' to 12,000' in the vicinity of launch
and that's again what they were getting. Not that high. Later Zac said that he
got over 15,000', which was forecasted for the area to the east.

There were a few clouds as we drove up to launch to the east near the volcano.
The forecast showed 10% cloud coverage a bit to our east and building to higher
percentages the further east you went. Looks like pilots had nice clouds to fly
under.

Many pilots have abandoned the competition and more didn't fly today so it is
getting easier to get them off the hill. Matt Barker didn't fly today (shoulder
is sore), Chris Zimmerman didn't fly (sore back), James Stinnett didn't fly
(hasn't after the second day). Kip Stone flew and lined up on launch in early
bird. Mitch was supposed to be the first to launch but wasn't quite ready, so
launched about fourth. We try to clear out the launch area as quickly as
possible so that we can get the line behind moving quickly.

Larry Bunner landed early, not getting high enough going to the second turnpoint
to the east. Said that there was a cluster at the first turnpoint. Larry found
the gaggles today to be compressed and no fun. Spent much of his time trying not
to get hit. Turned to another field to land with other pilots when he couldn't
spot a landable field ahead on the course line from 8,500'.

Karel is back as meet director and the purported protest of the second day never
materialized, which brought down the temperature a bit. No rest day (this is a
seven day meet after all). Looks like Friday is the last day.

Valle de Bravo has been fun. I've been riding a borrowed bike down the hill to
the town or the piano field every day. Plenty of climbing on the road to town
and no shoulders at all. The cars have been for the most part friendly. You can
go quite fast when on the main road into town, but there are pot holes which
could kill. The cars stay behind me when I get going downhill.

I'm looking forward to Florida flying soon.

Pilots and CIVL and everyone will have to give some thought as to whether Valle
de Bravo is a good site for a world hang gliding championship. I'm not flying
here because I have flown here before and did not appreciate the small fields
that one is sometimes required to land in. Few of them horizontal. Some pilots
have decided that the area is unsafe either because of turbulence or landing
issues. We have certainly had a great deal of aluminum destroyed, at a much
higher rate than any of the competitions in the US.

Zac is happy here and didn't realize that there may be a problem with other
pilots until the last couple of days. The flying here requires a higher level of
willingness to put your body and life on the line than is the case in Florida,
Texas, Georgia, Maryland, or Arizona where there are landing fields pretty much
every where.

I asked Rich Lovelace how it compared to St. Andre in France, where I have
declined to fly also. He said that on some days it is about as bad and other
days it is worse, regarding the turbulence. Apparently it was worse today than
yesterday, which we almost canceled because of the turbulence.

It seemed that pilots who are used to flying in areas with rough air and small
landing fields are fine with Valle. Pilots, like those American competitors, who
have grown used to flying with less turbulence and ample landing area options,
are less comfortable with it.

I expect to find a significantly higher rate of damage to gliders and damage to
pilots at the Worlds here in Valle than one would find at Forbes or Big Spring.
I would suspect that the FAI may not be happy with that.

Valle is a fine place and often a safe place to fly. I've flown here twice for a
week at a time and didn't have a problem, but I was flying the kingposted
gliders that Ole brought and I wasn't in a competition.

Pilots provided feedback on the level of safety that they experienced (and we
got a lot of 2 - unsafe in spots) yesterday. We have all this data about how
pilots feel about this place. I assume that Dennis Pagen will write up a report
that concentrates on safety (and not the fact that the organizers didn't provide
him a car).

Where would the Worlds be held if it wasn't held here next year? San Marcos
(which I believe was the original idea)?

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