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Four or five pilots did fly after the rainstorm on launch and before the second
rainstorm on day 4. Of course the task was over by then with few if any pilots
really getting out on the course line. A number of pilots had difficult landings
although Daniel who spoke of the rock and roll air and flying away to the east
away from the western range and the rotor found everything smoothed out as he
got low (and away from the hills) and he had a gentle landing.

All the pilots I spoke with said that the air got very rough at about the time
that the strong winds came through launch with the rain. Mitch mentioned that he
wasn't in control of his glider. One pilot crashed on landing taking out an out
board leading edge and a down tube. No one was happy being in the air.

The pilots who did fly after the first rain squall all went out to the north and
quickly landed before the next one.

This meet is normally held in January, but this year a Paragliding World Cup
series was held during that time period here in Roldanillo (although not at the
hang glider launch) and the hang glider pilots felt that it was disrespectful to
fly a competition here then. So they moved it to February and then to March in
an effort to get the Ecuadorian pilots to come (they did). That made it possible
for me to come also.

In October, November and December (three months of a rainy season, of which
there are two rainy seasons) where very wet, the wettest here that they have
ever been in recorded history (La Nina) and much of the valley was flooded for
the competition in January. Still there were plenty of thermals over the warm
water and pilots had great flying conditions.

I was informed on Wednesday that the Colombian Nationals are held in August
(July, August, and September are the months of the second dry season), so this
is just the complimentary competition to the Nationals.

It is late to have this competition in March, although normally the second rainy
season starts in April. We go over the river often and it is flooded in spots.
On the first day I was flying in an area that we had been warned didn't have any
roads and it was quite flooded (but I got up there over a favorite of mine -
chicken coops). I had to make sure that I could at least get to a dry dirt road
as I drifted in the east wind back over the river.

It is apparently quite dry here in El Nino years. I would suggest again for your
consideration that global climate change has reinforced the La Nina pattern
bringing record precipitation to both Australia and Colombia.

Rafael Arcos had to go to the hospital on day four because of heart problems. I
believe that they operated on him in Cali. I believe that his brother, Fausto,
drove him to Cali after checking into the hospital here which said that he
should go to Cali. He should be in the hospital about a week and then fly back
to Ecuador.

On day two of the competition the Arcos brothers ran into trouble with the law
with their Ecuadorian license plates on their car. They didn't have the correct
permit to be in the customs zone north of Cali (they came from the south from
Ecuador). They had to pay a 180,000 pesos bribe.