SAFA Skysailor Magazine

12 SKY SAILOR November | December 2022 ground and making progress very difficult for the remainder. Nobody made goal. The three best distances were flown by Takuo Iwasaki, Balazs Racz and Seyong Jung. We tried our best to run a task on the final day, but with strong winds on both Hadong and Gochang launches, safety prevailed, and the day was cancelled. However, what a stun- ning week! For many pilots this was their first World Cup. In 12th place, Richárd Gabrieli was the highest placed newcomer in a very competitive field. For many, it was their first visit to Korea. The eel restaurants, kimchi, and wardrobes that doubled up as washing machines, lived up to expectations. The competition both started The first 81 pilots made goal with Peter Budai fastest, followed by Martin Jovanoski and Torsten Siegel. Task 3 was a 61km task with one turnpoint, taking pilots north, then south-west. The day started off clear and perfect with blue skies and cumulus. Later the sky closed over with thick dark cloud within five minutes, re-open- ing and closing again quite a few times. The sky would open up, pilots would leave, go on a glide, able to climb in what felt like darkness – Brett Hazlett recounted that at times it felt like flying in the moonlight. The first two thirds of the course were in light winds, but 20km from goal the wind increased to a strong 20km/h crosswind, along with total cloud cover which killed off most of the lift, putting most of the pilots on the PWC Gochang, South Korea