Rich Lovelace ~ hang gliding

Chalvet Open - Practice/Training week

2011-08-17T20:51:00.012+01:00

I arrived at Saint-André-les-Alpes, France on Sunday evening

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– had a bit of a run-in with the bloke at the campsite on Monday when I turned up to pitch base. Unfortunately he wanted all PG’s and HG’s to camp together (in a not so great part of the campsite); I thought I’d understood where he wanted me but he wanted me to move – this whole experience left a bad taste (I wanted to be welcome there) so I de-camped to the smaller and I have to say MUCH nicer campsite just out of town. I know it’s not as convenient for briefings but I like it here - Doris arrives on Saturday and will be happy, I am sure.
So we are now camping at Camping de L'Issole not Camping Les Iscles

We had a lovely day flying yesterday. Base upto 8000' and nice climbs be it a little rough at times but that's St A;-) Very light wind which makes a change.

THIS COULD BE THE LAST BLOG - There is no Internet at the campsite so this could be the last blog for the duration of the comp. Hopefully the Comp Website will be up to date with news and results so you can follow HERE
Other bloggers could be:
Jochen
Jamie
Phippsy

Chalvet Open

2011-08-10T22:07:00.007+01:00

Book your place now for the Chalvet Open : 21-27 August 2011, St Andre les Alpes - see you there! Just checked the PILOT LIST and it's looking like it's going to be one of the biggest hang gliding comps this year with around 90 entries..... Phil our scorer tells me he's booked his week in rehab!

The comp includes the French and British Nationals. As well as Class 1 there will also be a comp for Club [Sport] Class and Rigid Class 5. Talk at The Worlds was that the Rigid Pilots are hoping to do 200+km flights (weather allowing) but aren't we all.

We apparently have the whole launch area 'booked' and the whole mountain to ourselves (ie no PG) during the taskable time.

The waypoints list is now available to download from HERE

The Worlds - Day 11

2011-07-29T19:12:00.013+01:00

………… so that’s the end of The Worlds

Today was also cancelled which means The Worlds was won with only 2 tasks.

Congratulations to Alex Ploner new World Champion
Photo taken by Flavio

A few Thank You's
- to the organisers and helpers of the competition; if only better weather could have been pre-booked it would have been perfect.
- to Team GB Manager, Pete and also to Trudy for the retrieve :-)
- to Team GB Sponsor and also my personal sponsors Aeratech, Doris and her Dad, John Drury

I start the long drive home early tomorrow morning.

The Worlds - Day 10

2011-07-28T18:59:00.004+01:00

Right! I want to know who nicked me mojo?! It disappeared last year and whoever has it please can I have it back. You can just leave it where I can find it and I won't say anything. If you can leave a bit of joojoo too that would be great:-)

No surprise that today was Cancelled – It’s looking like a 2-day worlds! Bummer…………….

A few people/teams have now thrown in the towel and are on their way back home. Can't blame them at all. There is not much you can do in the rain and we have increased the local tourism economy 5 fold already.

Lollipop is missing her bra - The Tip Bag Story

2011-07-27T23:45:00.004+01:00

A strange thing happened on the hill yesterday: I thought it strange that the storage bag inside my harness had open itself & ejected my batten bag. I put it all away & thought nothing more of it …… until I landed & Lollipop needed her tip bags – they were missing? Then it all made sense! Thieving bas****s! Give her her tip bags back – have you any idea how hard it is to fold a curvy tip glider without them? Obviously you do!

That is all, thank you.

The Worlds - Day 9

2011-07-27T20:53:00.008+01:00

Raining again!!!!!!!!

Task cancelled. I think GB Team Leader, Pete sums the day up perfectly:-

“The day starts with some sunshine but a very low cloudbase and rain forecast for this afternoon. The order was to go to take off and await the pilot briefing at 11:30, by 10:00 we have 100% cloud cover but there are still some cue's forming so maybe some hope. 11:25 I get a sneaky look at the task board, 84k race, 11:30 the board is shown to the pilots, 11:35 the task is cancelled. 90% of the pilots free fly with several showing off their flying skills, unfortunately one German pilot pushed his glider too far and had to throw his reserve, the pilot is ok but I think that his glider is history. The first of the rain hits us at about 13:30, team GB are all landed with gliders in bags before it gets too bad. Forecast is not looking great, just hope that they are wrong, we need tasks, 4th is not a good place to be”

Tomorrow is looking like rain too so Friday will be our last chance.

Last night: Tyler had fun in the bubbles..........
.... and so did Wolfie

The Worlds - Day 8

2011-07-26T19:26:00.008+01:00

I reckon some people must have drunk the weather better last night? We got to fly today.

Task 2 - 114km run up and down the valley and then back to the Sigillo goal field.

I had a fantastic start but it was the rain at the last TP which decked me. “If only” I had flown straight across the valley with Dave at TP 2 and not along the ridge I would have dodged it but 2.5km from the last TP the heavens opened (I mean they really opened) and I made the conscious decision not to fly in the rain mainly because I couldn’t see where I was going so found myself a nice big field.

Congrats to my fellow Brits who were in goal :-)

It was really nice to see Tullio here today, it's such a shame that politics saw him loose his place on the Italian team.

Jamie’s Task 2 photos – HERE

The Worlds - The Power of the Bag

2011-07-25T19:29:00.001+01:00

This letter was handed out to Team Leaders at this morning's briefing.

The Worlds - Wills Wing Party

2011-07-25T19:28:00.004+01:00

THANKS for a great party last night

Amazing food and so much of it! Shame the top guys from WW could not have been there. WW I salute you and thank you for a lovely evening.

The Worlds - Day 7

2011-07-25T19:08:00.013+01:00

The depression is setting in now and I can’t see a way out! To make the comp valid there needs to be another task of 600 points - the forecast is sh1t for tomorrow and sh1t for the next day and looking sh1t for the days after that so it's not looking hopeful. There is talk about using the prizegiving day a flying day if it looks taskable which can be done within the rules but there are plenty of people who have their home travel arrangements booked for this day so you can imagine the tension on this one.

So back to today ..... Even though the day looked like this .......

.....we were told to go to the Cucco North launch (but not to rigg) for an 11am briefing. No surprise that the day was cancelled, eh?

Fabien keeping warm

The Worlds - Day 6

2011-07-24T19:18:00.013+01:00

Day Cancelled..........at the 11.30 Team Leader briefing

Woke up to 40-50 kph on take off with drizzle, grey sky and cool! All that I can think of is the jobs that need doing at home :-((

There is talk that we might get a fly tomorrow at Trepizi which is about 2hrs away.

Gordo checking out his radio problems

Team GB is splitting up tonight as Gary, Bruce and I head out to the Wills Wing Pilots evening :-) (Dave, Carl, Gordon & Grant are Moyes Boys and Tony is flying Aeros)

The Worlds - Day 5

2011-07-23T10:04:00.005+01:00

It’s grey, its raining, its dark and did I just hear a rumble from Thor?

That’s the picture I woke up to this morning ………….. The day is cancelled and looks like there will be rain tomorrow too, in fact it isn’t looking great for the rest of the week ahead.

Yesterday was a pretty difficult task, seems Jonny was the only one to make goal from the second start - go Jonny.

Lots of talk this morning about airspace: Was somebody 3km into the airspace? With a few more into the edge of it? The zeros will tell.

Jamie (as always) was taking photos - Task 1 Photos by Jamie HERE Thanks Jamie :-)

Markus was tracking Task 1 and took some screen grabs – see more HERE

Dave at Goal!

The Worlds - Day 4

2011-07-22T21:55:00.009+01:00

Task 1 - 120km – up and down the valley!

Take off was easy with a nice strong breeze and there were good strong climbs. I was expecting more in goal but the wind increased during the day and thwarted peoples plans, I guess…… mine included.

Congrats to Dave, Gary and Grant all in goal, should be high scoring day for the team.

I had a pretty pants day - everything was a rush today: the message to head to the Sebasioi launch got lost in translation (about 1hr drive away); we were late setting off and ended up getting lost going up the hill and then got lost again. We were following an ‘Italian’ car who we trusted would know the way but it turned out it was the Columbian team in an Italian rental and they were lost too! There is a lesson to be learnt from today :-) So we arrived up the hill and to say there was a panic to get rigged would be an understatement.

I think it’s fair to say OB has had a worse day than mine though. He took off to find his instrument had frozen; landed back on top and grabbed a back-up from the French team which then ejected itself out of the pod: he made goal but with no tracklog – bummer to say the least.

Follow the tasks as they happen (with a little delay) HERE

The Worlds - Day 3

2011-07-21T19:09:00.008+01:00

Day 3 cancelled - it was too windy to fly and I feel personally was the right decision to cancel the day but there is much debate on whether it was the right decision or not. Read what Davis has to say about it OZ REPORT

The Worlds - Day 2

2011-07-20T19:54:00.009+01:00

Day 2 cancelled - we 'might' get to fly tomorrow but I'm not sure what the odds are on it. Just to be prepared there will be NO alcohol involved tonight - I had enough of that last night at the Castle!

All teams were invited to a pilot dinner at the beautiful old building which has been converted to a hotel - I reckon our hosts had no idea how much alcohol would be consumed given the forecast for the next day was not good. Actually the organisation have done a cracking job so far with planned 'entertainment' arranged for most nights - tonight we have belly dancing and karaoke which happens to be taking place at my digs - if only I was drinking I would just be able to stumble back to my bed.

Jamie took some better pictures HERE

The belly dancers have arrived

The Worlds - Day 1

2011-07-19T21:38:00.007+01:00

Day 1 is cancelled due to high winds - looks like we might not fly until Thursday now :-(

We had a few hours walking round the caves underneath Cucco which filled in a few hours of non flying even though the German team were flying at 13 grand in wave at a smaller site (Castelluccio) not too far away!!!!

Jamie took some better photos of the cave trip HERE

The Worlds .... so far

2011-07-18T19:46:00.007+01:00

A few photos so far & from the Opening Ceremony which took place last night

- I will keep adding to these photos as the comp goes on :-) ... and as I get a better internet connection!

You can see Jamie's photos of the Opening Ceremony HERE and Gary's photos HERE

Will he or won't he fly?

2011-07-17T22:31:00.002+01:00

So the controversy has started – those of you following Jamie’s blog will have read today’s post Helmets & Shoulderpads ………..

The hot news tonight is that Gerolf might not fly The Worlds due to the ‘helmet’ issue.

Hope the problems can be overcome – won’t be the same without him.

Practice Day

2011-07-16T19:29:00.012+01:00

The forecast is not looking great for the next few days so today is perhaps the only practice day we will get before the comp starts on Tuesday.

The flying was very nice but a bit windy on take-off especially late on. Cloudbase was 7,000-7,900ft with nice climbs of around 500-700ftpm and it was very difficult to get down and land. I think we (us Brits) would have tried to set and fly a task (it would have been a lovely day for one for sure) BUT one of the Brits was transmitting constantly on the radio – the process of elimination as to who the culprit is continues ........ will we ever find out who has the dodgy radio?

Thanks Jamie for the photos - see more from the practice day HERE

WANTED

2011-07-16T19:28:00.003+01:00

The start .... Sprog checks and one for Doris;-)

2011-07-16T19:06:00.018+01:00

Let the sprog measuring begin - pretty happy to report that my Lollipop was spot on. Sweeeeeet!

Laurent - what?

I have to thank Jamie for this photo - you checking me out Davide?

Jeff and Zippy - signing their lives away - soooo much paperwork to complete

The good news for Doris is that we will all be flying with a tracker - which means not only can she see what I'm up to but so can everyone else: lots of debate on this one

Pretty simple to use - lets see how accurate they are

Ah the team that make is all possible - thanks guys

Thanks to:
Jamie - I nicked some of your photos ;-)

My sponsors:
http://www.aeratech.co.uk/

........and to Caroline (Doris) and John Drury :-)

Also thanks to the Team Sponsor: www.ciaruk.co.uk

On my way to Monte Cucco

2011-07-13T10:21:00.013+01:00

The camping car is loaded and ready:
Fridge – check
Toilet (bucket) - check
Shower (wet wipes) – check
Cooker (fantastic little jet flame thingy) – check
Clothes (big bag) - check
Food (big box) - check
Water (lots of) - check

The glider is on, a harness by my side, some tunes ready loaded, my bike and zaggy all ready for the 1300 mile drive across Europe to end at the Worlds venue at Sigillo, Italy. Excited! Me!! Oh yea:-DD

Thanks to my sponsors:
http://www.aeratech.co.uk/

........and to Caroline (Doris) and John Drury :-)

Also thanks to the Team Sponsor: www.ciaruk.co.uk

Will I? Won't I? ....

2011-06-16T22:31:00.015+01:00

...be going to The Worlds ?

So, where do I start? I really thought I would never make it to The Worlds this year – I missed out on one of the original five (scoring) places – there are just too many good Brits and was allocated as 3rd reserve. I thought “no way” will it happen so planned my year without including it in my plans and then …………… slowly 6th and 7th places were offered - I still thought "no way" .... but "yes way" the Brit’s get offered an 8th place and would I like it?

Originally and naively without really looking into the funding I thought there is no way I can a) get the time off and b) afford to go given the fact I’d spent quite a bit already/committed to stuff this year so far.

But after thinking about it and understanding the team funding situation I decided to get in touch with Pete, the Brit Team Manager and ask the question. Can I go?

So, the funding is now sorted – thanks to the Comps Panel & fellow team members for working that out for me. All that is needed now is for The Worlds organisers to say “YES” – apparently we will hear tomorrow night/Saturday morning.

There is lots of speculation out there who has/hasn’t been offered a place – as far as the Brits are concerned the place has been offered and accepted.

Keep everything crossed for me – it will be a pleasure to go back to Monte Cucco, I was there for the Pre-Worlds last year and loved it.

Aerotow to the sea anyone?

2011-06-16T22:00:00.001+01:00

Had a great flight to the edge of the map last Saturday flying from aerotow at Caunton to Skegness on the East Coast.

As the emails came in on Friday night with a plan to fly from Caunton on the Saturday morning I thought it looked like a 'fly to Skeggy' kind of day and scribbled down a task for us to follow to make it more interesting (we kind of stuck to it).

We met early and were rigged and ready for the off around 12noon.

After my rubbish result at the BOS Round 2 where I was in fear of being demoted to the 'club class' I was ready for a bit of a morale booster and I got it. I had a great flight - rounded off by fish and chips in the car overlooking the sea. Great end to a perfect day.

Thanks Richard for a great tow up.

Mmmmm recognise the name and the hair is 'similar'?

Wayne Thompson

That will be me, then

Malcolm Brown

There is a possibility that us Brits have a thing going on with our car regs?

The Yorkshire Dales - British Open Series, Round 2

2011-06-16T21:47:00.011+01:00

There was a LOT of coffee to be drunk over the five days

The weather for the second round in The Yorkshire Dales was [mostly] horrendous and yet again I spent a lot of time in the pub!

Although the weather was pretty windy and wet at times Pete, The Meet Director called three great tasks:

Task 1 - 79.2km
Task 2 - 65.2
Task 3 - 161 km

All three tasks were achievable and many congrats especially to those who made task 3 goal - I was sorry not to be there with you :-( but Doris was glad not to have the long drive :-)

Lorenzo & Claudia
Claudia took some great photos - you can see them HERE

How u hangin' ?

2011-05-20T21:23:00.001+01:00

The WW Covert

The Covert was made for me by Jeff Shapiro and beautifully made it is too. I measured myself at least six times and the harness came and fitted perfectly. I have just recently put my second ‘chute in which is almost exactly the same size as my main ‘chute (34mtr2) so if ever the worse should happen I should have a 64mtr2 parachute – hopefully there will be no strong thermals if ever they are deployed (heaven forbid) otherwise I will be in orbit and it might take a while to get to Earth.

I have always found it impossible to fly for a long time in a position equivalent of wearing stiletto heels, not that I know what that feels like, you understand so I had to make a quick mod to flatten my feet out (that's just my preference). Some people can cope with it but not me as I suffer from sever cramp in my feet when flying so when landing with cramp it feels like walking on broken feet and takes at least half an hour for me to recover. I’ve had at least 3 Aeros Vipers and they all had pointy foot plates which when retro fitted with a foam wedge squared my feet up perfectly - it’s probably just me, there are lots of Covert’s out there with happy, pointy toe’d pilots.

I *think* I am the first pilot in the UK with a Covert and there was lots of interest at it’s first UK outing. I have now had quite a few hours flying in it, some short but some quite long flights with on average of 3 hours (five being the longest) and it is SUPER comfy and very EASY to land in and there is NO creep on the angle of dangle. I was worried that such a tight fitting harness might be a problem but that is not the case.

Thanks for the harness Jeff. It's a peach:-)))

Lollipop lollipop, Oh lolli lolli lolli, Lollipop lollipop

2011-05-16T21:08:00.009+01:00

"Just like a lightning from the sky"
This year my ride is a WW T2c fully loaded and her name is “Lollipop”
(The name came about through predictive text and I liked it!)

I have to say I have had a lot of very nice comments about my new custom T2c - some from Moyes boys:-) What's all that about?

I am very happy with the glider especially the handling! I can if I want thermal it with 3/4vg! The T2c just seems to absorb all the rough and tumble that gets thrown at her with the bar never seemingly wanting to get ripped out of your hands like the glider wants to loop. I have to say I'm loving “lollipop” or the “butterfly” as Gerolf described her.

Thank's for building such a great glider Steve & Mike – I know it was a pain in the a**e to build.

SE Wales British Open Series – Round 1 May 2011

2011-05-16T20:49:00.019+01:00

We arrived home from Italy, dropped off the tent and hooked up the Caravan (in the same day) and headed for another 5 hours in the car to SE Wales ………… we really should have stayed in Italy! The weather was pants for four out of the five comp days with a strong Easterly wind blowing. Four days of windy weather equated to four days of blurry, fuzzy, wallet draining, happy smiling beer consuming hypoxia!

Thankfully, in desperation on the last day those of us who hadn’t given in and gone home drove 1½ hrs to The Malverns hoping to commit aviation. It was the right decision and Meet Head, Pete set a cracking task: 84km task with 700fpm climbs (occasionally 800fpm).

Meet Head, Pete setting the task

The Malverns - those who went home early missed a great day

In the caravan wishing we were back in Italy

Italy – Trofeo Montegrappa – April 2011

2011-05-16T20:24:00.011+01:00

Shenanigans on take-off as can be seen Wolfi was in serious comp mode

Gordon Rigg recommended the Bassano comp to me (cheers Gordo) and I first went 2 years ago and loved it. Would have gone last year but the timing was not good, you see the comp is always held over the Easter weekend and the weather can only be pre-booked if Easter is late. Yet again we had superb weather this year.

I really enjoyed the competition but have to say I was not in ‘competition’ mode – the desire to race and get there first and take risks was just not on my agenda. Seems that no matter what happens with results I won’t make the Brit team so I thought I might as well take as long as I can in the air and enjoy the flying and get used to my new kit. Maybe the hunger has left me for now, who knows when it will return ……….?

The Brit contingent

This is Madonna Del Buon Volo. Her prayer:
Dear Virgin Mary bless anyone
Who flies and loves to glide
May your holy shield be always
With those in the open sky

Florida - March 2011

2011-05-16T19:44:00.016+01:00

I had some great flying out of Quest with Davis - even though he couldn't understand my 'Yorkshire' accent!

We decided to head out to Florida for a holiday! Caroline had never been out to the Florida comps with me so the 'deal' was a bit of sightseeing balanced with free flying and we had fun. Five flying days and 4 sightseeing days including a day at Disney! The good news is she liked it and wants to go back so maybe next year the timing of the comps will fall right and the air fare will not cost the earth?

We based ourselves at Quest as always it was as relaxed and friendly as ever with a great group of people there for free flying. I still maintain that the best comps in the World were at Quest – can we have them back p.l.e.a.s.e .......... Jamie?

Quest

GoPro photo - Kali River Rapids, Animal Kingdom. Took us the rest of the day to dry out! Good fun though.

Disney - it had to be done & free tickets too from Carole & John (thank you)

Gin o'clock at Oz Report HQ with Belinda

We watched this Quest 'resident' for ages eating his nuts on the steps

The first tow was a great one

Hitching a ride to the tow line

We woke up to find Santa had arrived!

Is it 2011 already?

2011-05-16T19:43:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I’ve been away for a while but I’m back now and the plan is to keep the blog up to date for the rest of the year – a kind of New Year’s Resolution in May ha ha (we will see).

Where to start? Already there have been 3 hang gliding trips to report on. First Florida, then to Italy followed by Wales!

On the road again

2010-08-15T16:03:00.024+01:00

I travelled 1,300 miles by car and ferry to get to Sigillo in Italy for the Pre Worlds & Dutch Open and now the Dutch Open has ended I'm starting to make the drive slowly back towards home.

First stop off last night was Malpasso. Was glad to get away from the rain and wake up to sunshine!

View Larger Map

and today I'm heading towards Laragne where I shall stay until the end of August for the British Nationals

View Larger Map

The Dutch Open was a well run, fun and friendly comp. Thanks to the organisers and also the Babs, Tim and the girls for my lifts up the hill and retrieve.

I finished 13th on Friday the 13th! Congrats to all the winners:

1st Gerolf, the European Champion is on a roll
2nd Vladimir
3rd Jochen

1st Zenya
2nd Monique
3rd Christine

.......all photos pinched from Zenya - hope she doesn't mind.....:-)

Monte Cucco random photos

2010-08-12T21:11:00.018+01:00

Go Go Dancers at the Pre Worlds Party

Zac "Zippy" Majors
Campsite meal for one - it's a hard life

The Langer Report

Wanna see Jonny's Crack? I'm guessing most of you know that Jonny's glider was damaged on the last day - He managed to borrow another from the Spanish team and after a few tweaks flew it successfully around the course. Go Jonny!

Jochan - great bloke & Belgium Champ - the man to watch out for in the future

Ghosts at the Pre Worlds Party

Chilling at the beach

Cloudbase at Cucco

Horses on take-off

Lost! Where's the Lizard?
This morning - I could have got a picture but unfortunately Jochan grabbed the bag and it escaped - I found I had a ‘pet’ Lizard living in my washbag. There is a small hole near the hanger of the bag and it poked its head out whilst I was having a shower. I think I let out a small scream and was pinned against the wall of the shower before I realised what it was because I initially thought it was a snake! It just looked at me, looked around and then went back in its hole. On the way out of the washroom I said to Jochan “look what’s in my washbag” – he thought I said “hold my washbag” which he did (in the wrong place) and the very big Lizard jumped out. Hope he has found somewhere else safe to live.

I also have a Locust living on the camping fridge - wonder if he fancies a trip to France?

Dutch Open Tasks 3 & 4 - Luck, I have none!

2010-08-12T21:05:00.012+01:00

Ok, I know I've a bit of catching up to do - here goes:

Sometimes Hang Gliding is as much about luck as it is about skill – FACT. I had pretty poor luck in the Pre Worlds and again on Task 3 of this comp. Why does the sun come out just as I land? Thankfully Task 4 was better for me.

Monte Cucco has not been kind to me but its all great experience – I’m chilled out, enjoying my flying, pushing out and exploring – no pimping for me. I like to decide where I go and not be persuaded by what others are doing. It’s the only way to learn, for me anyway.

Will we have the Worlds here next year? If nothing can be done about the restrictions I think possibly not – 2 weeks of running up and down the same ridge would be very boring.

Plenty has been said and written about the airspace restrictions we have to fly within – they are an absolute pain in the neck! At the closing ceremony for the pre Worlds the ‘organisers’ said that they hope to overcome some of the problems that we had faced during the comp. I think they will maybe be able to do something about the internet connection problems (?), should definitely be able to improve communications but am not really sure they will be able to do much about the Perugia airspace restrictions. Interestingly Caroline flew home from this airport: only a total of 7 scheduled flights were due in/out that day! (Appreciate there is probably commercial/private activity too but Caroline didn't spot any during her morning spent there).

Task 2 - So you want to know what happened with airspace infringements on Task 2? Mmmmm a secret competition in Airspace you think? Mmmmm there were a few airspace infringements that day but nobody got a zero score, only warnings. Rumour has it that Franco who was the Pre Worlds Meet Director was one who got a warning?

Task 3 was a bugger of a task for me. It was 130km and difficult! I hear that I was not alone trying to find lift.

Task 4 (today) was a short 86km task from the South take off up and down the ridge for a change. Somebody called Gerolf (who is he?) won the day. It was quite fun, quick good climbs, choppy glides but I guess that’s Monte Cucco.

The accumulative results have now been published for the last 3 tasks

Weather is looking pretty bad for the next couple of days – It’s been a booming 35 for the past few days which has made a nice change after all the rain from last week. Looks like the bad weather is coming back to us.

Dutch Open - Monte Cucco

2010-08-10T21:43:00.006+01:00

Because we only had four tasks in the Pre Worlds and not so spectacular flying I decided to say on and do the Dutch Open before heading on to Laragne for the Brit Nationals at the end of the month (22-28 August).

Registration on Sunday was heaving with around 80 pilots possibly thinking the same as me! I think this is the largest Dutch Open ever with pilots from 14 nations (so I’m told). It's like a ‘mini’ worlds.

Task 1 was 95km along the ridge (of course). It was pretty rough at times with good climbs. Task 2 was 120km and we are just waiting for the results – think AIR SPACE will be an issue for many today and I will not be surprised if I get a zero score. It was just difficult to get down!

There is an official site blogging the news and results and in English

Other bloggers
Jamie
Kathryn
‘H’ (if you understand Dutch)
Zenya

Pre Worlds - And the winners are.............

2010-08-10T21:34:00.005+01:00

First - Manfred
Second - Jonny
Third - Mario

Carl came in 4th

I want a GoPro! Check out this cool video by Matjaz

Jonny's Task 2 video

2010-08-04T18:32:00.002+01:00

Task 3 – Pre Worlds Monte Cucco

2010-08-04T18:02:00.002+01:00

'D'-rilled! This sums up pretty much what happened today! I got hammered coming back from 2nd turnpoint which was not fun.

91.2km task
5 turnpoints:
1 – Launch
2 – Pioraco
3 – Sigillo
4 – Fabriano
5 – East of Metalica
Goal at Esanatoglia

The 9am briefing was put back to 10am whilst discussions took place over where to go because they were expecting over development which as it turns out didn't happen. We went to the North launch on Monte Cucco.

If today was a free flying day I would have gone down and landed. I just didn't enjoy it from taking off and nearly getting turned into the hill in rough arse air, really weak climbs, strong breeze low down. Half way down the ridge the wind increased to 17mph which meant a very strong head wind to fly into and the tops of the thermals were sawn off, just a crap day really. I hear Mart got 11 down at coudbase all the way to the ground, he made the goal field but not the task same as others including Blay and Antoine.

I landed in a stubble field with 12 or so others and many more scattered around. It would have been a 'reasonable' walk out had the farmer not given Caroline permission to drive on.

Around 20 or so made goal including Carl, Shedsy & Julia – really good effort. Zac was first in goal on his WWT2C so he will be chuffed about that as team USA have been having bad luck so far this comp.

Pre-Worlds Monte Cucco, Italy

2010-08-03T20:08:00.010+01:00

Where is Gerolf, our European Champion?

Today is Day 4 and so far we've had 2 tasks:

Day 1 was canned – we didn't even go up the hill!
Day 2 was a 103km task
Day 3 was a 101km task
Day 4 – today canned due to unstable conditions. We went up the hill but were told not to rigg.
Manfred is so far winning

There is an amazing amount of staff at this competition – helping out at registration, launch, car parking, briefing. All are very efficient and friendly. Registration was a very smooth process, moving from table to table to do different things: insurance, instruments, helmets, passports all checked – which has resulted in some of the guys having to swap their carbon egg shell helmets for ENN966 certified helmets!

Airspace – W.H.A.T! There is lots of it here. I've had my first warning – don't know how close I was. If I had known the comp was being run in such airspace it would have been nice (maybe we were told?). My 5030 is capable of airspace but the comp isn't able to download to the latest software & anyway it would be a pain to keep switching from screen to screen. Luckily I have an old Emap with me which I've now managed to get set up and will be able to see where airspace is rather than relying on distance from a waypoint. Some pilots have got zero scores for airspace infringements and I do believe there are protests in with reference to this. For next year turnpoints not in the airspace would be a good idea.

You see the restrictions on this map - all inside the Yellow line!

The 2 tasks we've had have been great fun, easy flying, very enjoyable. Although turnpoint 2 yesterday was a little bit iffy with climbs only up to 7,000ft crossing a big valley to a big mountain with the turnpoint on with no landings. Scary looking. I was looking down at people low thinking “oh dear, glad I'm not them”. The goal landing field is a bit dodgy at times – first task saw people piling in, including Manfred. I came in on task 1 and did a slippy slidey landing and now have my war wounds to show for it. The ambulance team were happy to practice on me and dressed it for me yesterday.

My war wound - perhaps too much information?

The campsite is lovely and clean with great facilities, secure and friendly. We are camped near the other Brits and the Irish team (no sign of the upright monument yet!). Only problem is when the weather is like today then we have too much shade.

Doing the tourist thing

Other blogs & info from Monte Cucco
Jamie
Corinna
Jonny
Oz Report
Official Site

Round Two - British Open Series

2010-05-26T21:47:00.013+01:00

I was really looking forward to Round Two of the BOS but the forecast is changing all the time and the weather has quickly moved from an Indian Summer to wind and rain this evening so its hard to say what to expect other than it *could* be cold but *could* be hot?

Thankfully we invested in a little caravan to keep us warm and dry for the British Comps - must be getting older but the thought of camping in the cold and rain just isn't appealing or exciting anymore.

The phone signal is usually a bit dodgy in The Dales but if she can, Caroline will be tweeting updates. Mark the Vet probably will be and Jamie too?

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 5 - Task 4

2010-04-29T18:52:00.006+01:00

Task 4 is another 109km task with Goal at Williston

Today the Rally begins as we will be sleeping in a different location tonight.
Other blogs:
Jamie - for news from her iphone
Jonny
Wills Wing pilots
Oz Report
Tom

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 4 - Task 3 : 109km

2010-04-29T18:46:00.010+01:00

A few sore heads this morning! Jonny put on his morning glory vid last night and Connie (Bobbies wife) cooked a lovely meal for us all then we tried to drink the weather better;-)

Even 'Sue' had a few to drink!

Task 3 - 109km
Task Winner - Zippy

THE SCORES
Other blogs:
Jamie - for news from her iphone
Jonny
Wills Wing pilots
Oz Report
Tom

Flytec Race & Rally - Photos

2010-04-27T20:28:00.006+01:00

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 3 - Task 2 : 87km Stopped

2010-04-27T15:15:00.023+01:00

Task stopped – might not have been activated at 10km? Very windy and turbulent in an almost totally blue sky. Most landed back at Quest where we will be for the next 2 days due to the forecast wind direction.

It was a nice morning at Quest

Jonny's blond batten bunny:-)

Steve Kroop doing his Jim Carey mask impression!

Dustin n Nicole doin' it!

THE SCORES
Other blogs:
Jamie - for news from her iphone
Jonny
Wills Wing pilots
Oz Report
Tom

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 2 - cancelled

2010-04-26T19:30:00.019+01:00

No task today – cancelled

The sky looked very nice earlier on but was too windy to fly – only just blown out – it is now lovely and blue as I chill out by the pool at Quest in the sunshine after a swim in the lake.

Surprisingly there were no sore heads this morning from last night’s bottle walking and cardboard game!

Nature's light show as the storm came through last night was incredible shame I’ve only photos of the rain!

Seems that Florida’s wildlife is making itself known........ Jeff Shapiro had an interesting time when he landed with an Ali and one of the Brazilian pilots was greeted by 3 black snakes! So far I’ve just been visited by the incredible fire ants which are unbearable and I’m sure sometime soon my feet will rot off!

THE SCORES
Other blogs:
Jamie
Jonny
Wills Wing pilots
Oz Report
Tom

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 1 - Task 1 update

2010-04-26T19:13:00.011+01:00

Day 1 of the Flytec Race & Rally

Task 1 - 67km

I did pants. We took off early as the sky was overcast with embedded cu with a stiff breeze. We drifted out of the start about 8 mins before the start and 10 mins after I landed the cu and blue appeared after doing 17.6km! Sometimes its a luck thing, something I aint got! I landed in the same field as Davis and he and Belinda gave me a lift to Quest – thanks Belinda :-)

Dustin was the first in followed by Jonny the last one in. Every one else was somewhere between goal and launch.

It absolutely chucked it down here last night as the storm came in from the North.

THE SCORES

Other blogs:
Jamie
Jonny
Wills Wing pilots

Flytec Race & Rally - Day 1 - Task 1

2010-04-25T13:33:00.012+01:00

Day 1 today of the Flytec Race & Rally

Task 1 - 67km

This is the second Flytec Race & Rally which starts at The Florida Ridge and finishes wherever the wind and flying conditions take us!

Check out Jamies Blog for news as it happens.

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 7

2010-04-23T20:59:00.006+01:00

Task 5

Scores on-line HERE

Other blogs:-
Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog
Tom's Blog
Ben's Blog
and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

Rob Kells Memorial – Day 6 Video

2010-04-23T20:58:00.000+01:00

Jonny's Day 6 Video

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 6

2010-04-22T23:47:00.006+01:00

A quick update on today...........

Task 4
125km - 5 turnpoints back to The Ridge for Goal
Jonny first in

I had a lovely flight today all on my loansome apart from the last 15km and came in to land second (taking an earlier start to Jonny) I will maybe get 3rd on the day, we will see?

Jonny should be in the lead after today but the points are very tight at the top!

The glider is flying lovely and I'm here to have fun and enjoy my flying and that's what I am doing - let the big factory boys fight it out for the win I say.

There is talk that the Race & Rally might start a day early 'cos Saturday looks like a record breaking day according to Davis. Sunday looks stormy.

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 6

2010-04-22T19:49:00.007+01:00

Task 4 - 125kms double dogleg out and return

Looks like a nice day at The Ridge. Very hot this morning with mist and now blue sky. Having my first cup of tea in the U.S They don't have kettles over here! They stopped drinking tea during the revolution to piss the English off as it was taxed so highly hence all the coffee. Belinda told me that. I have probably got it wrong but its near;-)

Suffering from fire ants trying to eat me. My ankles are now bandaged and all the pussy lumps are popped and cleaned out with alcohol and bacterial cream. They were leaking and all the flies were having dinner on me! Thanks for the cream and medicine Dave, fellow Yorkshireman! And the kettle:-)

Scores on-line HERE

Other blogs:-
Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog
Tom's Blog
Ben's Blog
and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 5

2010-04-22T19:43:00.010+01:00

Task 3
84.9km - Winner Christopher Zimmerman

Had a good day even though the sky looked iffy. We did try and put the task back an hour but people were just too keen to get off the ground so we probably missed a right nice afternoon. Had a great start and took the second clock which was a glide at cloud base almost to the first turn point. I was flying with a Moyes that got towed to cloudbase, 1 min before the second clock on the edge of the circle;-) Nice work if you can get it.

I could see nothing but overcast on route so just tried to be patient and wait for the clouds to develop in the bit of blue. It was windy and crossed almost 90' which made life a little hard. Should have hung on another hour.

The glider is flying real nice and sweet - the carbon stinger will be the cherry on the cake.

Scores on-line HERE

Other blogs:-
Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog
Tom's Blog
Ben's Blog
and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 4

2010-04-22T19:34:00.008+01:00

Task 2 - 104.6km
Task Winner Jeff Shapiro

Scores on-line HERE

Other blogs:-
Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog
Tom's Blog
Ben's Blog
and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

Jonny's video from Goal

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 4

2010-04-20T18:35:00.002+01:00

Task 2

A 105km task with 1 turnpoint has been set for today.

Update later...........

Rob Kells Memorial – The Florida Ridge – Day 3

2010-04-20T07:09:00.008+01:00

TASK 1

A short task today (48k) and I was not expecting to fly again as it was pants in the morning. The sky opened out and the cu started a popping even with the amazing amount of rain yesterday. It was nice to see so many smiling faces when we were setting up this morning. It makes such a change. I had to drink to the weather gods last night to make it happen of course;-) The guys are all sucking on beers back here at the Ridge laughing and frolicking in the evening sun.

I landed 10km short in an overcast sky but I really enjoyed flying the new wing. It will take a little bit of dialling into but is very similar in handling to the Combat so shouldn't be too hard I hope. Tomorrow looks better as the ground should have dried out a lot so we might get a nice high base.

Scores on-line HERE

Other blogs:-

Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog
and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

Jonny's video from Goal

Rob Kells Memorial - The Florida Ridge - Day 2

2010-04-18T14:52:00.002+01:00

Day 2 is cancelled and its raining at the moment.

Check out The Florida Ridge blog

Rob Kells Memorial - The Florida Ridge - Day 1

2010-04-17T23:18:00.003+01:00

First day of the Rob Kells Memorial Comp at The Florida Ridge today

It's raining in the sunshine state or at least it has been. Dustin set off on the 76k task and landed 30k short even though the task was stopped. It right pissed it down with more forecast tomorrow:-( It's still warm though and the glider is flying right nice!

Both Jamie and Jonny are blogging away:-

Jamie's Blog
Jonny's Blog

and there's more at The Oz Report Blog

It's been a long six months :-)

2010-04-03T11:54:00.021+01:00

It's been a long time since I posted on here - six months!

Over the winter months I moved to Facebook which seems to be the best way to keep in touch with all my flying ‘friends’and allowed me to dream of flying vicariously through their postings and blogs!

Flying for me during the past six months has been minimal due to the appalling weather we have had in the UK. Can you believe it is now Spring and yet we have more snow forecast?

At this time I should be in Bassano, Italy for the competition but due to a premonition of bad weather I binned that idea in favour of Florida which is where I’m heading on 14th April….. for a whole month to fly in the Rob Kells Memorial Competition and the Flytec Race & Rally.

The comp at Bassano has just had its first task (as predicted weather has not been great). There is some good reporting going on out there from:

The Comp Blog (how good is your Italian?)

Matjaz

Steve Leeman Facebook The UK Hang-Gliding Shack

Mark Stewart @ Twitter

Results Task 1

Primoz was the Winner of task 1 (photo by Steve Leeman)

Jonny Durand - Morning Glory

2009-09-30T22:11:00.001+01:00

Read all about it and see the pictures on Jonny's blog HERE

A cool hang gliding movie

2009-09-10T09:04:00.004+01:00

Great movie of the Laragne Worlds 2009

British Open Series - Round 3

2009-08-12T20:15:00.006+01:00

The last round of the BOS takes place 28 Aug - 2 September 2009.
This is a FAI Category 2 competition for both Class 1 (flexwing) and Class 5 (rigids).

Location: Lydbury North, Shropshire, England

Dates: Friday 28 August to Tuesday 1 September 2009

HQ: Powis Arms Pub

View Larger Map

GSP upload competition waypoints: from Thursday evening 27 August

Accommodation: Camping at the Powis Arms Pub - £5 per night. Tel: Gerry McLaren on 01588 680254 to book.

MORE INFORMATION HERE

Laragne Storms

2009-08-09T18:52:00.013+01:00

An unbelievable but v exciting and humbling day as the storm came from nowhere very very quickly. We all agree that we’ve never experienced a storm like it – In the orchard there were tents under 4inches of water and abandoned.

The storm started around 2pm and wasn’t over by 7pm. At some points there was a little flash of lightening and a bang immediately after which felt like someone shooting you in the head and some people screamed either in fear or delight?

The Party was ruined

Dutch Open - And the winner is....

2009-08-08T18:17:00.012+01:00

The last day of the Dutch Open took the pilots to the North side of the Charbe. The forecast was for storms and over development early afternoon and it was not wrong. There was a task called but as the wind was in the south and coupled with the towering cu the day was canned and Malcolm Brown became the Dutch Open Champion for the second year in a row. Top Dutch pilot was Koos, top women pilot was Koos's girl friend Daphne, top team was The Shaggers :-)

I had a very pleasant morning at the very silty brown watered gorge due to the storms yesterday and got back just in time for the rain/storm.

Team Shaggers

Top Bird - Daphne

You wouldn't want to walk under this?

............
.............
..............

Unless you were very small :-)

Dutch Open - Day 6 - Task 4 Stopped

2009-08-07T18:00:00.008+01:00

Aspre again today-

92km task to go south west then east then south then north into camping. There seemed to be a rush to get off as there was a potential cu nim above us :-O one near the first turn point and one toward Sisteron. Lots of lift I guess, so yea, lets av some?

I hate cloud flying and I hate flying when there are big nasties around and today I was very uncomfortable. Strange how your instincts are telling you you shouldn't take off and when you have, your senses seem to be in overdrive and all you want to do is go land somewhere nice.

The task was stopped when the big black one over Laragne started leaking and then seemed to short out a few times with a bit of wind around the edges. It has been going now for maybe 3-4 hours and its wet!

Malcom Brown it seems has taken the lead with Koos in second. Well done Malc if we don't fly tomorrow (its not looking good) .... it'll be 2 years in a row, nice one:-)

Safe n Sound

Dutch Open - Day 5 - Task 3

2009-08-06T21:58:00.016+01:00

118Km around 4 turnpoints with goal at the camping

The task saw us go back to Aspre as the wind was west again and from what Jeff, the local 'masseuse' reported from the Chabre take off it was the right call.

Most it seems had a good start with climbs to 8500 feet at the start then a nice glide with only 1 climb to the Charbe t/o.

Then onto Col St Ange and a quick squirt over to Charbre t/o and along the ridge 5km then back to a little lump called the Pic de Burre. Then back south via a small village near Beaumont and in. Easy for some eh? Seems Mr Brown is on fire again this year. Some were getting climbs upto 12000feet! Not bad for an iffy day.

I had not 1 smooth glide all day. My arms were killing me.

Malc and Koos - the race is on

Dutch Open - Task 2 Results

2009-08-06T17:14:00.001+01:00

You will find them HERE - top right under 'Newsflash' heading.

Cheers

Dutch Open - Day 4 - Task 2

2009-08-05T20:54:00.014+01:00

The task today saw us on the very pretty and easy launch of Aspre. Most of the wild flowers have gone now but the butterflies are in abundance and the wild raspberries are nearly ready for a foraging.

The task was set at the 77km mark around 4 turn points. From Aspre to the volcano then to Beaumont. From there to the big gap then a jump across onto that other big ridge heading west then into the camping. I'm great at remembering the names of ridges, hills and mountains – not!!

It was a fun day but I did have a poo poo start and a poo poo middle but otherwise a good end as I did make goal albeit a little slow:-[

The campsite is cool tonight with lots of live music from various tents. There is a happy vibe and the moon is full. Time to turn hairy.

Other bloggers:
Daphne
Zhenya
Hadewych
The results might (?)appear here?

Dutch Open - Task 1 - from the air & Results

2009-08-04T21:19:00.005+01:00

Ok - finding the results was not easy! .... but......

Here are Task 1 results which I found at the bottom of this page

Dutch Open - Day 3 - Task 1

2009-08-04T20:51:00.005+01:00

The wind eased off and today we had a 70k task:-

TP1 - 5k west of takeoff along the ridge
TP2 - across the valley to the SE at Gache
TP3 - a small village w of Sisteron along the Sisteron ridge
TP4 - Hongrie
Goal – a glide into goal at Laragne camping

It seems 3 people were in Goal. Koos I think was the first and Malcolm and myself (came 3rd and 4th but I don’t know who was 3rd and who was 4th!) landed 3k short of goal in the same field which is handy as Nicola is our faithful driver this week – thank you Nicola.

The forecast was for a very stable day with weak climbs and a lot smoother than yesterday with lighter northerly winds.

In all a very pleasant punt around the valley was had by some.

Dutch Open - Day 3 - The wind is still here:-(

2009-08-04T08:06:00.003+01:00

Even though there is little wind in the landing field there is on take off. Its still blowing North at 46kph according to the automated radio. I guess it just hasn't got the mixing going yet.

Home sweet home

My neighbours.

If you need a massage then Jeff is your man and if you need an xc bag or waterproof bag then Phil is your man. www.gliderbags.com These guys come out and live in their caravans all summer!! What a life eh? If only?mmmmmmmmm

Dutch Open - Day 2 - cancelled

2009-08-04T07:44:00.002+01:00

The second day of the Dutch Open was canned during flight due to the increasing WNW winds and darkening skies. It was very hard just to fly west along the ridge just to get the start never mind fly the 60+km task around the valley. It was one of them days where it was nice to be on the ground rather than in the air. Malcolm Brown carried on flying in wave and nearly did the course. He has no radio and no one, but no one got their legs out to show the task had been canned! I flew by at least 10 guys and not one acknowledged me. Crackers!

We will see what today brings as the sun is out and there is no wind so far.

Dutch Open - Day 1 - Cancelled

2009-08-02T21:26:00.023+01:00

There are over 40 of us here for the Dutch Open but the first day (today) was stormed out as we woke to rain and thunderstorms - some of the lightening was quite spectacular.

In the afternoon the weather cleared up a little so I had a trip to the gorge and had a snooze listening to Little Boots.

A very pleasant afternoon indeed.

Twisted metal

Reday for a fly?

I haven't seen Markus Kinch and didn't know he was here but I am told that he had a bad landing yesterday and broke some ribs and banged his head? If you are reading this Markus - Get Well Soon.

I am still struggling from a back/shoulder injury I picked up in Ager and today had a deep massage from Jeff at the Windsock Caravan. Jeff is easy to find - he has a windsock which says 'Massage' and next door to Jeff is Phil who makes glider bags and he has a windsock which says 'Glider bags' brilliant!

I had a really nice flight yesterday with unbelievable visibility - again I flew with no camera - why do I keep doing this? The wind was a little strong WSW and I flew to Pic de burre in turbulent conditions but unfortunately I couldn't get back so THANK YOU Nicola for the retrieve especially on a French black traffic weekend - to avoid the traffic we had a scenic drive around the volcano which Nicola didn't mind at all!

Forecast is for possibly a good day tomorrow - fingers crossed.

Malcolm "I hate cats" Brown :-) - Very pretty camping cat

Other bloggers:
Daphne
Zhenya
Hadewych

2009 British National Champion

2009-07-27T09:22:00.017+01:00

CONGRATULATIONS to Shedsy who is our new British National Champion and winner of the Alvin Russell Trophy 2nd -Bruce Kavanagh
3rd - Carl Wallbank

Ager Open
1st -Vladimir Leuskov
2nd - Dave Shields (aka Shedsy)
3rd -Bruce Kavanagh

The last day of the comp was Saturday and the task committee tried very hard to make the last day nail biting – with only a few points separating the leaders it could have all changed! A 99k task was set mainly keeping us in the Tremp valley but was stopped at 14:50.

It is unfortunate that we only had 2 taskable days – albeit very good tasks – the flying the week before in the Pre Euros had been great and I am pleased that I got to experience Ager at its (almost) best - as I’ve already said Ager is fast becoming one of my favourite sites.

Our new Nationals Meet Director Tim did a great job of leading the comp and at prizegiving added a very nice touch by asking all us Brits to stand to one side and thank all the foreign competitors for attending - with the relatively low turn out of Brits we needed the foreign pilots to make the 'competition'. I would like to thank Tim and the Comps Panel for a great organised comp. My thanks also go to super scorer Mark and of course local organiser Nicky Moss for all their help and support both leading up to the comp and during it. Thank you all.

Many of the foreign pilots commented that it was one of the best organised comps they have attended and hope to enter next year. This is the sort of word of mouth publicity that is crucial to the long term success of the Nationals. I hope more Brits make it out next year.

The overall Results are here

I am now heading over to Laragne, France for the Dutch Open - wifi access is better there so hope to be able to do a bit more blogging in the coming 2 weeks.

Random Photos from Ager

2009-07-23T17:06:00.008+01:00

British Nationals - Ager, Spain 2009

2009-07-23T14:19:00.012+01:00

Apologies for the lack of blogging – it seems to be more of an effort to do anything here, due to the heat, long days and also the fact that wifi is only available in the one place. No pictures either I am afraid it takes way too long to upload them that I gave up! (Will try a direct upload from picasa and see what happens).

The Nationals started on Sunday straight after the Pre-Euoros. We've only had 2 tasks so far due to the 'wind'! Today is another canned day with more of the same forecast for tomorrow.

Shedsy is currently winning the Nationals with Gordo in 5th place and itching for the weather to improve. Whilst I've had great flying I've been unlucky with the 2 tasks and unless a miracle happens will not be able to move up the rankings - hey ho.

Ager is an absolutely brilliant place - the flying, the drive up to take off, the rigging area, the take off, the camping - need I say more? Shame more Brits didn't decide to come (perhaps the memories of some who flew here 20 odd years ago put them off?). It is fast becoming my favourite site to fly.

Our new Nationals Meet Director, Tim Hudson along with the comps panel members here is/are doing a brilliant job. The morning briefings are filled with humour and also very useful and detailed information, we are using an SMS system to keep in touch not only for signing out but also for passing on other information and last night Tim organised a social and meal out at a local hotel which was attended by most of the pilots, their drivers and also families.

I guess the only downside to Ager is the Police – people have been fined for parking on the roadside to collect a pilot, for not having a red and white alert board and perhaps more seriously …... I was fined an amount which would buy a new carbon basebar for speeding ….... the Police man had a credit card machine in the back of his car and if I didn't pay there and then was going to immobilise the car and significantly increase the fine.

RESULTS HERE
Other bloggers:
Jamie
Zhenya
Follow Jamie on Twitter

Pre Euros - Ager, Spain

2009-07-13T16:43:00.003+01:00

The Pre-Euros started on Saturday and after fluffing the first short task, yesterday I had a good day. I flew my own flight which was very satisfying. The scenery is beautiful, the views are beautiful, the flying is great - what more can you ask for?

The task is cancelled today so catching up with a bit of sleep as there are many late nights in Spain and the wine is cheap ;-)

Follow Jamie on Twitter for news as it happens!
Jonny's blog
Jamie's blog
Corinna's blog
Ager blog

RESULTS

A new World Champion

2009-07-03T22:42:00.019+01:00

Well done to Alessandro Ploner (ITA) - the new World Champion

2nd Jonny Durand AUS My God Jonny so close

3rd Thomas Weissenberger AUT

4th Zac Majors USA

5th Gordon Rigg GBR

Well done Gordy looking forward to the Whiskey you owe me in celebration – bring on the Nationals. See you in Ager.

OVERALL TEAM RESULTS
1st - Italy
2nd - Austria
3rd - France
4th - Brazil
5th - Australia
6th - USA
7th - GBR

Individual GBR placings
5 - Gordon Rigg
15 - Carl Wallbank
26 - Bruce Kavanagh
32 - Grant Crossingham
67 - Gary Wirdnam
More News HERE
Results HERE

BRITISH HANG GLIDING HISTORY.COM

2009-06-21T10:19:00.004+01:00

Digitised versions of WINGS starting with issue No1 1975 are now available on line HERE

Check out the history and see how far we’ve come with wing developments – pretty impressive.

All magazines come from a collection belonging to Mark Woodhams.

The Worlds : 20 June - 4 July, France

2009-06-12T15:39:00.013+01:00

GOOD LUCK to the Brit team at The Worlds:-

Grant Crossingham - current British Nationals Champion (top right)
Bruce Kavanagh (top left)
Carl Wallbank (bottom right)
Gary Wirdnam (middle left)
Gordon Rigg (middle right)

Jamie is driving for the Brits and I am sure she will keep us posted with how the team is doing. Keep an eye on Jamie's blog for news as it happens. CLICK HERE

Other bloggers:
Jonny Durrand
Davis @ The Oz Report
Jeff, Jeff & Dustin

You can see for yourself what a great place to fly Laragne is:

So what's hang gliding all about?

2009-06-05T15:38:00.001+01:00

Just come across this great short film advertising the delights of hang gliding by Lucas Ridley - nicely put together

British Open Series - Round 2 - The Movies

2009-06-04T19:51:00.011+01:00

Markus Kinch has put together movies from the Second Round of the British Open Series - thanks Markus.

If you have trouble viewing the movies you can also find them HERE

The Results HERE

Shedsy @ the Swiss Nationals

2009-06-01T20:09:00.013+01:00

Shedsy has done a grand write up from the Swiss Nationals.
Check it out HERE
Results HERE

Was the last day today. He's moving on to France for the French Nationals which take place 7-13 June - lucky bu88er!

British Open Series - Round 2 - The Dales

2009-05-27T19:30:00.039+01:00

Pilots and Crew
The Results HERE

Pete - our 'new' Meet Head

The 2nd round of the British Open Series took place over the Bank Holiday Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales 22 - 26 May 2009.

Unfortunately due to not so good weather there were only 3 tasks - which was lucky for me as they happened to be on the days I was able to be there!

There were 4 flyable days out of the 5 – but only 3 were taskable. Task’s 1 and 3 were hampered by the fact that it was so windy. Task 2 was one not to miss!!

Tailbridge

The first task was from a SW site called Tailbridge which is a very easy top landable but small site with boonies over the back for miles so we had a small turn point which dragged us slightly crosswind before heading downwind in almost total grey sky – 1 up climbs, 2 if you were lucky to around ‘not very high’ ft asl. Gordon and I were together for the first climb. All I intended to do was get the turnpoint and land as it really did look pants but I got a weak one en route and stayed with it, then a wee glide to a ridge with another weak climb and then an amazingly fast glide toward the goal overtaking cars on the A66. When I turned to land I was still heading towards the goal!! It was windy but all got back on the deck ok albeit with wet feet as it was on the top of the Pennines and bog land.

Shedsy won the day flying 22.9km of the 29km task.

Task 2. Weather fell take off. WNW site but flyable round to WSW which was the 'wave' direction. A few guys took off and it did not look too inspiring as the wind was 45’ off to the hill, windy and they were not high in the blue sky. After a while a few were getting to 2000+ but then back down to low again so this was a sign that something was starting to happen..... It was time to commit to aviation.

After flying around in odd and sometimes bumpy conditions I noticed a few guys starting to speck out pointing 90’ to the hill at the N end of the valley where it opens out. Bar in and get there and low and behold a climb of 200ft-250ft pm that didn’t stop until 8200ft was reading on the alti. The views were amazing with both coastlines in view and the few cu 3-4000 ft below BUT and NO camera!

Photos by Justin Needham

After being so drunk on the view I almost forgot we were on a task and the last clock was coming up so off I went following the edge of the valley in super smooth air then a little down air to 5000ft then the next bar. I couldn’t make out if it was thermal or wave at first as it was a little choppy compared to what we had. You could see small rotor clouds forming then disappearing just as quick below so maybe I wasn’t in it proper? This went on for another 3 climbs and then I had company with Gary Wirdnam and Dave Shields (Shedsy). We glided together up to the A1 where we were now into thermal flying with very little cloud. It was amazing to see the fields of young green crop swirling away below and the air steaming in on all sides as the lift kicked off. I can’t remember ever seeing this so frequently in this country? We got a climb to 4500ft and started a glide over the top of Leeming airspace but for some reason Shedsy decided to go S following the A1. Maybe he thought he could not get over the airspace? Gary and I carried on and by now I was higher and in front by a couple of km or so heading toward my local SW site, Sutton Bank where I knew it would be working. As it turned out I didn’t even stop to ridge soar as I was 2000+ above the top so searched around down wind and found a crappy little climb which I tried to stay with but the ground falls away for a few miles and pulls the air down with it so I had a glide in very sinky air and in need of a climb I went and was rewarded just short of Helmsley with a 4up where the land once again goes flat and things start to go back to normal. This I took to 3000 and then it was an easy glide into Goal at Wombelton airfield which was built during the 2nd world war. Gary came in a few mins after followed by Shedsy. A super super day only ruined by a speeding ticket on the way back to score.

T2 - Goalfield

Bruce
Myles

Justin

Gordon and Dave

Task 3 was a frustrating day!! We couldn’t use the preferred nice hill as the club forbid more than 6 'things' flying at any one time so we went to a redundant flying site down the valley with a not too bad carry up but a crappy cliff launch with another cliff out front! The forecast was for light wind but we had strong wind. We even had to lay our gliders flat as there was so much rotor!

Graham Phipps won the day flying 34.8km of the 81.1km task.
Nappa Scar

Task 1 – Tailbridge to Eccleston Abbey – 29km
1 – Shedsy
2 – Tony Stephens
3 – Graham Phipps
4 – Rich Lovelace
5 – Paul Harvey
6 – Bruce Kavanagh
7 – Dave Matthews
7 – Gary Wirdnam
9 – Grant Crossingham
10 – Neil Atkinson

Task 2 – Wether Fell to Wombleton – 79.5km
1 – Rich Lovelace
2 – Gary Wirdnam
3 – Shedsy
4 – Justin Needham
5 – Bruce Kavanagh
6 – Myles Kynaston
7 – Tony Stephens
8 – Dave Matthews
9 – Graham Phipps
9 – Gordon Rigg
9 – Paul Harvey

Task 3 – Nappa Scar to Colywell – 81.1km
1 – Graham Phipps
2 – Steve Penfold
3 – Wayne Thompson
4 – Stewart Reid
5 – Dave Matthews
6 – Rich Lovelace
7 – Gordon Rigg
7 – Tony Stephens
9 – Bruce Kavanagh
10 – Tim King

Overall
1 – Rich Lovelace – 1869
2 – Gary Wirdnam – 1795
3 – Graham Phipps – 1602
3 – Bruce Kavanagh – 1602
5 – Tony Stephens – 1568
6 – Dave Matthews – 1533
7 – Gordon Rigg – 1449
8 – Grant Crossingham – 1355
9 – Shedsy – 1305
10 – Stewart Reid - 1264

Cheers to Gordon - Why is Gordon happy? He's going to Laragne!

Green Porno - its not what you think ;-)

2009-05-22T22:50:00.004+01:00

If this vid of Davis 'talking dirty in the tow paddock' made you laugh like it did me then CLICK HERE to learn more about the sex lives of insects and marine animals!

British Open Series - Round 2 - The Dales

2009-05-22T08:56:00.006+01:00

The 2nd round of the British Open Series starts today (22 - 26 May 2009).

I have managed to take a few days off work and whilst I am unable to attend the full comp I hope to be there (weather depending) for 3 of the days.

The Results will be published HERE

British Hang Gliding Nationals 19-25 July '09 - Spain

2009-05-22T08:48:00.004+01:00

More info here

Striking for Safety - same could be said of Sprogs?

2009-05-22T08:12:00.017+01:00

In Italy this week the peloton went on strike

Maybe at the Worlds a similar thing may happen with all the top guys? Click here to see what I'm talking about - skip to about 4.45

Quotes from the video:

“As a group of professional athletes …...... have to have a fully independent riders organisation that represents our interest .....… so we as riders get to have the right to say this is safe or this is not safe or this will do or this will not do …. Without a unified front we will have this problem for ever.”

.....Ring any bells?

So, do ‘we’ really want a 'company' telling us what we can and can't do - paying the extra money in competitions to have people measure our gliders and say "you are .2 of a degree out, you're dsq'd today"? At the moment it seems only the main comps ie the Worlds and Europeans which are affected but for sure if the DHV get its foot in the door which it seems it is trying to do in what I feel the wrong way then maybe our competitions will be very poorly attended, if attended at all.

I feel it is the pilots responsibility and with the correct education I am sure we will not have the stupidity like we've had in the past of pilots having ridiculously low sprogs. I feel a good percentage of the accidents certainly that I have witnessed in competitions are due to conditions that we fly in (not just sprogs) and yes I know people can say "you don't have to fly if you don't want to fly" and that's fair enough if you are at the end of the field but if you are leading or at the top of the field and have spent a lot of money/time/commitment in getting there you are not going to be sat on the hill - that is what a competitive nature is all about!

Got a point?

More on Sprogs here:
Oz Report
Hadewych
Corinna

British Open Round 1 - The Movies

2009-05-12T18:01:00.003+01:00

Markus Kinch has put together movies from the First Round of the British Open Series - thanks Markus.

You will be able to see from the movies the type of conditions that us Brits fly comps in, shame I couldn't be there.

Round 1 - Day 1

Round 1 - Day 2

Round 1 - Day 3

British Open 2009 - The Results

2009-05-05T19:53:00.012+01:00

Congratulations to Dave Matthews who won the British Open after 3 decent tasks with an impressive margin.

Shame about Grant who lost a score for a day after making goal – very unlucky.

From the feedback it sounds like it was a real good fun competition. Shame I missed it I would have loved to be there.

2nd - Tony

3rd - Craig

It’s the first time there has been a Sports Class and it seems it was a great success with some doing their first cross country ~ Congratulations to Craig Ennis.

British Open - Results
Task 1 Merthyr 60 k race Open Distance
Task 2 Merthyr-Hay Bluff- Raglan 68,8 km Race to Goal with 9 startgate(s)
Task 3 Abertysswg to Sherston 73,2 km Race to Goal with 10 startgate(s)

Id Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed S - 517 787 895 2199
2 Tony Stephens Aeros Combat - 519 749 522 1790
3 Craig Dolwin Wills Wing T2 - 365 466 872 1703
4 Gary Wirdnam Wills Wing T2C - 401 465 689 1555
5 Mike Armstrong Aeros Combat - 210 415 845 1470
6 David Shields Moyes Litespeed S - 210 405 693 1308
7 Patrick Buxton Wills Wing T2 - 210 383 711 1304
8 Ron Richardson Litespeed - 417 884 1301
9 Justin Needham Moyes Litespeed - 415 719 154 1288
10 Grant Crossingham Moyes Litespeed S - 0 929 242 1171
11 Trevor Birkbeck Wills Wing T2 - 210 599 316 1125
12 Nigel Bray Wills Wing T2 - 406 712 1118
13 Graham Phipps Wills Wing T2 - 420 456 211 1087
14 Jamie Cannon Moyes Litespeed - 237 847 1084
15 Bill Bell Wills Wing T2c - 210 484 363 1057
16 Brett Wright Moyes LitespeedS - 339 389 307 1035
17 Richard Lever Climax C2 - 554 416 970
18 Bruce Kavanagh Wills Wing T2 - 250 376 321 947
19 Barry Woodhead Avian Cheetah - 210 426 281 917
20 Stewart Reid Icaro Zero7 - 210 201 490 901
21 Steve Green Aeros Combat - 340 550 0 890
22 Robin Rhodes Moyes Litespeed - 432 420 852
23 Martin Colclough Airborne C4 - 312 201 260 773
24 Jenny Buck Airborne C4 - 210 201 345 756
25 Tim King Moyes Litespeed - 210 201 341 752
26 Wayne Thompson Aeros Combat - 0 201 405 606
27 Clive Belbin Airborne C4 - 0 414 114 528
28 Murray Brown Aeros Combat L - 210 201 114 525
28 Markus Kinch Moyes LitespeedS - 210 201 114 525
30 James Hogan Icaro Laminar MR - 0 400 114 514
31 Dave Cooper Moyes Litespeed - 0 398 114 512
32 Marek Pisarek Moyes LitespeedS - 0 201 302 503
33 Andy Scott Wills Wing T2 - 210 201 0 411
34 Kevin Winter Talon T1 - 392 0 392
35 Norman Potts Combat 2 - 201 114 315
35 Mark Stewart Moyes Litespeed - 0 201 114 315
37 Jimbo Seward Moyes Litespeed - 0 210 0 210
38 Tony Moore Wills Wing Eagle - 0 201 0 201
38 David Tyrer Wills Wing T2 - 0 201 0 201
40 Steve Penfold Airborne C4 - 0

SPORTS CLASS - RESULTS

Task Date Distance
T1 Task 1 Merthyr 30 k race 2009-05-01 12:45 Open Distance
T2 Task 2 Merthyr to Raglan 2009-05-02 12:00 33,1 km Race to Goal with 9 startgate(s)
T3 Task 3 Abertysswg to Chepstow 2009-05-03 13:45 42,6 km Race to Goal with 5 startgate(s)

# Id Name Nat Glider Sponsor T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Craig Ennis M GBR Avian Cheetah Evo 0 654 625 1279
2 Sergey Kataev M GBR Aeros Discus 56 411 636 1103
3 Andrew Hurst M GBR Airwave Magic 3 56 597 232 885
4 Kris Holland M GBR Moyes Litespeed 0 244 579 823
5 Alan James M GBR Wills Wing T2 0 551 0 551
6 David Moore M GBR Wills Wing U2 0 244 250 494
7 Paul Whatley M GBR Wills Wing Sport 2 56 244 29 329
8 James Roy M GBR Aeros Discus 56 0 232 288
9 John Cheale M GBR Wills Wing Sport 2 0 0

British Open Series : Round One - S E Wales

2009-05-03T21:02:00.011+01:00

Whilst I am at work (sad) Round One of the British Open Series is taking place (1-5 May) in SE Wales. Seems that there has been some pretty good (for British weather) tasks over the past 3 days and I am pretty jealous not to be there!

Work commitments mean I am only able to attend Round Three which takes place over the August Bank Holiday (Mid Wales).

Round Two actually takes place at the end of this month on my 'home turf' but …. I am working again!

The scores for day 1 and 2 are now up on the website.

The Top 5 after 2 tasks are:-

1st - Dave Matthews

2nd - Tony Stephens
3rd - Justin Needham
4th - Grant Crossingham
5th - Neil Atkinson

Markus Kinch usually makes a great video of the Open Series – watch this space it will be available soon I am sure…

155k Goal Flight

2009-04-27T21:41:00.020+01:00

.......well nearly!

I had a pleasant flight on Sunday from the Newark aerotow.

The sky was looking great from 10am but we had a bit of a late start - it is a fair drive from York – and we didn't get airborne until early afternoon.

You can see from the pictures that the sky looked amazing but the clouds were not working as you would expect with only 200 to 300 ft a minute climbs with the occasional 6-8 up's of super smooth one handed turning.

We set a goal to Whitby which as I think on was a mistake. I have made Whitby before but as its a seaside town and so on a good day will have sea breezed! A Pickering goal next time I think?

The wind on the airfield was SSE so would be blowing us into the airspace that splits N and S so we would have to stay East of the Derwent then West of the Humber bridge to avoid Humberside airspace.

The tow was without problems (cheers Bob) and I pinged of at 1800' in a 2up. Didn't get to base and was thinking that the ground would meet me before the next climb but thankfully that was not the case. Another 1-2up under an amazing black bottom perfect cloud but again not to base so off we go again cross wind to the next amazing looking cloud and again 2up! This time I was able to take it to the top at 5500 and boy it was cold. Must have been freezing at base. Now I have more options and decide to glide through a blue hole and half way get my first 6up in the blue! I keep looking up and see the birth of a Cu that I meet and wish it well and on my way I go again.

Now I can see the Humber estuary in the distance and a small gliding club. A couple of gliders on the ground and only one flying but not turning. I fly over around 3000ft under a lovely black bottomed cloud that is hardly working at all only ½ up zero – oh dear where to go now? Can't go too far to the West or the East because of airspace and to the North direct is blue and the Humber is pretty wide at this point so we hanger almost 90degree West towards Scunthorpe steelworks. I get to the lowest part of the flight (apart from the end) at almost 2000ft and just dribble along in a ½ up and head again towards the steelworks where I can see them pouring moulton steel out in the open – its like the surface of the sun incredibly bright. I then bimble into a 3-4up which I take up to base which is now 6000ft and colder. I then glide directly over the steelworks to the next best looking cloud and top up en route in a beautiful smelly 6up from the works. I can now head north again to cross the Humber as the sky all starts to fill in, the big blue holes are rapidly disappearing but there is a thin strip directly of where I am of sunshine on the ground. Half way across the Humber I get a beautiful super smooth 4up which takes me back to base again at 6200ft.

The Humber - looking East towards the Humber Bridge

Now wondering where to go. Do I fly home to York? Or do I continue to the goal? I went for the goal.

Its now a slow, slow glide – squeaking all I can from the glider bimbling into ½ups and zeros. The wind now is SSW 13-15mph. So am getting a perfect blow up the backside. I scramble along wishing I'd flown to York and landed in my back garden as the sky is now totally overcast and over to the east I can see a seabreeze front. I've been in this situation a few times before and this situation is fine as long as its in the flats but as soon as it hits the Moors and the high ground it destroys the front and does all sorts of strange things. Which is exactly what happened!

I get to where the tendril cloud was but has now gone and it is very very rough with nothing going up. I fly along and it smooths out and I'm low and picking out fields to land still with 13ish mph of wind showing on the instrument and then bang I'm into an extremely rough 6up which almost turns the glider over sideways on two occasions. I hang on and then suddenly its gone, I search around but can't find it and so go for a glide down wind and I am now motoring over the ground. I turn above the field I aim to land in and realise I'm drifting backwards! I pull a little VG, maintain and just literally come down vertically fighting the glider all the way with really turbulent air – perfect landing without incident – glad to be on the ground at that point. The wind is so strong SSE I can hardly walk with the glider.

I was 19km short of Goal at Whitby!
Flight time 2hrs 50mins
Total altitude gain of 22,080ft
Max altitude of 6,108ft

It was an extremely enjoyable flight and the Moyes RS 3.5 is performing very well. I am getting more and more comfortable with every flight. I am getting it more to my liking now with very neutral coordinated turns as I find high siding very tiring on a long flight and have got the nice light bar pressure - maybe too light?;-) Just need a little hill soaring with top landing for the final tweaks.

A good day from the aerotow:
Andy Buchan flew to York – brilliant flight for him on his WWT2
Steve Leeman (Moyes S4) landed at Beverley – First flight from Newark (I think he'll be coming back for more)

Aerial photos courtesy of Steve Leeman as I foolishly didn't take my camera :-(

Thanks again for the tow Bob and a big thanks to Doris too who arrived just as I finished packing away the glider and just in time to get to the pub for a Sunday Lunch and pint of Real Ale. A perfect end to a near perfect day.

Just a thought :-)

2009-04-21T17:52:00.006+01:00

(Is it Julia in the photo?)

The Chabre 2009 blog refers to the recent team GB selection issues. Dave Glover has given a VERY valid comment that would ease problems in the future for a lot of teams/countries.

David Glover said...

"I would like to suggest for the future - World's Organizers allow any pilot in the top 50 World Ranking is allowed a spot to compete if they do not make their national team - they would be eligible only for the individual medal but their score would not be able to be part of any team scoring. Foolish not to do everything possible to allow for the best pilots to attend.”

One has to question the purpose of the WPRS sometimes. Pilots spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to climb the slippery ladder to prove their ability and worth and to be excluded from the “main” events can be, or IS very demotivating. Most of the top 50 places will already be given to chosen individuals which would leave the few left with a chance of competing against the rest and hopefully proving themselves as worthy pilots and gaining much needed experience in high level comps of which there is only 1 a year (The Pre-Worlds and Worlds) unlike the womens who get 2 worlds!

The extra pilots would of course not be able to score for their team but fly as individuals. It is my opinion that we should be encouraging a competitiveness from the keen pilots who for whatever reasons do not get chosen to be on their national team - it should be a fair field not a select field!

Anyone else agree?

UK Nationals : Ager, Spain 19-25 July 2009

2009-04-15T18:51:00.011+01:00

The UK Hang Gliding Nationals will take place in the same place and directly after the Pre Euros in Ager, Spain between 19 and 25 July 2009.

Register for the UK Nationals HERE
The entry fee is £90.00 or €130.00.

Day 5 & Prizegiving

2009-04-13T17:33:00.011+01:00

The day was canned today. There was a strong tail and cross wind and when the thermals did come up the front it was very windy and gusty. The organisers set a task at 99.7km but much to the relief of many pilots they canned the day - you could tell this by the cheers which went up.

The Austrian team was incredibly strong and will probably kick some a*** in France this year.

We've just returned from an excellent prizegiving - The winners were:
The results are here

Photos Day 4

2009-04-13T08:18:00.006+01:00

Bassano - Day 4

2009-04-12T22:26:00.006+01:00

Lovely day today another 122k task with (I think) no accidents?

Starting to get more comfortable on the new glider. The task was super today and I made lots of right decisions at the beginning and in the middle but not at the end – Doh! My numbers were wrong and I got a 20% penalty for landing short.

Its so nice going to score and having a chat with the scorers, sharing a beer and today spare ribs – there always seems to be something to eat/nibble when we are in the queue and it makes it a sociable occasion. Irene and Christina who are doing the scoring are superb.

Last day tomorrow not sure about the forecast?

The results are here

Other bloggers are:
Corinna
Matjaz
Ovyind

Bassano more random photos

2009-04-12T08:33:00.005+01:00

Bassano Random Photos

2009-04-12T08:27:00.003+01:00

Bassano - Italy '09

2009-04-12T08:17:00.003+01:00

We arrived Sat 4th – sorry for the late update, we've been really busy (and I couldn't get internet – that's my excuse).

It's been flyable every day since we arrived. First day GR had a top to bottom as he was itching to fly!

Leading up to the comp which started on Thursday we had 2 days with over 8,000ft base and very difficult to get down.

The comp organisation is absolutely superb. Nice landing field and take off is very nice too (but could do with some trees chopping down).

3 Tasks so far all over 110k – lots in goal every day.

Been doing LOTS of tweaking with my new glider and trying to get used to the difference between Moyes and Aeros – am nearly there I think. With lots of help and advice from Gerolf (without his help I would have been stuck) which was especially needed as in order to get the glider in time for this comp it came out of the factory not test flown.

Day 2 there was a mid air between Gunter from Austria and Fabien from France. Both landed safely and didn't have a punch up in the field..... but Gunter's glider was torn on the top wing tip. It was a brand new sail that got ripped thankfully he had his old sail in the car. Aeros 1 – Moyes 0.

Day 3 Fabien from France (a different Fabien) hit a tree on landing and was taken to hospital with concussion. Olav from Norway was also concussed on landing and taken to hospital. Meanwhile another pilot was sucked into cloud and pulled such violent G that something broke on his glider but he carried on flying. When he landed he found the keel was broken! Amongst the free flyers there was a mid air between a HG and PG. The PG flew OK and away but the HG flipped over and landed upside down on the top of the mountain with chute half deployed (both pilots unharmed). Also amongst the free flyers there was an atos that managed to rip his wing before take off and didn't notice.

When considering all these accidents we need to consider the volume of flying that is going on here – the number of HG and PG's in the comp + free flyers. GR reckons 1,000 take offs a day!

Day 4 today.

Anew girl in my life, or is it a bloke;-*

2009-04-01T13:27:00.003+01:00

Found this in the garden this afternoon so as no one was about I quickly folded it up and will look after it for a while in my garage:¬) I wonder how different it will be compared to the Aeros's that I have been flying for 10+ years? Mmmmmmm.

Bassano next but the weather don't look too good at the moment. Will put the snowboard in just incase and Gordy will be putting a few models in. We should be setting off tommorrow on the overnight ferry to Rotterdam and then a days full drive to Italy. Oh joy.