Good Times - Random Pics

Sam only came round for a herbal tea…… five bottles of wine later!

I thought 08.08.08 was supposed to be a lucky day ..... thanks to everyone (including the Russian chap with an Axe!) who helped keep our 'home' safe for one last night!

Heather and the band cheered us up on the windy and chilly Friday night



The last task - Task 4 106.7km











Gordon ... a man on a mission!


Go go

Go Jenny

Go go go

Go Jenny Go Go Go

"Make a u-turn and take that advice in life" – this is the message the sat nav gave every time we took a wrong turn, if only we’d listened to it! The start of the long and winding road.... home

Brit Nationals / Laragne Open - The Results

Well done to Gerolf who won the overall comp and to Grant who is the new Brit Champion.

Results – HERE

NATIONALS/LARAGNE OPEN - OVERALL – TOP 10

Task 1 – 107km
Task 2 – 71.6km
Task 3 – 123.7km
Task 4 – 106.7km

1 – Gerolf Heinrichs – 3543
2 – Grant Crossingham UK – 3206
3 – Jesper Hassing – 3056
4 – Gordon Rigg UK – 2997
5 – Walter Mayer – 2930
6 – Dave Matthews UK – 2901
=7 – Gary Wirdman UK – 2897
=7 – Bruce Kavanagh UK – 2897
9 – Rich Lovelace UK – 2868
10 – Artur Dzamikhov - 2803

TEAM RESULTS

1ST - Austria - 9316
Gerolf Heinrichs
Walter Mayer
Elmar Christl
Helmut Neswabda

2ND - Aeros UK – 8816
Rich Lovelace
Malcolm Brown
Gary Wirdman
Tony Brown
Nick Pain

3RD - Wills Wing UK – 8319
Bruce Kavanagh
Graham Phipps
Craig Dolwin
Nigel Bray
Malcolm Beard

Brit Nationals - Day 7 - Task 4

A little behind with blogging as headed off on the long drive home as soon as I returned from Goal.....


Task 4 - 106.7km

TP1 – 19 Col St Jean
TP2 – 35 La Ghache
TP3 – 73 Oraison
TP4 – Pusimisson
Goal - Valensole

This was a great challenging last task which saw a lot of shifting of places!

1 – Jesper Hassing
2 – Gerolf Heinrichs
3 – Gary Wirdman
=4 – Walter Mayer
=4 – Grant Crossingham
6 – Dave Matthews
7 – Artur Dzamikhov
8 – Deniel Martin Mots
9 – Gordon Rigg
10 – Malcolm Brown
11 – Elmar Christl
12 – Rich Lovelace
13 – Tony Stephens
14 – Koos de Keijzer
15 – Bruce Kavanagh

Brit Nationals - Day 6 - Cancelled

The day is cancelled again due to strong winds - more of the same forecast for tomorrow. Could it be a 3 task comp? RESULTS


People have asked where I got this neat little sprog measuring device from. They are actually for lining up table/bench saw blades. This is the link to the one I use.

It is very easy to use. Just set it to zero on your keel then measure your sprog angles…. Keeping it orientated in the same direction for all measurements.

More gliders were checked yesterday and were low – some were non-comp pilots!

Movies from Laragne by Markus Kinch

The Dust Devil and me!



Ron's crash on take-off

Brit Nationals - Day 5 - Cancelled

Rain, albeit warm rain, has stopped play today and I have to say it’s a welcome rest day – I was totally shattered after yesterday, my left elbow in particular was swimming in deep heat last night which helped to keep the mozzies away!

Overall results after 3 tasks:
1 Gerolf Heinrichs
2 Grant Crossingham
3 Graham Phipps
4 Bruce Kavanagh
5 Gordon Rigg
6 Walter Mayer
7 Rich Lovelace
=8 Justin Needham
=8 Jesper Hassing
10 Dave Matthews

Spent the morning with Ben – and it seemed half the campsite all chipping in with their opinion “you don’t want to do it like that” – looking over the wreckage of his Combat L. We pieced it back together as best we could and have now got a pretty good idea as to why the accident happened which has, I think, helped to put Ben’s mind at rest.


I was surprised how people were on the look out for spares from the glider and would have been happy to take away parts which had been under a tremendous amount of stress in a tumble – we destroyed any part which could ‘potentially’ be reused and could have been affected. Ben now has a pretty good stock of spares – and is on the market for a new glider!

Gerolf’s talk the other day has really hit home with a few people who it appears do not regularly/periodically check their sprogs! My electronic sprog measuring device has been in demand and has given some interesting results – there is quite a bit of tweaking going on today!

My glider is checked before each competition and definitely 4 times a year – different weather conditions, transportation and general wear and tear all contribute to different settings.

Results – HERE

What goes on at the campsite at night?

Jeff

Had a bit of a social with a few of the summer residents of the campsite last night with wine, beer and a bbq. Of course the young ones had to learn a new trick and first was the uni cycle which only the old gits could master then came the back flips that only Miles could do with the help from Fabien who used to be French junior gymnastic champion or something like.

Gordon


Fabien

Miles

Jeff at The Windsock Caravan gives a great Massage - 20euro for half an hour!

Brit Nationals - Day 2 - Cancelled

Stronger winds especially higher up were forecast today and in a westerly direction so the 10am morning brief directed us up to Aspres. Mr Brown & Mr Brown were so sure that we would be going to Chabre again that they headed up there at 9.30 without going to the briefing – they got it wrong and the pimp mobile had to wind its way slowly up the dodgy Aspres track!

A 75.6k zig zag task was set which would keep us in reach of wider flatter landings.

At 3.30 the task was cancelled due to strong winds. We spent our time watching the most amazing clouds build.

We stopped off on the way down the Aspres track to pick wild raspberries and strawberries – delicious









Back at the campsite some time later my electric bike made it out of the tent and Sam H-B hardened iron man had a grin from ear to ear – never diss something till you’ve tried it!

Results from yesterday – HERE
1 Anton Minskiy
2 Gerolf Heinrichs
3 Bruce Kavanagh
4 Graham Phipps
5 Grant Crossingham
6 Gordon Rigg
7 Ron Richardson
8 Gary Wirdnam
9 Malcolm Brown
10 Daniel Martin Mota
11 Tony Brown
12 Richard Lovelace
13 Dave Matthews
14 Craig Dolwin
15 Fabien Zadora

Brit National - Day 1 - task 1

110k
Launch Chabre
TP1 34 Bonnet Rouge
TP2 39 Malaup
TP3 35 La Gahce Oost
TP4 23 St Vincent De Jab
Goal Laragne Camping

Brit Nats – Day 1 – Task 1

Our helpers....



The wind again when we got off to launch was on the North side and we rigged on the South which would enable us to launch from both directions. A completely blue day so no thermal markers in the air so it meant flying the ridges as opposed to flying down the middle of the valleys where the clouds have been in the past. I set off on the second start gate and lead up until the 2nd turnpoint where I got stuck on 2 ridges where everybody caught me up and overtook. Still a very pleasant day, made goal.

Scores are not up yet. I think Gerolf was first in.

Ben H-B had a bit of mishap and had to throw his chute, came down in trees and his glider is a write off. He hit the keel and smashed that which in turn broke the cross tubes. The farmer eyewitness said he heard 3 bangs; one was Ben breaking the keel; one was the chute; one was the landing. Ben is fine, just very shaken with a few grazes on his neck where the chute bridal caught him. We don’t know the cause of the accident yet hopefully on a rest day we will try and piece things together.