more random pics from St Andre

All pictures have been made smaller to speed the upload process!

Justin & Judith
Phippsy
Ground Gaggle
Doris in the shade of my trusty ride
Dave and Jo - shame about the finger!
Gordon - landing at Thorame-Basse
Bruce and Dave
A generation gap or 2?
Our home in the South of France
Mr B
Steve G
Cutie
Johnny & Will

Holiday?

Have I really just had a ‘holiday’ ~ Or were my testicals just not big enough?

 

The conditions in St Andre were the roughest air I have ever flown in!! Because of the cock-up with my instrument on the first day coupled with the conditions I soon found myself in unfamiliar territory ~ ‘holiday mode’ and enjoyed lazing by the lake with Caroline, driving to the coast to people/posh boat watch and flying on the better days, often being one of the last to take off.

Posh Boat at Villefranche-sur-mer

We also had a great night out at the party at Mark and Helen’s house.





I felt very uncomfortable with the conditions and its my personal opinion that competitions should not be flown in conditions such as we experienced (show respect for the mountains), hopefully we are past the days of the ‘old league’ where the size of your manhood was determined by what conditions you could fly in! I am certainly older and wiser.

There were people who thought the conditions were ok – perhaps they were lucky and found good air for the duration of their flight or perhaps they were just ignorant of the conditions – no doubt my thoughts will cause controversy?

Universal Language

I’m pleased to say that the Roger Daltrey of hang gliding, Ron Richardson survived throwing his ‘chute (and landing in trees) with minor bruising. Spanish pilot Pedro Garcia Morelle also threw his ‘chute in rough air and was ok. Sam H-B should recover in 1 to 3 months from breaking his neck whilst free flying on a day the task was cancelled (apparently conditions were really good but for some reason Sam ended up landing down wind). Sam has already decided to carry on as he loves the sport so much which is good news. I was once told to give it up by a medical "expert" who could not even diagnose what was wrong with me - I just smiled back and that was that!!

Well done to Gordon who was crowned for the 8th time as British Champion. Jacques Bott won the Rigid comp after proclaiming he had also flown in some of the roughest conditions (one day his glider tucked twice!)…….........

............Say no more, I've decided that my tesitcals were just not big enough for this comp. (I wonder if I would have felt differently if the cock-up with my instrument hadn't happened on day one?)

Gordon preparing for the last task
Grant Crossingham - in second place

Random Pics - St Andre last few days

All pictures taken with Canon Powershot G7 - you can click on any picture to make it bigger!

Final Task

Briefing!
Dave and a few of the WAGs


Top Guns
The young French Guns

George Shapland - Task 2 winner (bad landing)

Thank you to 'Meet Director', John

Practice Day

Steve Green and I headed towards Nice on Thursday to pick up 'Doris' and Sara who both flew in to meet us. We had a very civilised time there before heading back to St Andre Les Alpes and the luxury of our tents.
Got the glider put back together and I had an hour or so on Friday punting around St Andre and up the Allos Valley and back – it was so cold, thought I was going to get frost bite at 9,000ft which was cloud base. My Summer ‘Texas’ gloves are just not adequate. The air was extremely clear and the view of the mountains was stunning I wish I had taken my camera with me. Its very nice doing the practice days before the comp as you can just float around in the thermals and enjoy the view…… but for some reason these days I always seem to need a purpose to fly which is quite odd – its as though I need programming before flight – I’m always look at my instruments seeing where I’m supposed to be going.

I had a rest day today and just chilled – and struggled to get over my hang over - the comp starts tomorrow.