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.

Dutch Open - Day 8 - Task 7

122km launch from Chabre.

4 turnpoints which had us zipping all over! The meet director described the task as adventurous but quite a few made it to Goal. Bruce was first into Goal but again Malcolm Brown won the day – making him the winner of every task and overall comp winner.

The first turnpoint was West of Sisteron; second North West of Serres; third West of Gap, fourth North of Sisteron; goal as always was Laragne Camping.

I was caught by a dust devil just as I was about the launch which spun me around and was a pretty hairy moment as there were not many people around to help. The paraglider pilot who helped me ended up cursing and swearing as the dusty left my glider and moved on to his, picking up his paraglider complete with harness and taking it on a short flight! I’ve now got a souvenir of the occasion by way of a 3inch rip along my leading edge where the force of the dusty pushed the nose into the ground………. My instrument pod was also bent. It was a powerful moment. Thanks to the 2 pilots who helped, along with Caroline who now has sore hands from gripping the wing wires!

The wind was switching from South to North so patience was key – there were a few dodgy take offs and bent metal.

I was just going to have a fly around and land but each time I thought about landing I bumbled into a thermal so thought I might as well carry on and go around the course. A very pleasant day it turn out to be too but ........ still no rest for my arms and sore elbows!

RESULTS

Dutch Open - Day 7 - Cancelled

We had a rest day today at last as the day was canned due to thunderstorms.

Had a lovely chill out day in the gorge.

When will the rock fall off the mountain? It will certainly give somebody a headache if they are underneath it when it does go..........




My chill out day was cut short slightly as Caroline's flight was delayed by a good 2 hours so I have more of a drive to collect her than orignally planned. We had a lovely meal on the way back at Aix en Provence allbeit a little expensive!

Dutch Open - Day 6 - Task 6

Had a fantastic ride out today! 137km task

take off - Ron Richardson to my left


First turnpoint to the West of Chabre about 5k further on than Col St Jean, then to Pic de Bur and then to a turnpoint West of Sisteron in the valley.

It was an interesting start – most took the 2nd start gate – climbing to between 9 & 10,000ft which was cloudbase.

Lot of people got low on their way back from the first turnpoint, some went down. I managed to scrape up and then run the whole length of the Chabre ridge (just below the ridge) on three quarter VG at a speed of 60mph ground speed – very exhilarating as I was only a wing span off the trees. I was congratulated at the end by mother nature who gave me a 12.6-up climb to based.

base at 10,000ft


One glide straight across the valley to the ridge before Pic de Bur (can’t remember the name of it… it’s a paragliding site?) – with a bit of dolphin flying enroute - where I took a climb to around 9,500ft then I glided straight to Pic de Bur which anyone who has been there knows you go straight up! Nick Pain was there at 11,500ft – I pulled out at just over 10,000 and went on a glide to St Genis, via the paragliding mountain again which I took a climb at and went on a small detour to the ridge behind St Genis at 10,000ft. I then went on a glide to Chabre …. The ONLY mistake of the day! The closer I got I realised there was quite a strong westerly and by the time I got to Chabre the windsocks were blowing parallel with the mountain and a 20mph westerly wind was blowing. Oh well that was about to be the end of my day……….

I spent the next 15/20mins there with absolutely nothing and eventually flew off the end to the small ridge nr Ribier which is where I decked it and was soon followed by Ron Richardson.

Those that got into Goal flew down the middle of the valley later on in the day under clouds – no clouds when I was there! Some you win, some you lose.

Rumour has it that Malcolm Brown was in first again – the man is on fire – this could be 4 or 5 wins in a row for him.

Laragne town and take off


heading to turnpoint 1


Task 6 - 137km



RESULTS

Dutch Open - Day 5 - Task 5

Lots in goal today so a feel good task.

Task 5 - 103km


The beginning of the task was really hard with pilots going down and scratching on the ridge – when I eventually took off it was still very scratchy on the ridge and I lost half an hour on the start time as I could not get up!

We headed North to the ridge opposite Aspres then North East to Pic de Bur then south to Hongrie and into Goal at Laragne Camping.

The wind was from the South and at Pic de Bur cloudbase was just over 10,000ft with lovely cumulus and very clear through the inversion.

Our Meet Head

We are all really hoping for a rest day as we are shattered and in need of some R&R – talk is we might get a rest day on Friday as the weather is on the turn.

Captain Jenny is one of two women flying the comp

Dutch Open - Day 4 - Task 4

I am shattered! It was a very hard task today. I only know of 2 Brits that made it into goal ~ Malcolm Brown and Grant Crossingham.

We took off from Chabre and headed West to Col St Jean; North to a turnpoint in the foothills of Pic de Bur; the 3rd tp was on top of the Gache ridge (which I didn’t get) and then back into Goal at Laragne Camping.

We had quite a strong Southerly head wind and a few went down at the third turnpoint, me included, it was a turbulent and not at all pleasant place to be!

The Brits Pondering

The Dutch Plotting

The 'young' men Planning

Well done Rob - Task 3 Winner

Results - HERE

Alert! There was a robbery on the campsite last night and a Brit family have lost ‘everything’…… passports, cards, money…… the lot! A bag was taken whilst they were asleep in the caravan. We are all being extra vigilant keeping everything under lock and key now. What a sad world we live in!

Dutch Open – Day 3 – Task 3

Well done to Malcolm Brown who won the day yesterday!

103km task today with a 24km entry start to a turnpoint to the West end of the ridge further than yesterday. The next turnpoint was to the west of Aspres and the next being at Beaumont and then goal at Laragne Camping.

Seems as though about 8 made goal and rumour has it that Miles and Ollie Kynaston – up and coming Brit pilots – were 1st and 2nd so well done young men!

The task today should have been easy but it seems there were a quite few that came unstuck, me included (I went down on the way to the last turnpoint). I didn’t take the route I originally planned before take off and should have done – gaggle suck.

I ended up taking a slightly different route coming back from Beaumont but didn’t make Chabre – not even with a 9,000ft cloudbase – I just got drilled on the glide all the way and ended at the bottom – amazing!

Nick who was our 'driver' for the day decided to fly part of the task but went down therefore I had a few hours to kill in a very pleasant field passing the time of day with the famer, his dogs and some chickens! I was even permitted to sit on the farmer’s seat - unfortunately, there was no beer for the bottle opener!

Farmer's seat with built in bottle opener - cool

My companion for 3hrs

The view from 'my' field


Forecast is for storms tomorrow – but there again they were forecast for today but never arrived!

Dutch Open - Day 2 - Task 2

Task 1 - 94km

Another good punt around the valley today which was great fun - There is a good contingent of Brits back here and its great to be flying with them all again.




The wind was very light on take off to start with and some went down. The lift started off very weak, we had good climbs with cloud base around 8,500ft asl and occasionally up to 10,000ft asl with anywhere from 400ft per min climbs to 1,200ft per min climbs in places.

Think the results will be close - I know Bruce did the task in just under 2hrs and I was just over!

Disaster in the camping kitchen : the camping fridge got wet in the thunderstorms and it appears was the reason for the whole campsite being without electricity (ooops & sorry). I left it to dry out and came back to find an ants nest had moved in! Then to top it all…….. I ran out of gas halfway through cooking my meal and dropped it all on the floor – deep joy.

We had purple rain tonight ........

.......and Line Dancing

Dutch Open – Day 2

Briefing at 10am this morning – think we are going up to Chabre.

Dutch Open