Britsh Championships in St Andre

I arrived in St Andre late last night, after driving down after work.  The competition had been running since Sunday - I was keen to catch up with old friends and fly for the next few days.

As part of my continuing fitness drive I decided to start the day by walking up to the launch.  I dumped my glider onto one of the competition vehicles (I'd offered my services as 'wind dummy') before heading off up the hill.  I took a few wrong turnings, without a map it seems suprisingly easy to go the worng way, but finally after about an hour I popped out at take off, just in time to see the task set for the day.

I sorted my stuff out and launched before window open, reporting back the conditions.  I took the first turnpoint before the start had opened - I'd fly the course but try to get ahead a little as the leaders would surely catch me up quickly.  Looking back at the mighty bee-like swarm of gliders circling together as one waiting for the start to open I smiled happy that I could fly out on my own in clear air, happy not actually competing for the first time in the last 4 years.  I crossed the start gaggle as they were gliding into the first turnpoint - the insanity of what I was doing hit me only when it was too late - I was going one way and about 130 gliders were coming in the opposite direction at the same height...  Arrrgghhhh!  Still, it all passed quite sedately and my plan of staying in front was soon foiled by getting stuck.  After 10 mins the gaggle was back and with the help of about 100 other gliders we quickly found the strong climb whcih had been elusive to me on my own!. 

Now I was in the thick of the lead gaggle and in total contrast to what had been going through my head 20mins earlier, I slipped effortlessly back in to racing mode.  Climbs weakening, quick, push the bar - who has the best line?  I was loving being back in the thick of the gaggle and racing again.  Still I soon realised that my 3 year old serial wing was absolutely no match for the speed of the Ozone R10's.  Wow, they are fast.

So, I got left behind, but reminding myself I was not actually ion this race I tried some different routes, and found out why we never go that way!  I ended up extremely low (lining up to land if the truth be told) before scrapping out again with my mate Martin.  I rolled in to goal, slow and happy not to have this one scored!

Photo shoot on the Saleve

X-Alps preparation continues, as I borrowed the services of a work colleague, James Whetton, who is a rather good photographer to take some portrait photos.  To thank him for his services I took him up for a tandem flight.  Here is the result, and some pretty pictures of evening flying above Geneva.

Running with my Dad

My father, who in a moment of insanity has agreed to be my supporter in the X-Alps (if I do actually get in) was over for the weekend so we went for a run together up the Saleve (1200m hill next to Geneva).  We took the path up the Grand gorge from Coin then did a loop on the top following part of the ‘grand tour’ before descending via the path through the cave.  It took us 50mins to the summit (versus the 2hr 20min on the sign!) and in total was a very enjoyable 2hrs running.  My Dad did complain a bit which made me feel good about my own training.  That may sound strange given he is in his 60’s but as he is about to take part in a 200km jungle ultra-marathon in Brazil in October and is close to the peak of his own training, I was quite chuffed!

Racing trains

I’ve just come back from a week long family holiday in Leukerbad and Gruyeres. Plenty of hiking in the mountains and evening runs to keep me in training.  No flying though – for once the paraglider stayed at home.  On one of the days my wife and I walked with our two children from Gruyere village to the village of Moleson. Not that far in the grand scheme of things but still a 2 hr hike with 400m height gain, which my youngest daughter, Lucy who is only 5yrs old, took in her stride! Afterwards the plan was to go up to Moleson summit.  Ali and the girls went to get tickets for the funicular mountain railway, whilst I set off at speed on foot.  Fortunately for them there was a train just about to depart.  Fortunately for me, they missed it!  The run up was easier than I expected and soon the top was in site.  The train was in the station and just about to depart but the family were nowhere to be seen! I was there with a comfortable 10mins to spare waiting for the next train to arrive!  Most of my running experience (Course de Duc, Geneva half marathon) has all been on the flat but I think I have been bitten by the ‘running up mountains’ bug.  The more I think about it the more excited I am about the X-Alps.  I just hope they let me in!

X-Alps Wannabe

Applications for the 2011 X-Alps are open.  After following this race avidly for the last few years and looked on longingly, I’ve finally decided it is time to have a go.

Lots of things to think about and work on before I actually put in my application but I have plenty of time as the application deadline is the end of September.  On the fitness side, I’m already running and cycling a lot so this blog may begin to turn into more of a training blog rather than just a blog about flying. 

To fly or to swim?

Yesterday was my birthday, but the weather was good and so of course I went flying!

'Good' is not epic, in other words it was flyable but nothing to get excited about.  Annecy suited my mood and I was to meet up with Quentin and Damien to fly from Plan Fait above Tailoires.  Ali and the girls came too, unusual these days, and after lunch together in the cafe by the landing field we went our separate ways, I took the Navette to take off whilst the girls went to Tailoires beach to swim.

The day was slow and stable.  I took off without any grand plans but thought a jaunt down to Margeriaz and back might be fun.  After one of the longest and lowest climbs out (45mins) I finally made it to base above the Dents de Lanfon.  However, I was one of less than a handful of gliders that had made it up - we were either luckier or more patient than the 30-40 wings still milling about down at take off height.

I decided to glide across the lake and fly down the Roc des Boeuf.  Back low I had to grovel again, and it took me an age to get back high at the south end.  It seemed that whilst there were climbs high up, there was precious little working low down, not a great XC day.  Checking in with the others (who had flown to La Tournette) on the radio it seems that they too were getting mildly frustarted with the conditions.  That was it, I figured I did not need to be up here battling with this so I set off back to Tailoires, I was heading into wind and with precious little lift around it was going to be a tight glide.  As I crossed over the beach I tried to spot my wife and kids but with no luck, maybe I wasn't as low as I thought!

Once I was back above the landing field I radioed back to Quentine and Damien that I had decided to land to go for a swim.  It was testament to the day that both of them decided that the day was indeed better to suited to swimming and made the same call.  We all met up at the beach a little while later to cool off in the water.  I spent the rest of the afternoon having fun with the family before finishing the day witha beautiful meal overlooking the lake.  What a pefect birthday!

Above the clouds

I was flying with Annecy based Belgian pilot with Damien De Baenst yesterday from Montgirod.  We had a plan.  It was optimistic. It was a 200km FAI triangle.

At launch it was clear the conditions were not as good as we’d expected, base was low and climbs were slow.  I was first to base at around 2600m, which doesn’t sound that low, but in the big mountains this felt pretty low!  Damien soon joined me and we were not even sure we’d make it out of the valley given the col we had to cross to the north.  We worked our way cautiously through, climbing in a weak climb behind the col before crossing the valley behind.

Things really didn’t look good from there on, the base was only around 2400m and significantly below the summits.  Our route north would be made doubly difficult by the lack of height because as well as the short range from each climb we’d now have to fly around all the mountains rather than over the tops!  As we approached the next ridge Damien was climbing up from lower down as I flew over him to join a stronger climb over the spine, it quickly turned into a surprisingly good 3m/s climb (it was still very early).  What’s more it did not stop or create a cloud.  As an XC pilot I am always trying to understand the aerology, modeling it my head and modifying the model when I experience something I don’t expect.  This didn’t fit in with anything that seemed to make sense, I looked around for clues but I could not see why we were continuing to climb, now well above base.  It must have been some kind of convergence, but I still don’t understand why there was no cloud.  Finally we ‘topped out’ (at least the climb slowed and finally stopped) at about 3000m.  The route suddenly now looked amazing, flying over the first peak and over the top of some small cumulus far below the scene was breathtaking.  Still, in front lay a much larger cumulus, perhaps 3km E to W and 1 km N to S and several hundred meters in altitude, with base around 2400m.  I was a bit nervous approaching this mighty cumulus but realised I did have the height to clear the top of it, just.  Damien was level with me now but about 1km to my right, he skimmed through the E side of the cloud whilst I went right over the top nearer the W side.  We were giggling like school children over the radio – this was breathtaking stuff!

Unfortunately the fun was soon over as I approached the next cloud at base before topping up underneath and crossing to Mt Bisane.  The flight went downhill from there as now we were out of the big mountains the conditions became much weaker.  We both became stuck in multiple places.  We ended up modifying our plans and shortening the course to nearer to 100km than the 200km planned.  We pushed round but base was much lower in the pre-Alps and finally flying back into the big mountains was not possible. The base came down even further at the end of the day to only about 2000m with quite a bit of wind around, making any attempt to get back to Aime both unsafe and unlikely to be successful.  So finally we both landed out near Albertville. A long and hard day flying for only approx 100km of distance, but the moments flying over the clouds made everything worthwhile. What an experience!