Launching Task 2

Beautiful conditions on the Aspres launch today (aside from the nasty allergens that many suffered from). The launches here are grassy, steep and just about perfect. They're flying a 125 km task. I couldn't say where they're going really...didn't get it in the briefing. Just know that there are two turnpoints and it's a bit of an out and return. At this point, the boys are reporting that they're near the last turnpoint starting to head back. However, the last leg is into the wind (if the wind is doing the same thing up high as it is in the air). They'll be coming in from the same direction as yesterday, meaning with the wind, we might have some more exciting goal finishes.

Jonny always enjoys making fun for the crowd.

Results Day 1

About fifty pilots into goal in the end. It was a fantastic finish for the spectators with so many guys just barely making it across the line and several not making it across, but just into the field. We heard late in the day that two pilots had gone into the trees between the 3rd and 4th turnpoints where there were apparently no landings. Both are fine.

Amazing day for OB. It's so exciting standing in the goal field watching a lone glider come in from the distance wondering who it is that will be first in for the day. When I realized it was OB, all I could think was how ecstatic and proud Rob would be if he could have been here to see that. I was with him at goal in Texas two years ago when Kevin Carter came in first the first day of the worlds. Turns out Kevin had taken the earliest start, so he didn't win the day, but Rob was beside himself. He was always such a proud Wills Wing father.

Heartbreaking first day for Carl. We spotted one glider low, looking like he might make it, might not. Couldn't tell who it was, but just kept praying "please don't let it be Carl, please don't let it be Carl." When we could finally tell he was going to be short of the line by just a few meters at most, he went upright to land and I could see the yellow on his speed sleeves and knew for sure then that it was him. Although he was crushed, he always keeps a good attitude and tried to warn the others by radio that they had to have a 5 to 1 glide to get into the headwind at goal. We sat at headquarters until 11pm with the scorekeepers looking at his backup GPS's hoping maybe one would show him across the line. Turns out he was just about a meter short...how painful is that! Curt Warren, Blay and Filippo Oppici and several others were also in the goal field but just short of the line.

Here he is trying to get another few meters out of his Litespeed.

Jeff O'brien First in Goal

....taking the second start.

On Course

Fairly uneventful first day launching. Winds were very light and often blowing over the back. Just one push in the 2nd lane, but it didn't seem to effect things much. Guys were launching as soon as conditions allowed anyway. One guy ended up in the bushes below the first lane. I don't know exactly how it came about - I can't help but turn away when I hear the gasps and the sound of sailcloth brushing through the bushes.



Those who took the first start are about 2 hours into the task. I've heard lots of chatter on the radio from the Brit boys and all sounds like they're doing well. I'll head to the camping goal field in a half an hour or so and watch the first ones come it.

Vicki Moyes and the infamous yellow(ish) speed sleeves that I will never hear the end of.

Show for Day 2

We were all sent up to launch today despite strong wind. Everyone rigged and waiting in the wind. The best part of the day was the show we got from a bunch of sailplanes.

Tomorrow's forecast is looking much more promising!

Worlds Day 1

Well it didn't feel much like day one of the worlds waking up yesterday. Since we all knew the wind was to blow, we didn't make any plans to head up the hill. Instead we spent a very lazy afternoon strolling around Sisteron. Had a nice lunch with Bill, Molly, Vix and Jonny, then roamed around the empty streets of the town. It was St. John's day, a holiday, so everything was closed.


We're sitting this morning watching online the wind at the Chabre. Gary just announced that the wind just decreased to 37kph, but the peak winds have increased to 56!! Oops, looks like another lost day. Everyone is getting a bit antsy, wishing to have the first day out of the way. I don't think it will be today :-(

Opening Ceremonies

Team USA - left to right Kara (wife of Jeff Shapiro), Shapiro, Princess Dustina, Katie (driver), OB, Belinda (team leader), Zippy and Davis
Window watchers Claudia (from Colombia) and Fabien (French)
Team UK - Carl, Bruce, Gary, Gordon and Grant in front

Colombian Team
Austrian and Italian paparazzi ;-)


My two favorite Austalians

Yesterday's Team Leader Briefing

Although I missed the meeting, I thoroughly enjoyed the Irishman's account found on his blog at www.irish-hg-worlds-2009.blogspot.com. Here is an excerpt, but everyone should check out the whole blog - it's extremely entertaining.

"Reality intruded when at around six I had to return to HQ for the Team Leader's meeting. Spent the next two hours writing copious notes - dos and don'ts - that I later have to bring the team up to speed on. Felt a little like being back at school, hanging on the every word of Comp Director Heather Mull and scribbling furiously for the test at the end! Predictably the meeting was extended to accommodate the Brits endless questions on cloud flying and flying in proximity to airspace. Although closed to non Team Leaders, Gordon Rigg had managed to wangle his way in and was clearly acting as puppet master to their front man, muttering endless questions and hypotheticals to his harassed Team Leader who then had to repeat everything officially. Thankfully he had been gagged at the beginning of the meeting or we would still be there! By the end I don't think there was much doubt in the room that the cloud flying limits were going to be tested to the limit during this comp by a certain pilot. Heather fielded the endless stream of questions with remarkable calm and professionalism under the circumstances and managed to keep smiling despite grinding her teeth towards the end! Interestingly, perhaps Heather's most expressive features were her nipples which, while invisible for most of the meeting, became pertly erect every time Gordon prompted yet another question sending up her blood pressure! It was difficult to concentrate on the rest of the meeting after that! I hope I didn't miss anything too important."

Mistral

The mistral has hit here, so we will have a few days of finding other things to do. I think we've been lucky with nice and flyable conditions every day since we arrived a week ago. They're talking as if there is not likely to be any flying going on until about Tuesday.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

One of my favorite new comp pilots, Lucas Ridley from Georgia makes great hang gliding videos for various contests all over the country. He wins many of them (as he should). Lucas is one of the few young(er) pilots getting active in competitions in the US and it's great fun to see...and he's a sweetheart to boot.


So Lucas' latest work is here http://stellaartois.triggerstreet.com/ShortFilmProject/Intro . He does a great job of promoting our sport and if we all go online and vote for him, he can continue to win and make more videos. Here is how you do it:

1. Go to http://stellaartois.triggerstreet.com/ShortFilmProject/Intro
2. Click "Request Rating Assignment"
3. It will then ask you to register with their site to be assigned one to rate.
4. After registering, your assigned video should display, if it is not Lucas' ("A Soaring Life"), then watch the one you are assigned all the way through (or just hit play and do something else while it finishes).
5. After the video is done playing it will ask you to rate it with 1-5 stars.
6. Once rated you can click "Continue Rating" for another film to rate.
7. You can repeat steps 5 and 6 until you are eventually assigned Lucas' to rate.
8. It may sound like a long process, but it would really make a difference since you can only rate a movie once for the entire contest.

Another practice day....

Had an oh-so-lovely flight from the Aspres launch today. Carl was a sweetie and let me fly while he had a day of driving. It was just what I needed! I couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions...smooth strong lift and cloudbase about 10,000 ft. Froze my thumbs off.

Team Practice Day

Yesterday they were saying that the weather was to turn bad for a few days. Luckily "they" were wrong. The boys went up for another practice flight and had a great day. Carl was up in wave a lot of the time and was much happier than yesterday. The clouds came in this afternoon and shaded us nicely. I don't know if they will stick around and spoil the day tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon at the camping landing field meeting up with everyone arriving. This is my favorite part of the comp. Monica and Scott are here, Curt and Louise, Katharina, Davis and Belinda, Luiz from Colombia and Julia and the Russian team. It's so fun to see everyone again.

First Days in Europe

Ok, it wasn't the pyramids or the Great Wall, but I very much enjoyed the drive from Liverpool to Laragne. We took it slow and leisurely and just arrived in Laragne yesterday morning. The ferry ride across the Channel was uneventful, but seeing Dover and the White Cliffs was cool and we were even treated with sunshine.

Yesterday was a nice day for flying so we cruised up the hill late and flew off the lower north launch. Today looked like the last reasonable day before a little something is moving in bringing lots of clouds and maybe a bit of rain. We may have two or three days to laze around and do nothing. There aren't too many comp pilots here yet. It's been nice to hang out with Heather and Mart, Timothy and Dustin and the few Brits that have arrived. I hear many pilots are set to arrive tomorrow and the next day...in time for the poor weather.

What I've Kept and What I've Thrown Away

Timothy, Dustin and I arrived in Basel late this evening after a long journey from Quest.  The boys picked me up at the beach midday Monday and we drove 3 hours in mostly pouring rain to Miami.  Despite getting there three hours early, TSA took forever to unpack, open up and thoroughly inspect our gliders, so we boarded the plane exactly ten minutes after it was supposed to have left.  I don't know if it was us that slowed things down, but that started a chain reaction making us late arriving in Duesseldorf and causing our gliders (and mine and Timothy's harnesses) to miss the connection to Munich.  The story is that they will deliver everything to the airport in Geneva tomorrow where we are passing through on the way to Laragne.  Hope that really happens because I'm supposed to hop on a plane for Liverpool tomorrow afternoon.  It might be apparent that I'm a bit cranky.

I've been told I'm "daft" for flying back to Liverpool just to drive all the way to France.  I suppose I am, but hey, I've been called worse things.  The thing is, the English Channel is another one of those bizarre places that's been on my list since Jr. High School.  I often wonder if that is a particularly  impressionable age (the Jr. High years) or if it has to do with a favorite teacher of mine, but most, if not all of the odd places I've wanted to visit come from that time in my life and I have no explanation as to why I feel the need to see them....the Panama Canal, the Antarctic, the Pyramids, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, Macchu Picchu, etc.   Strange the things I've kept.  Maybe I will find the Channel silly, but it still needs to be done.

I want to look at the horizon and not see a building standing tall

Cowboy take me away...fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue.  

Once again, home feels really good, even if only for 2 weeks.  The sun shined all the way up until evening when this huge cu-nim started exploding over the beach.  It was amazing....looked to me like the devil had taken control of the sky.  Now the rain is pouring and the thunder has started.  Growing up on the central coast of California where the weather is typically very very stable, a thunderstorm was a rare treat.  I love that they're a near daily occurrence here in the summer months.  

Seems once again, we got lucky with the weather.  Tons of sunshine and the light breeze from a few days ago stiffened up a bit both yesterday and today making it possible to run a few racing rounds today.  There are just eight in the hang gliding division and all but one are on Litespeeds - heaps more paragliders, of course.

I was told by the two top Moyes boys (both of whom have egos sizable enough to say if it weren't really true) that no one could beat Kraig in a ridge race.  Zippy came the closest today, just over 2 seconds behind Kraig, with Jonny rounding out the top three a few more seconds behind them.  After two rounds, they decided to call it a day and let the paragliders have a shot.  Just for fun, Kraig hopped on a Litesport and showed them again what a great little glider that is.  He and Jonny raced neck and neck up and down the ridge and Jonny could never overtake him.  

Gone Soft

I had my first paraglider flight today. Slow and smooth....fun to peek in the windows of the rich and famous. I could get into it for sure.







Finally the weather decided to cooperate a bit. Although the forecast called for 7mph out of the west (way to light to run a race), it was way off. By the time we arrived at Torrey after breakfast it was already near double that and looking like perfect conditions. For some reason totally unclear to me, however, the organizers decided against running the race today. So instead the boys played around putting on a bit of an acro show for the tourists.

Jonny boy is sporting a new look.

May Grey

The wind has been up and down and quite light at best. But, the boys and Zhenya had quick flights today with everyone landing back up top this time ;-) The forecast doesn't look the best for racing on the weekend, but we'll see.

So here were are.....

....at Torrey Pines! I've decided I must have a very serious malady - I mean, very serious. Six days at home after the Rally and I couldn't take even one more day. Maybe I'm just mentally preparing for a full summer away or more likely, I have advanced, terminal A.D.D....yeah, that's more like it.

The Torrey Pines Air Races start on Friday and meanwhile we're just hanging out at Torrey - something I never did when I lived here. Timothy, Zhenya and Jonnny are here so far and Tyler, Kraig, Alex Cuddy and probably a few more Moyes boys will arrive in the next day or two. I got quite a surprise when one of my German teammates tapped me on the shoulder yesterday. Sibile, who has flown for our team in years past, is here for her daughter's wedding this weekend. What a nice surprise to see her. I hear Guido will also be here for the wedding, so he'll likely pop out to Torrey today too.

It's nice to see friends, but I have certainly grown out of what many call the best weather in the country. 65-70 degrees year round might be nice if the sun would shine a bit more often. I know, I'm spoiled.