Au Revoir

All done.

Funny old last day. I led the pack for a fair while, when there were thermals. Then heavy cirrus came over and killed all that. The whole pack came to a screeching halt while people figured out how to do the last 75km in marginal ridge lift. All a bit too technical for me but I eventually worked it out.

XM is safely back in her box. Not a scratch on her, she still looks brand new. Marta and Ziggy. thanks so much for leaving her here for me to fly. She is an absolute beauty.


Today we start wandering back to Poppenhausen. After the party last night it will be a bit of a late start. We'll be sad to leave; we've had the most awesomely good time imagineable.

Graham.

Grand Prix Fisticuffs

Another day of fresh north westerlies today. It seems the good weather is going to come next week. Typical of a gliding competition. So we were in for another day of racing along the ridges, with the odd thermal climb to cross gaps. I was a bit nervous at the start as the obvious route was to the  same ridge that brought me undone yesterday. Today, same wind, same start height and I cleared the saddle with 500 feet to spare. Go figure. The day did have its little wrinkles though. The bottom turn was in the area shown in the photo. 

I had to fly through a pretty heavy snow storm to get in and out. (You know it is snow when it just bounces off the canopy)



Tom was having a good day in front of the pack until he got really low near the top turn and had to grind his way up a ridge. From a height the locals didn't think could be done. But he still finished a creditable 5th.



And what of Bruce? Not a great day by all accounts. He landed in a paddock on the third leg. It seems that French farmers are a feisty lot. Just about everyone who has been in a paddock this week has had issues with the landowner. Poor old Bruce actually got in a punch up with his farmer. Most unpleasant. Police involved and everything. There truly are some psychopaths out there.

Let's hope he can put that experience behind him and put in another blinder tomorrow, as he is still very much in the hunt.

Graham.

One Race To Go

Today started out no different than the last few. Clear sky to start with. Then more wind. Then CUs on the mountains and more wind.
A really good race to watch. Tom extended himself. Bruce paid a visit to a field and graham came home about 10th!! after flying in snow!!

Love Uli Schwenk's shirt!

Thought the masons were a bit slack not boxing up their foundations and they ran out of schluber to finish the job.

We watched the convergence turning to crap. But it held off coming over the ridge.

 For this experiment we have called a close to sample gathering.

And so the verdict is in.

The group acknowledgement still holds.

The beers are set in order of preference.

Far left "We Like These and would buy them again"

Center group of 4 - we'd drink these but would not pay money for them.

On the right side, from left to right- "don't bother" to "gets worse" and on the end, the last 3 we actually poured down the drain!!

Now that is saying something for an Ozzie!!

And the Winner Is!!

Yep. Fischer!!

Would buy this one any time.

A really nice beer!

Sounds German but is actually a French beer.

Here Endeth the experiment.

mark

The roll continues

Yet another win for Bruce! He made tricky conditions look easy today.

The buzz here is amazing. They are all scratching their heads here wondering where all these Aussies have come from. Here to make up the numbers? I don't think so.


It was a slightly nasty experience for me today. Didier Hauss and I both got caught in horrendous wavy sink off the start line. In the end we needed another couple of hundred feet to clear a saddle to make it to the first ridge, but it might as well have been on the other side of the moon. Going on would have been catastrophic. We had to do a U turn in 8kts down and glide out to the river flats where the sink stopped. But there is never any lift there either at that altitude so that was that for both of us.

I'm really hoping this wind goes away and we can have some normal weather.

But, good weather or bad... Go Bruce!!!


Graham

And it keeps getting better!

Bruce makes it three in a row for the Aussies. Who would have thought? This morning we were saying that it was Tom's turn to win, and he was actually first across the line today. But due to a minor infraction at the start line he was relegated to second place. Still, Aussies one and two on the podium has a pretty good look about it.

The day was a blustery gnarly sort of day, down on the ridges for most of it. We got tossed around as much as any flight I can ever remember. I don't really have the courage to get really down and dirty in those conditions so I was content just to get around in one piece. Great fun though.

I'm hoping for some more conventional conditions for the rest of the competition.

And let's hope the Aussie run continues.

Graham.

Woo Hoo!

And the Aussies make it two in a row.

It was really an extraordinary race today. We had the usual difficulties at the start. With a stable airmass and little breeze it was hard to get up to height but I had a reasonable start, perhaps 100 metres lower than allowable, but certainly with the main pack. Then a mass of plastic decended on the first ridge. We flew over a bunch of hang gliders waiting to launch. Who knows what they thought when 20 gliders came roaring past their launch point. 

The timing of the start was pretty good today. The thermals were picking up nicely and I had a few good climbs with the leading gaggle down the first two legs. Someone would occasionally drop off and the gaggle was whittled down to four half way down the third leg. Laurent Aboulin went off on a tangent, then there were three. Mike Young and I snuck off while the other guy was looking the other way, and it was just the two of us. From there it was nip and tuck for the next 95km, all done without any circling

We needed a climb on the second to last leg to get us home, and at the end of a ridge right where it should be we pulled into 6kts. Mike was probably 100 feet above me and looking good. So when he left on final glide I thought rather than meekly following home for second place I would do something different. I stayed for one more turn, then set off in pursuit. I could see he was not having a particularly good run so I went a bit off his track and had much better air. When we came together near the last turn I was about a kilometre behind, but a good 500 feet higher. This was going to be close.


Around the last turn, 10km to go. Speed up to 110kts. Ever so slowly I was getting closer. But so was the finish line. A kilometre from the line it was still a guess. 500 metres from the line I was down to minimum altitude, and so was Mike. But my speed was still probably 15kts faster than his. From there it was just physics. I slid past him about 150 metres from the finish line, probably going across less than 10 metres in front.

Heart stopping stuff, but enormously satisfying.

Team Parker all look pretty happy today.

Graham.

And then there was rain

Back into jumpers again as the rain set in.

By the time briefing was over the area around the hangars looked a little boggy.

I continue to see funny little cars running around the place like this. I mean what were they thinking!

The lady in her Extra 300 continued to amaze me how she could make her plane do the things she did with it!!

I suppose being the 2013 world aerobatics  champion had a bit to do with it!

And then came Bruce with his scorcher win today.
Go Ozzie!

Graham tells me he's sick of coming 10th!

My Chillian friend Renny Vidall came home 3rd which he seemed really wrapped with!

The experiment continues.

There have been some new additions and some changes in sample decisions.

At the moment there is a French beer that seems to have the judges in agreeance to be the favorite at the moment.

Mark