Bruce almighty

Well, what a day.

This was the scene that greeted us on the way out to the airfield this morning. And it continued to rain until midday. Briefing was put back until 1200, then 1300. By then it still looked dismal but they don't give up easily here, so a task was set with a possible 1530 launch.

By then it had stopped raining and was vaguely soarable, so off we went.

And then came Bruce.

Shortly after the start the wind sprung up, the ridges started working and we all romped around at decent speed. With Bruce at the top of the heap at the finish. Well done Bruce.

And me? I'm sick of coming tenth, one place out of the points. Must...go...faster...

Graham.

Day 2

Not a lot of positives about today.

The weather was complete rubbish but we were eventually sent off on task C of about 100km, the minimum allowable in a Grand Prix. It was difficult just staying up, let alone reaching the maximim start height. In the end, those that started with enough height to clear enough ridges to where it was soarable got around, the rest never made it past 20km.

Poor old Bruce struggled around the task but it appears he has done a Mike Young and missed the start line.

Marta and Ziggy will be pleased to know that XM performed flawlessly as soon as the "take me home" button was pressed.

They say it might rain tomorrow.

Graham.

Go!

Day one. 10th. Certainly no cigar, and one place out of scoring points.

A very pleasant day in the mountains; reasonable thermals and a bit of a north westerly draft to kick things along a bit. The usual suspects were at the front by the end of the race. And a few guys committed suicide along the way. Mike Young had the wrong length start line in his computer and Tom Claffey went to the wrong turn point. Although he may have grounds for protest as his turnpoint file didn't seem to differentiate between the correct point and the one he went to. We'll see how that pans out.

My day was a mixture. I was at the top of the leading gaggle at the first turn and a decision had to be made. There were two choices. Turn on track and fly in the lee of an imposing mountain with no cumulus. Or continue north, go round the northern side of the mountain and fly on the upwind side under a good looking sky. But at least 10km further. I chose the long way round and, while it wasn't bad, neither apparently was the other way. So that was that. Give these guys a 10km lead and it is all over.

We'll have another crack tomorrow. And try not to do anything stupid.

Graham

Ready, set....

Official practice day and opening ceremony.

A task was set, all the gliders lined up, then we waited. And waited. Eventually we were launched into a very stable sky. I managed to stay afloat and make a start at the correct height, along with only 5 or 6 others. But by then I had had enough of the day so I went back and landed. Tom pushed on and landed out just down the road a bit.  Bruce didn't fly as he is unwell. Hope he recovers by tomorrow.



In the photo I'm in the top row between the mayor (in the red dress) and Sebastian Kawa. Other pilots in the top row are Georgio Galetto, Mike Young, John Coutts and Laurent Aboulin. In the bottom row are Rene Vidal,  Nicolas Veron, Uli Schwenk, Robert Schroeder, Carlos Rocca and Tom Claffey.

Could be a hard competiton to win with all those blokes in it.






The opening ceremomy had its usual share of dignitaries making speeches. But then they put on free food and wine so not all bad.







And look who has turned up! The lovely Danielle.

Sisteron will be a nicer place, and certainly our gite will be as well.


Day one tomorrow!

Graham.

Now Cooling Down

Just took a pic of this rubbish rolling in through the mountain valleys. We'll have to see how the day turns out for the airshow.

Yesterday there were lots of people running around setting up stuff. We'll have another look today. Seems like they are getting there.

Spotted this one yesterday. Haven't seen an aircraft trailer quite like this one before!

Kerrie had an accident with her reading glasses yesterday. Now she can only see half the point of anything!

Saw this little number down the street last night. Haven't heard of a "Venturi" before.

Don't know what the dessert was called that Graham ordered last night but now he has his feather duster.

Mark

Warming up

Another day of practice. Yesterday was a lovely flying day; we all did over 500km and had a good look at the task area in good thermal conditions. Today the flying was a lot trickier with total thick cirrus overcast, and for a lot of the time we relied on the ridges to keep us afloat. And there was only just enough wind to do that. The orgsnisers set a task so that they could check the tracking system. Tom, Bruce and I flew around it just for the heck of it. Moderately testing but we all got back ok.

The town is starting to feel the impact of the Grand Prix. Today we found out what they do here with gliders that don't behave: a public hanging.

And there is another one strung up in the local shopping centre.

Tomorrow there is an air show at the airfield. I'm not sure if we will be able to fly after that, and in any case the weather might have a bit of a say anyway.

Thursday is official practice day, and then into it.

Graham

Things are Happening

There are a few more pilots milling around at the moment. I imagine there will be a lot happening over the next few days because there is a lot to still set up it looks like.
Today looks quite good and the boys are going north into the big stuff. Water and Oxygen has been fitted today.

Cumulus in the northern mountains.
You may notice all the hangars have their roofs loaded with solar panels.
If you look closely on the hangar to the left a couple of guys are washing the panels.

The famous French Poppies have been popping up all over the place in the last week.
You see them appearing everywhere from the fields to the lane divisions and even poking out of walls.

Things are done a little differently here to OZ.
A lot of apples, peaches and apricots are grown in the area. These are apple trees in the pic. As you can see they prune them pretty hard and shape them into thin rows and planted pretty close together. The nylon netting over the trees is to help protect them from hail damage.

The testing continues to find the best French beer.

You can see the results have changed since the last entry on the subject and we have more samples in the fridge so the data gathering is not yet complete.

Went for a walk up the big hill across the valley from our Gite. If you look really really close you can see our Gite in the center of the picture.

According to the Nano trace we walked about 5kms and climbed 600ft in elevation during the walk.

no wonder I needed a couple sample beers went we got home!

Along the way I became a bit tired from the up hill and down dale on steep stony tracks.

Graham found something that may have helped but it wouldn't start!

We don't know how it got there but it wasn't the only vehicle we found up the mountain in peculiar places.

On the track down we found that some of the track was now down in the river bed so a little stepping softly was required. No 4 wheeled vehicles will be using this track again I think.

Mark