Rain again

Yesterday saw us drive up the mountain and spend the entire day in the fog. By 5 oclock they set us a task in the hope we could fly!!!!! But as we were about to launch, they cancelled the task due to cu-nimbs building above us. Most of the field then launched anyway. But with back winds, the launches were more of a comedy. Top Swiss Jeorg slipped on his attempt and promptly slid down the grass and mud, crashing through gliders laid infront of him. Loads of other top class pilots did similar, so I paked up and walked down :-) They did manage to fly around a while before racing back to Abtenau before the thrashing rain fell upon the town and our suprise BBQ. Check out the team picture, as we've concluded that our characters incredibly match the cast of DADS ARMY. The closest match being Team manager Clavo who is definately Captain Mainwarings long lost son ;-)

First Cat 1 Task

We flew a task today! Hoorayy!! We just got in a quick short task before the expected over developement came. A 52k race around the smaller mountains, which turned out to be a really enjoyable flight.I was generally in the front gaggle all the flight.... the only problem being there were 90 other pilots in the first gaggle.Cloudbase was around 8000 feet with some great cloudstreets along our course. We could mainly straight line it on the bar.Dodging clouds as we went. I even led out for a short while, but my first thermal turn, found 70 pilots swamping over me.The rest of the flight, I chose to maintain my altitude and let others gamble down low. A great glide around the final turnpoint found me on a good glide into goal in the thirties. Mark Hayman pipped me in by 50 seconds and gained 17 places on me. It was that close.Russ messed up the final turn point so had to turn back a bit and lost a couple of minutes and Adrian just pipped Russ on his Serial wing.So I was second Brit in and have scored for my country Hoorahh!! Great Britain is in the top ten and only 150 points from France who are No.1The points are very close and there's everything to play for..... with a slim chance that we might task tommorrow. Hooraayy.

Dodging the lightening

We had a late task today but were flying inbetween Cu-minbs that were raining. I did really well out in the front gaggle but made a slower route decision. The guys who took the big mountains flew straight line, while we were climbing thermals to maintain altitude. Russ overtook me on his mountain line and as I was gliding into goal 1k away (second Brit) they canned the task for safety reasons. Because the task was a lapsed time task, they can not score it so it all has to be binned.
Although it was a bit rough and dangerous, I enjoyed the flight and am happy with my speed of flying and the wing. As we landed the heavens opened and the lightening began striking everywhere. It was too close a call and should have been binned way earlier.
Weather looks poor for next few days so we'll have to see how things pan out.

Rough skies over Austria

Flew a practise task today.50k...but as I took off, my helmet fell off!!!
Had to fly down the mountain and bottom land, so I didn't have time to fly entire the task.
Got back up the ski lift and Calvo handed me my lid!! joined the gaggle for the second half of the task.
It was rough and horrid, one reserve was thrown by Spaniard Larry Pino and plenty blow outs occured.
Russ was going real quick, he crossed the line first. Kirsty flew her wing for the first time, loves it!!

Back at Abtenua, we rushed to eat, gave up on doing downloads (the queue was too slow)
I had to be flag bearer during the procession. We had to dress in our team gear and take the flag up on stage etc. We will leave you with the two pictures and you can decide who were the crazy local dancers and who are the World class Paragliding Team :-)
Now back at our house after a long hard day and ready for some well earned sleep.

Chasing the sunshine

Drove for two and a half hours to a place in southern Austria and managed to fly HOOORAHH. Drove another two and a half hours to get back and they were all flying above our house!!! DOOOOHH
Did all the registration and downloads........saying hello to all the old faces...... and I mean OLD faces..... when are the youngsters going to start taking over at this game???
So, it looks like we'll fly tommorrow...... yeahh..... but after that!!!! Lord knows when :-(

Sun in UK and rain in Austria!!!

Most of the British team have arrived today, it's now a full and crazy house with lots of technical stuff going on. Sorting, Austrian phones, radio frequencies, downloads and the like. Discussing our paragliders behaiviour etc. Some pilots haven't even been able to test fly their wings. Many are arriving today so they've no idea what they're like. Adrian and Kirsty are looking for thiers, they have no idea, even of it's colour....... so much for preparation.
The town is filling up with other teams from across Europe. Apparantly the website shows our locations on Google Earth. We can find the French or Swiss team's houses just by going online!! Messages are left on the tags so there's no need to go out!
Our Team kit is very nice, especially the Team Jackets made from Soft Shell with embroidered logo's. Two T-shirts and a fleece. I am to be the flag bearer, mainly because nobody else wants to do it. Lets hope the town has arranged kids for the opening ceremony, that should get me out of doing it. The town seem to be very organised and the opening ceremony should be a good event.
Weather looks iffy tomorrow but flyable on Monday...... however.... not too good after that :-(The curse of 30 European nations coming together is upon us and we might get rained on all fortnight. Typical

We are now in our house with enough food and wine to last a year......lord knows how we'll get through it in a fortnight!!!The journey went brill as Calvo did all the driving and I pressed on with all the sleeping..... we make a great team LOL
The accomodation looks better on the web than it is in reality, but it's ok and we have WiFi here so should stay in contact easily.
I have gone for making up the bed settee in the conservatory, so I get my own room, even if it is mainly glass...! I've already spotted how they could have built it better!!!
Unfortunately...... it's raining...... and raining tommorrow.... and perhaps Sunday.... but then it looks good !!!!Lets just hope that good doesn't turn into too good and booming CuNimbs all over the sky. I'll let you know when we get to fly these huge lumps of rock that surround us!!

Rough rides to cloud base and beyond

So, taking it out in the bigger skies. Rough and rugged air, but the baby stayed together! My mates were taking big hits on the first climb out, but my R10 seemed to ride them all. Flexing, twisting and bending as the climb got quicker and rougher, but she didn't blow out and that's all I can ask.

Four take offs, four climbs up to cloud base and four very long glides out into the valley. I thought we were never going to come down! With four decent landings, I was happy to fold her carefully away, ready for our next flights in a few days time.