Comp 5 The British Open St Andre les Alpes. Every paraglider pilot should fly in St Andre les Alpes!! It is an incredible place, surrounded by the rugged dry mountains of the southern Alps. The views, thermal strengths and transitions are simply breath taking. My family love the mountain biking, via ferratas, white water rafting the Verdon Gorge and swimming in the lakes. This comp was one of the biggest comps of the season with a very high pilot quality and the final leg of the British Championships. Jamie was the man to beat and Craig and I set about doing just that. Another strong team of French pilots could not knock our very own Russell Ogden off his perch as he won most tasks. Pierre Remy and I won the other two tasks, but after 6 scores Russ won the Open, with a brilliant 3^rd spot for a consistent Mark Watts??

The other story lay in the British Championships, with Jamie Messenger feeling the pressure of the chasing pack; he choked at the run for the line. On the penultimate day both Craig and Jamie bombed as I took the lead and won the task from Luc Armont.

11 tasks and 11000 points scored, Craig and I were only 7 points apart. The closest fought championship in history. The final day saw marginal conditions, but I had the lead and with it the British Championships!! Then the call, ‘Task Stopped’ we had to land, but with more than half the task flown, I thought I’d won it! Back at HQ, they were scoring the task…… Yes, I’ve won it!! Only to be told that the score will be used in the Open but not for the British Championships! Some rule in sub section 8b(i) or something, meant a controversial task would upset the controversial discard system, so they would not count it.

Craig Morgan won, with me once again vice champ and Jamie in third. An incredible pull back by Mark Watts, to climb up to 4^th. Adam Hill achieved 5^th and our hearts go out to Chris Harland who flew a blinding campaign but got no luck in his lead out bombs ended in 6^th. A big mention has to go to Emile Van Wyke, flying a Serial Class Gin GTO nicked 7^th place off a comp wing chasing pack and our girl Kirsty Cameron nearly got into the British Top Ten, again on Serial Class Advance Omega 8

THE GERMAN OPEN in FIESCHE SWITZERLAND. (photo by Marin Scheel of Azoom,com)

Every paraglider pilot should fly in Fiesche Switzerland once in their lives!! It is an incredible place, surrounded by the biggest mountains and glaciers in the Alps. The views, thermal strengths and transitions are simply breath taking. My family love the mountain biking, via ferratas hot pools and natural spring water parks. We swept through Europe and I nicked a 5^th place out of the comp and a great family holiday on top.

Phew! and rest.

Sorry for all the silence this last 9 days. It's just been busy, busy, busy!! The final two days of the European Championships certainly shuffled the scores up. The final day was 141k triangle over some incredible high mountain terrain. Thermal strengths so strong at times that you simply held on to your wing until you pinggend out at the top of the World.

I found myself in gaggle 2, chasing the leaders like mad and all of us flying at break neck speed.

Whenever gaggle 1 would take a climb, we'd be chasing under them or their thermal as they would peel off the top! The final leg of the task found us at 3000 meters crossing a wall of Alpine granite that drops 2000 meters off a cliff into Abtenau. It took your breath away as the world fell from beneath you.

More importantly, our final glide looked a long 15k at 10:1 and as we came over the valley I noticed the lead gaggle starting to land short of goal, others disburst in all directions in search of lift. My mind switched on....... get a thermal!! the valley is sinking!! I headed to the final turnpoint and aimed at the sunny spur that offered a bleep or two. I saw Russ take a turn on route so raced at him as he peeled for goal, I took a turn, then did the same. My route in to goal was tracing contour lines, then tree lines, then fence line, then curb stones and one foot to clear the final hill with a sigh of relief to glide over the goal line and get a brilliant 29th place.

My overall final position is also 29th which I'm very pleased with and can now look back on the 2010 European Championships with pleasure.

So download the GPS's, pack up the gear, jump in Bella's Audi TT and race down to Slovenia for the 6 tasks of the British Championships (round 1) Fantastic weather gave us great racing conditions (if a little predictable) I was always in the top ten front gaggle of R10.2's. Strangely enough all the red R10's where Brits and the French Team were on Blu R10's. It became a bit of a visual spectacle of Reds and Blues doing battle in the skies above Tolmin.

The final day found me and Jamie Messenger getting the jump on the others, but Jamie hit an incredible moonbeem just before the final glides, while my moderate 3 meter climb left me tussling with the Frenchies for the line. My daring dive into a tree lined bowl for the final turnpoint was too much for the French, who held back for more altitude. Our speed bar race for the line saw me hold my nerve and the wing to claim second place on that task. A great result finds me third Brit, tussling for the Championship with Jamie Messenger, Craig Morgan and Mark Hayman.

A mad 4 days

It's been total madness since my last blog. Austria eventually stopped raining and we got a couple of great tasks in. Most notably was the 141k triangle on the final day. One of the biggest triangle tasks ever set in a competition. Over huge mountain terrain with eye popping views. Even better I got to goal in 29th place, which amazingly pushed my final position to 29th position. More write up and photos to follow!!

I then drove a Red Audi TT down to Slovenia for the start of British Championships.
Day 1, I came 6th and today I came 5th! If I can maintain this graph I'll come 1st in 4 days ;-)

Not got much time just now but will update and loads pictures soon.

The final tasks

So, what has it been?? three, four. five days of rain??? I've been to Salzburg a few times, to museums, spas, Red Bull H7 and shopping......... I need to get in the air!!!

Today we plan a mountain hike up to the waterfalls...... we couldn't do white water rafting because we can no longer fit under the bridges. The rivers are so high, they are bursting their banks in places. Mud slides are a danger and the ground is sodden!

However, tommorow looks like we might task and Saturday looks like it will be epic!!

It's not over till the fat lady sings, and now is when we need to focus back into the saddle.

Oh and ofcourse, time to get out the special flying suit, if all else fails, jump out and dive for the line.

Alternatives

We have now had rain for four days!!! Continual rain!! We spent the day in Salzburg. Very impressive was RED BULL's Hanger 7. This is the companies HQ based at the Airport, with all their Formula 1 racing cars, the racing planes, helicopters and the sky dive suit with the wings.

Very much a boys toys center of excellence, I took more photos here than in the whole trip. I even brushed passed Niki Lauder, the ex- Formula 1 driver, who stepped out into his private jet.

Yesterday, we spent the entire day at the Spa. A very impressive place with swimming baths, super slides and nine different saunas, hot tubs, plunge pools, brine baths and more. I got really stuck into the game and have probably lost a stone and now have the cleanest skin in the world.

Today, we were emailed by the paragliding organization, not to even bother going to briefing. The message reads that "catastrophic rainfall" expected "flooding" and landslides are the order of the day. I'm too scared to leave the house, incase I get swept away in a flood or buried by a landslide. Todays White water rafting plans are cancelled because we can't fit under the bridges!

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 ;-)