Quick storm last night leaves and branches every where this morning and the Tsunami glider bags are bulging with water that we need to lose before driving on...
At least two trees were torn down by the storm and my clothes I under the window were soaked so had to get a dry pair of shorts from the car. Even on the second stop at 2 pm I was still getting water out of my glider bags...
Tony and I are sat waiting for the delayed Eurotunnel train. Glider is not ready from AIR but have decided to fly the Tsunami and wait for the VR as I want it sorted after two seasons of grief...
Tsunami buyer deferred till the 11th and Tony happy that we won't miss the first comp day of the Belgians. Also at least 8 hours taken off the outward journey. Now we need somewhere to stay tonight.
Laragne 2010 Practice 2 days Competition 3 days
St Andre 2011 Practice 2 days Competition 3 days
Annecy 2013 Practice 2 days Competition 5 days
So I've nearly doubled my mountain airtime although there's no sign yet of my decision making improving.
I am definitely struggling to read the brauniger on the uprights thanks to the vari-focal glasses. Without an instrument on the basebar I definitely lost track of the course order. I think a piece of tape on the basebar to draw the course outline and TP numbers on might help my overloaded memory.
Time for the PDA and SeeYou to come out of retirement as XCSoar failed to automatically switch between turn points.
Gloves were an issue once I went back to ski gloves I twice aborted the active TP trying to switch to the map view or the other glide pages.
And finally fitness. My left arm was nearly dead and useless at the end of several of the flights with a severe ache in the joint. Dieting my be good for weight loss but I need to spend more time in the gym as I seem to have lost as much muscle as fat.
Do you set your tip rods down when rigging?
They are Steve tells me checked with sail off. The tip ribs which have a degree of play when measured are consequently checked at the bottom of their range.
Therefore before flying always open all three tip panel Velcro's, grab the leading edge and rib end and push it down before resealing the Velcro ensuring the Velcro reseals flat with no upwards curve.
You can also set them up if you feel the glider is too fast normally.
Apologies to everyone for the sparsity of blogging I had intend at least a couple of paragraphs a day but the lack of roaming and bad WiFi didn't help much.
However the intensity of that much flying coupled with smashing part of the tablets screen on Saturday meant it was far more than I could achieve.
Everyone has commented on the quality of Ben's blogging what most will not be aware of is the three hours or more of effort he puts in writing the text and reviewing thousand of photos to find the few shots that give a window on the days activity. Well done Ben stirling stuff.
However during the celebration meal on Saturday night we managed to crack the man up laughing so his official nickname is not Woody or Zebbedee or even Dougal. No that mans laugh is definitely borrowed from Mutley.
Now all we need to work out is who to cast as Dick Dasterdly...
So two practice and two comp days and today binned due to the cuNimbs.
I also at last have a half use able Wi-Fi connection. So can give an update.
Andy is showing his depth of mountain experience by making goal on the first two competition days and Luke took a less direct route yesterday and was actually in the lead as the main gaggle of alpine pilots took the direct route and nearly decked it getting below 800` above their selected fields.
However they caught him up after 20k but he kept his cool and took a good route back across the lake to take off before getting the final turning and heading for his first and definitely not last goal of the comp.
I keep handicapping myself by having radios that turn off part way through the flight. How... Or not setting the course active before take off and then finally two rather fast landings with no flaps. NOT recommended on upslope downwind high mountain passes.
Yesterday after finally getting up I attempt to fly the wrong course, fortunately Luke called me up and I took his route arriving at the third just as the gaggle set of.
Gliding back the same circuitous route I finally arrived back at the lake at the same time as Andy who has just missed the second and had to repeat 12k of that leg via the direct route.
Gliding over the lake Andy calls a climb on the other side, but I hesitate as I had some lift which proceed to die as Andy calls an increasing climb, I get back to the right place but only catch the tail end.
I dribble along the valley bottom staying off the ground and actually going in the right direction, it slowly build to a 2.5 and finally I'm back above ridge height at the very end of the ridge I should have been racing along. Still that was probably the nicest part of the flight being saved by three red kites at 500` of the valley floor.
Jumping the gap I get to the next ridge where I can run down the last 15k to the fourth turn point and then back across the gap. A howling thermal at the ski site by the Semnoz take off and i make the mistake of heading straight back towards the Wolfs Teeth instead of the more circuitous route to take off.
Playing around with the PG's I get a thermal that takes me to the main Forclaz take off so I jump through the shoulder behind the Wolf's Teeth to finally get the fifth point. 20 minutes of valley drivelling however fails to pay off and I finally do a nil wind stand up landing with full flaps
Note to self, double, triple and even quadruple check that the flaps are set and locked for landing.
Raining now and some bright flashes around so definitely no flying in the comp. Andy and Luke have opted for a quick free flight back to base from Semnoz prior to the thunder. Andy's wingover was so extreme that he could not undo his carabineer after landing... Pass me the hacksaw please bomber!
More later... I think I'll leave the humour to Ben for now...
