Brauniger bug

Having downloaded my track to the PC I am seriously pissed of about yesterdays flight

I have the brauniger in front of me with a 6k start cylinder and then a 0.4km turn point on parmelan house.

When I upload the igc file it has a 0.5km which I went into and a 0.4 which of course I didn't as I'd been told I'd done the turn point. Also not helped as I'd switched from distance to waypoint to distance to cylinder that day and didn't look for confirmation of the 400m on the instrument.

Pictures to follow.

Day canned

40 to 50 kmh at 3000 and 50 kmh at 4000m and rain later so day canned and a late briefing tomorrow in the hope of a late task after the rain.

The mid-air yesterday was unfortunate at a time when there were only 2 PG and 3 rigids at that height one of whom was Andy.

3 in goal

Luke, Andy and Paul all in goal so at least we have the good scores.

Kathleen missed the last turn point on the women's and ten in goal so not a marvellous day for her either.

Gutted

Realised at turn point 3 that I'd missed turn point 1.  So had to go back and redo them, by which time out was 4 o'clock and the sky was heavily overcast so gave up and landed at doussard.  When I redid the turn point realised the beep had been the airspace warning as it is right on the edge of the only airspace in the area.

What an idiot....

Just 113kms

Cays cradle around area and into big mountains for 1 turn point.

What a corker

Yesterday's task was mind blowing, my longest ever flight and first time into the big mountains.

At briefing it looked to be a good choice.  In the air with cloudbase at 8200' it still seemed reasonable.  The run to the first turn point to the south was one we used in our practice and several times last year.  Coming back north the spread out was starting to look worrying.

Going back south after the 2nd turn point the normally reliable Pic de Boef was only just working so I got stuck there for a period.  Eventually climbed out and headed on with absolutely everything in shadow.

Slowly climbing out on the next ridge for the 3rd turn point and everything was grey and it was beginning to look impossible as Paul and myself found ourselves stuck with quite a few people on the same 'small' section of mountain. Oh how your standards change over here!

Finally I get over the top and run down to the turn point.  A slight bit of sunshine and a 2 up at the cylinder which I call out for Paul.  Unfortunately he doesn't have enough height and gets there to find no lift down at his level.  Despite running back he is getting drilled in the valley and ends up landing for 91k.

Another small climb back at the 'small' mountain and I decided to head direct for doussard and take off.  One more slight climb and I reach the ridge immediately behind landing just above the top of the cliff.

Everything is still grey and I decide to follow the ridges back towards Favergé.  In the hope of getting something and then being able to go north on the big mountain range to the Tete du Strop and the 4th turn point.  Nothing presents itself so I try one last hop across the valley to the spur on the north east edge.  Lift, slowly I work my way up to be joined by a PG,  Flying round a corner to a better looking spur and I look back to see him getting higher. Bugger!

However I then hit a good solid 4 up and he and his mate scrabble to get in below me as the majesty of the mountain range I'm about to fly the length of finally reveals itself.

Cruising the range and for the next 25k stopping in any particularly good bits finally I get close to the 4th turn point to see some one coming back south below me.  With both Luke and Andy calling out distances to the last turn point I finally begin to think I have a chance of making this.

However after the turn point the mountain starts to flush me as punishment for my cockiness. Everything is in shade again and nothing is working, as I don't want to land on the high plateau I head out to a tree covered ridge in the sunshine.  There's a PG low on the trees and bits of lift but nothing solid so I head along the spur.  Finally a 4 up and I get joined by another rigid 1500' below me.  Heading to the next turn point at 8400.  I get it and spot someone high and climbing on the spur in front.

It's a bit of a tight little rocket but takes me to 8600'.  Heading south none of the intermediate ridges even blip the Vario so I come in on the spur that leads to the back of La Tournette and slowly make my way up in week lift to the break point at the top where there is a good climb.

I have a 10 to 1 on goal, there's just the problem of this frigging big mountain between me and the last turn point. I opt to go round the front and behind take off as that is the 'in to wind' side even though it's not so direct to the turn point.

Job done! Time to celebrate my longest flight to goal.

207km task

Big task 207k, 198 optimised to both ends of the mountain range

Briefing at. 1:15pm....

The briefing time is set better going and join the rest of the safety panel.
Task deferred due to high winds 33km/h on take off. 40 lm/h in valley safety to re assess at 2.30 pm.

Scores are on the doors

However they need to sort out pauls. Plus I'm the only pilot with no lead points of those in goal.  More annoyingly they changed turn point 2 radius prior to the briefing and none of team GB were aware so we all flew 2k further in sink than the lead pilots.

Tim King

Just heard dislocated hip and pelvis being prepped for surgery.

Task 1 - 62k ridge run below the clouds

Cats cradle around the valley is case they needed to cancel due to conditions.  As always lots of people milling around at cloudbase waiting for the first start.

Luke down 0.5 k short of goal due to Valley wind, Tim down 1k short of last turn point.  Paul now landed and Andy tried to steal my hedge proximity record.  Personally very pleased.  stand up landing and first Brit on goal.

Waiting to hear about Kathleen who has landed out.  Bad news just hearths Tim is injured more details when we hear some.

Day one

Forecast not marvellous prospect is for a late short task.  Adrenaline starting to kick in whilst we wait for access to the hill!

Day 5 part deux

Sorry bad WiFi now I've moved to the campsite so have been unable to complete the story of day 5 with the intended pictures.

Will try again now as it's ridiculous o'clock and the rest of the campsite are still sleeping lulled by the sound of distant thunder.

From the wolf's teeth we jump forwarded to the standard start cylinder on the smaller ridge just short of Annecy and the airspace.  Usually not worth stopping here if going south unless you get an absolute rocket of a thermal. Next step is to cross the lake to the Pic de boef spine back ridge, or to the front semnoz ridge if doing the larger circuit.

Here it's best to stay above the spine back for the best lift stopping only occasionally at the break points for enough of a thermal to just keep you above the top of the ridge.  Normally from here you would jump the gap to the south to the next set of ridges or alternatively forward through the gully to the semnoz ridge.

The big boys come and stop play...

The mod ship is open

Andy is getting slippery again having been inspired by Felix's new keel and the 3000 euro price tag.

Registration over

Next event is safety talk at 3pm.  So sat in campsite by the lake drinking a liquid lunch and watching the pg's SIV.

Registration and safety briefing

As the forecast was so good yesterday most people have put off registration until Sunday during the CuNbs and rain.   Followed by the delightful prospect of a 3 hour safety briefing... Although that may just be a little over estimate of the time required.  Also looks like Mondays practice task may not be flyable due to further bad weather.

The big day that wasn't

We set a 122k task into the big mountains today however the day turned out to be very stable so no one on the team did more than get to the start circled having got very frustrated at the quintillions of pg who came and surrounded you as soon as you started circling. 

Still fun watching  them collapse in the turbulence and taking a couple of turns to sort it out, we just wished they weren't so close to us while they did it.

Eventually after the third attempt managed to get to the top of la tourney at 8,400'.

Excellent days flying

Good practice day with a 110k task set by team GB and most completing the task with all back in goal.  Best climb of the day 13.6 fpm (x100!) for Andy and 12.6 for myself. 8000 feet cloudbase and lots of pilots in the air marking thermals.

Luke and Andy blasted around the course in two hours and would have been quicker if they hadn't waited 20 minutes for the rest of us to catch up on the Semnoz ridge.

Day 5 - The team starts to arrive

So ten minutes to start a post on flying at Annecy.  Today I finally got the Muvi working before take off so some shots of flying around the lake.

Kathleen and Kate arrived yesterday in time to fly, whilst Paul arrived in the evening and Luke turned upon the hill just as we started riging.  Taka was also there so 4 rigids to do a bit of ridge running with.

Unfortunately Katheen was taken ill on the hill and couldn't fly to the extent of needing an ambulance call out, still waiting to here what the diagnosis is, but she was feeling better this evening although still at the hospital.

The take off was fairly breezy so quite easy again and easily ridge soarable.  Todays REDTIP livetrack

To be honest today was a lot smoother and the thermals less turbulent than saturday or monday, but Luke was of a different opinion...

View of take off after completing circuit of the lake

First task after gaining some head is to head over to the wolfs teeth.

From there to the next range of hills where the standard start circle is placed.

A good practice day

Another days practice much better than Saturday but the wind still picked up significantly during the flight.  Sorry Richard forgot to put debug on today and it terminated early again.

http://www.livetrack24.com/track/350877

Annecy day two

Claudia surveys the low cloudbase and cross wind before deciding to rig.

Was first of the free flyers off and last to land 

, very rough in places, got drilled at the far end of the wolfs teeth and then had to work my way back up on front of takeoff.  Gusts to 40km/h in the air and 30km/h on take off so definitely not a comp day. Eventually got to 7300 and a quick visit to the end of the big mountain behind which also flushed me down..

Unfortunately live track sems to have stopped half way  through the flight and I forgot to turn the camera on.  http://www.livetrack24.com/track/349553

On the way

So here's the dreaded channel selfie

On the Myndd

So finally a potential decent day one the overcast clears. Yet again both my camera and tracker fail to work. 

Blew the flight gliding into the overcast and not heading straight to the cooling towers in the gorge at Ironbridge. 

Probably should also have waited longer before leaving the hill as sky overhead and downwind now looking excellent.

Boars head bishop castle

The most incredible bread and butter pudding....

Day 2 new site but iffy weather

Day canned again.  Poor Murray Brown has just called green flag after sumping his car on the way to the site.  Derig and an hours drive back to the base, might just have a free flight first.

Day one canned

So is the offas dyke walk at Knighton and a brief widow of sunshine

BOS 2014 round. 1 Day one

There goes the sunshine!

Here we go again

So BOS 2 starts tomorrow which is the first day of my 4 weeks holiday to include the Annecy worlds.  Here's hoping for some good weather and equally good flying.