Dem Blogs, Dem Blogs, Dem Dry Bloggs, now hear the word

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...

Finally a rest day...

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...

Begin at the begining

So the second BOS is rapidly approaching and the 2013 Annecy Pre-worlds are immediately afterwards.  The new harness has only had a 15 minute test flight and to cap it all I need to keep our team manager Ben Philpott happy so I've started a blog...