The Daily Thermal

Beautiful January Flying

2012-01-29T20:42:00.000+01:00

Today, after 3 months, I finally got to fly again. NE wind predictions gave a decent chance to be able to fly in Beauraing (N ridge) and with predictions for 3 to 4 Bft, I hit the road.

Upon arrival, the situation looked different. 1-2 Bft and more than 45 degrees cross wind. That was not going to do it. A bit of waiting and conditions seemed to improve slightly. A bit later, Rudy arrived, while 1 paraglider pilot was about to attempt launch. Rudy had much more confidence about the lift than I had and he turned out to be right.

We flew under a dark grey sky, now and than we were hit by just a bit of snow and we even had some very light thermals. It just was good to be in the air. Halfway through the flight I realized it probably was my last flight with my Aeros Combat 14.2. It's my first topless glider and it's been a trustworthy and fast companion for the last 2 years. Damn, I even noticed some emotional attachment to the bird while derigging it...

Interview with local TV

2011-10-25T21:44:00.001+02:00

Our local TV station, AVS, interviewed me because I won the Belgian nationals for the second time. And I think they made a beautiful little report about it. Thanks a lot! Also many thanks to Bobby and Julia for being professional camera-(wo)men! Sorry, it's in Dutch and the video has been highly compressed, but I'm pretty sure the original HD version on TV was good advertisement for our sport:

Our encounter with the harrier jets

2011-09-26T16:48:00.000+02:00

Brett has some footage of the Harrier jets passing through our gaggle (see post on day 6). Closest encounter I've ever had with jets and I don't think they've seen us...

Closing the circle

2011-09-25T19:15:00.000+02:00

It started 6 months ago at Quest and this morning, while I realize that the trip is coming to an end, David Glover showed me this clip:

I guess that really closes the circle. The video might not be that funny to you, but if you know the people in there, it's major fun :-) Let's turn the clock back six months and start it all over again!

Santa Cruz Flats, day 5 & 6

2011-09-24T19:11:00.000+02:00

Day 5 took us east again. Towards Newman's Peak. The first leg was a very slow flight for me. Very low and in weak broken thermals. I had made the mistake of going to early and had to work hard due to that. Those that left half an hour later climbed to 3000 m in the start circle and glided the whole first leg. It took me 1,5 hours below 1000 m AGL... Once I got to Newman's peak I finally hit some nicer lift, but I also rushed it because the day was going to come to an end and landed out. I seem to make one bad decision after the other.

By the way, the optimized route feature of the Compeo+ can play tricks on you. I wanted to take the 10 km cylinder and climb out on the peak again. You can see in the track log that I wasted altitude by not heading to the closest point on the cylinder, but by going to the optimized point for the route. Which wasn't my optimal tactical point at all.

Yesterday, we had a 125 km task to the north east. It was super slow in the flats again. But this time, I stayed with the gaggle and we slowly did make progress. We headed to the mountain south west of Phoenix, where beautiful, high clouds were waiting for us. While we were climbing in the first good thermal of the day there, I saw two fighter jets approach us from the west. And they were exactly at our altitude, heading straight for us and dumping fuel. I left the thermal to get out of their path, but immediately regretted that, because I was on my own now and surely they were going to make a move to divert the gaggle. But they didn't, they continued dead ahead and I think Larry Bunner saw them from very, very close. The thermal had an intense jet fuel smell after their pass.

I climbed to 3500 m, followed the ridge and went for the turnpoint in the flats. Again, a 30 km cylinder and it seems to be very hard to fly the shortest distance to the cylinder and back, when your desired out direction is different from the route to the next turnpoint. Back on the ridge I set a new personal height record of 4500 m. The instrument indicated I had final glide to goal (50 km!), but I knew it was going to be hard. Dustin and I left the same thermal at the same height, but chose a slightly different path. I glided only 40 km (only 10,6:1) and landed 13 km short. Dustin made it to goal. I seem to be really bad at picking lines this comp...

Santa Cruz Flats, days 2, 3 and 4

2011-09-22T18:57:00.001+02:00

Well, I guess day 2 and 3 were so demotivating for me, that I didn't bother to write anything about them yet. On day 2, I took the start thermal and 2 minor thermals before gliding to landing. I was very disappointed not to make it to goal 2 days in a row. Not even close by the way.

The result was that by day 3 I was low down in the ranking and as a result had no priority to speak of in the launch lane. Having only 3 tugs working, I knew I had to launch early to have any chance. I prepared early, get in line 10th, but saw everybody else use their priority to launch before me. I was on the same spot for 45 mins and was in line for 1h20. By the time I launched, the first start gate had already gone by. But what was worse, was that the air in the start area had become very inactive. I took a very slow climb to 1500 m, but still had to land after that. The second tow resulted in a very slow climb to 2000 m, which also was the last climb of the day for me. Three miserable days in a row...

Yesterday I launched early again and got in the start gaggle, making slow progress to 2000 m. I launched very early to avoid being stuck again and flew for 1h15 before the start. We had overdevelopment with virga and a visible gust front to the south of us and heading our way. The first thermal after the start was strong and very wide and must have been gust front triggered. It felt good to be flying with the lead gaggle at last, but when they decided to ride the gust front, I didn't feel comfortable doing that and headed out towards the sun. It was clear that the task was going to be canceled and I wanted to be able to pack up the glider before the gust front would hit me. I had an interesting time on the ground, being bitten by ants, watching the gust front get closer and seeing 3 microbursts very close to me. They were small, but they had some power.

Although the day was canceled, it felt good to be competing again. Bring on day 5! We have predictions for lift up to 3700 m...

Santa Cruz Flats Race, Day 1

2011-09-19T15:30:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we had the first task of the Santa Cruz Flats Race. A 110 km triangle was set. The thermals were weak immediately after tow, but conditions improved soon after and after 20 mins I was floating around at 2800 m. I was convinced it was going to be a true racing day and I headed out in the blue, towards the start circle edge.

Things changed from then on. No more strong climbs and I had a bad position for the 2nd start, so I waited for the 3rd. After the start, I headed for a little mountain, which was a bit off course line and nobody followed me. I was on my own in the blue, not the situation I wanted to have. I got lower and lower and never had nice climbs, but just before the first turnpoint, I joined a gaggle. Immediately after the turnpoint, I wanted to make a detour over the mountains again and the gaggle decided to do otherwise again. I spotted a bird and a dust devil and went for it. But, it didn't work out. I got very low and it took me a long while to get up again. And, it was my last climb.

I flew towards the foothills of the mountains, didn't find any lift and had to fly out of there, because there was no way to land there. It was a cactus forest. Doesn't look inviting at all!

So I landed at the 2nd turnpoint, 40 km short of goal. Only to see the gaggle I was with drift over me low and climb out slowly. Dustin and Davis flew over as well, on their way to goal. 8 Guys made it in. Here you can see a few pics of the world I landed in, it's a different world :-)

Carl's Dolomites video

2011-09-19T03:44:00.000+02:00

Carl, Jamie, Jem and I had two magnificent flights in the dolomites, in August. And Carl produced a great video on those flights. If you don't have a lot of time, have a quick look at 2:00, where Carl and I fly on the south wall and over Marmolada. The view was exceptional!

Pierro's Dolomites Video

2011-09-14T20:49:00.000+02:00

In August, I had a dream flight with Carl Wallbank over many of the famous Dolomites peaks. Apparently, Gianpietro Zin had such a majestic flight as well. Enjoy Pierro's video, it's hang gliding at it's best!

Last big trip

2011-09-11T08:31:00.000+02:00

I'm going to use every single day of my 6 month sabbatical. The Santa Cruz flats race is waiting in Arizona, but it's going to be quite a trip to get there from Kayseri. First we drive to Edirne, then the car train to Villach, then driving to Munich again, before I get onto the plane to Phoenix. Arizona, I can't wait to get there!

Kayseri - Pre Europeans - Day 5 - Task 5

2011-09-09T06:34:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we set a 97 km task to the east. Some big valley crossings, some mountains, a lake in the middle, quite a changing terrain to fly over. I few the first 50 km parallel to Primoz (a few kms apart). We both found good lift and made good progress. After 55 km, I dug myself into a mountain because I didn't have enough height to cross the lee side. The turnpoint was on the lee side and I kept searching for lift on the wind blown north-west side. When I finally got up and jumped over it, I had an even worse than expected glide and landed soon after. There almost was enough lift to get up from the landing field again. I did 6 very low turns, but it couldn't save me. So close :-(

Primoz never tried the wind blown side of the mountain, flew into the lee immediately, unzipped for landing, but got a thermal to 3200 m and won the day... He was the only one in goal and now is far ahead in the overall standings. Pedro is second overall, he was 11 km short of goal while I was 34 km short. Suan was 38 km short.

Primoz also said that yesterday was a weaker than the day before. That was a surprise for me, because yesterday I got 2 to 4 m/s thermals, while it had been very weak the day before. I really must have flown a bad route that day...

Kayseri - Pre Europeans - Day 4 - Task 4

2011-09-07T21:49:00.000+02:00

Dusties and smoke everywhere, but I was unable to find good lift. That's the story of the day. Alone, low, slow and on the ground after 2/3 of the course. Riding out of there with the Mitsubishi was the best part of the day. Jamie does know how to capture the moment:

Financial support needed for Urkainian pilot

2011-09-07T06:38:00.000+02:00

Elena Filippova wrote this on a dedicated Facebook group:

"We urgently need financial help for the surgical operation and after-operational treatment for Voron'kov Alex! He got traumas as a result of falling on hanggliding competitions on August 20 at Kobala Open 2011 (Slovenia, Tolmin). Voron'kov Alex caught a tree at the landing field and fell down from the height about 20 metres. Pilot has serious injury- broken spine (pectoral and lumbar department), break of spinal cord, both shoulders are broken, a kidney and spleen were damaged (his spleen had been removed). A diagnosis is a partial paralysis."

She created a Paypal account for donations:

I wish Alex the best recovery possible. Let's hope he will be able to walk again in the future.

Kayseri - Pre Europeans - Day 3 - Task 3

2011-09-06T22:56:00.000+02:00

Today started with the news by the weather man that today was even more stable than yesterday. That seemed to be confirmed by the thick inversion layer we saw on launch. Yet, while we were rigging it was soon clear that it was different than the day before. We had some dusties in the valley (there is very light dust there) around midday and we set a 63 km task.

We (Primoz, Suan, Pedro and me) agreed to launch together to improve our chances of not bombing out, because there were not many cycles coming through on launch. And I think it was a nice show to see us launch in quick succession and thermal up and away.

The flying was great. Although we didn't get very high (2500 m, valley at 1500 m), we got nice 2 to 3 m/s climbs and we made good progress. Here a some pictures of the first half of the task, crossing the valley east of Kayseri:

During the second glide, I skipped a light thermal, while the others turned for a while. This gave me a slight lead, but also the risk of being out alone in the blue. It worked out nicely as I was able to stay ahead and, after being a bit to conservative to make sure I made goal, I crossed goal 20 seconds ahead of Primoz. Suan arrived one minute later and we now have a very tight race with Suan leading me by 15 points in the overall standings. Everything is still wide open of course, since Pimoz and Pedro are not far behind at all.

I flew without ballast today because I expected lighter conditions. I'm now doubting whether I need any ballast at all...

The fields at goal were lifting everywhere, so we all thermalled up and explored the high mountains east of our goal. Spectacular views again, but sadly no pictures, the SD card filled up. Primoz (who I had lost sight of after goal) attacked the 25 km/h headwind and almost flew back to Kayseri. Sure, the day was undercalled, but we also had a very, very happy Turkish pilot in goal :-)

Primoz wins task 2

2011-09-05T17:43:00.000+02:00

Some more news on task 2. Primoz launched first and got very low. He hit a thermal when he aimed for a landing field. He drifted a while before it turned on to a 5 to 7 m/s one taking him to 3200 m. Nobody expected that. It basically was the only thermal he took to glide to goal. To his surprise, the goal line was laid out in the middle of a lava field...

Suan was the only one to climb a little on launch. Just 100 m, then he headed out in the valley to climb slowly but steadily. Suan arrived in goal an hour later than Primoz. Suan and Primoz probably are the only ones having more than minimum distance.

Kayseri - Pre Europeans - Day 2 - Task 2

2011-09-05T16:07:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was a difficult day and the meteo guy promised us a more stable day today. We set a very, very short 32 km downwind task with pretty late starts (14.45 - 15.30). Until 15.00 I only once saw a thermal dome in the inversion layer and I decided to launch around 14.45. When I was ready for launch, Primoz was ready as well. Thinking too much about tactics, I decided to let him launch first and I got behind Suan and Pedro in the launch line. Primoz launched and had a difficult time, but was not losing height. Suan was reluctant to launch and when I finally was able to launch right after Pedro, I noticed that the winds were a lot stronger than usual. A clear indication that the thermal on launch had passed us and we had missed the cycle. For some reason I did not have the patience to wait and launched. I bombed out in a pretty spectacular fashion, that is without a single 360. Very stupid.

Primoz and Suan made goal. No more news yet.

Oh, the wind!

2011-09-05T07:14:00.000+02:00

Forgot to tell you about the wind. Both on the practice day and on the first task, we had strong winds. On the practice day, we had something like a jet layer at 2200 m. Primoz got through it earlier in the day, but I never managed to punch through. Yesterday, we had strong winds all the way from the ground (Suan landed with his hands on the speedbar). Primoz recorded a 45 km/h drift near the second turnpoint and it was at least 30 km/h for me. You can see how hard I had to work for that one once I got on the downwind side:

Kayseri - Pre Europeans - Day 1 - Task 1

2011-09-04T23:16:00.000+02:00

When we asked the locals about the typical flying here, they said 4000 m cloud base (up to 5000 m) and 6 m/s thermals. The comp organizer even added that he didn't start a XC flight unless cloudbase was at 4000 m. But, he soon added that this year seemed to be special, because he didn't even get to 3500 m this year...

So, on yesterday's practice day, we woke up with a beautiful sky and had cumi's early on. We drove up to launch on mount Ali. Launch is at 1700 m, the valley is at 1100 m, but the landing field is at 1400 m. And yes, my first flight I bombed out before I realized it. Luckily, Suan landed next to me just a few minutes after me. He must have known that that was good for my confidence ;-)

So, Suan and I quickly derigged and went for a second flight. We launched under a beautiful sky and got a nice 4 m/s thermal, which, for some reason, we couldn't take to cloud base. Winds were 30 km/h from the north and we dove in a blue hole (on our course line) which had nothing but slow 1 m/s thermals. They didn't even bring us close to cloud base and made the struggle against the wind a difficult one. We both landed out after 1,5 hour flight. We were warned for the first task.

So, today was the first hang gliding competition day on Mount Ali. The meteo guy promised us lighter winds and nicer thermals. We set an 80 km task with an entry circle and first turnpoint right above the grandstands on launch. We wanted to give the 200 spectators something to look at. The day looked way more stable than the meteo guy suggested us and we had a late race start at 3 o'clock. I launched at 2 and initially feared the same scenario as yesterday. I had already lost 150 m, when I got a very tight 3 to 4 m/s thermal. I never before climbed a thermal which remained that tight. And it reminded me of what the locals said. The thermals sometimes are strong, but too small for 2 paragliders. That seemed to be true.

Although the thermal was strong, it also stopped abruptly at 2000 m. That was an indication of what was to come. The rest of the flight was a struggle in weak, unorganized thermals. I flew for more than an hour not getting more than 600 m above ground. In a place which is known for 4000 m cloud bases...

The landscape is intriguing. The flats are separated by long hills, remains of lava flows. Some of it is very wild and desolate.

After landing, I was greeted by the local kids. They swarmed around the glider and of course were very curious.

I flew about 35 km and was 2nd for the day with that. Congrats to Suan who won the day with 48 km. No one made goal, only Suan reached nominal distance, the points were very low. Predictions are for better slightly better conditions for the next days. So I guess it will still be a lot of hard work, no easy flying.

Check Jamie's pics. She's got some really nice ones on the take-off and surroundings and you can appreciate the hard work the organizers have done to make this a very spectator-friendly place for next year's comp! Jamie also blogs about what's going on here.

Getting to Kayseri

2011-09-02T14:57:00.000+02:00

Primoz, Suan, Noel and I drove to Villach on Wednesday morning to take the car train. And I must say, it is a different way of traveling. The train took 36 hours to get from Villach, Austria to Edirne, just across the Turkish border. It changes your mindset. You have a lot of time and there's no stress at all. You're just a passenger on the train, leaning out the window and enjoying the different landscapes zooming by. At times, when I was confronted with a lot of different smells in a short time, it remembered me of riding a motorbike. And I had the time to re-read the 'Secrets of Champions'. I will fly like crap now, due to an information overload...

In Edirne, we hopped off the train and got the car back. Make sure you have a written permission that you are allowed to drive the car if the car is not yours. Customs might give you some troubles otherwise. According to the train personnel, I was the first one to enter Turkey without such a permission :-)

We left Edirne at 12.30 AM and headed for Kayseri. The GPS gave us a strange route, so we decided to follow the signs on the road. Those were a very good help and we had good roads all the way to Kayseri and arrived there around noon, after an 11 hour drive. Luckily we were able to split up the driving last night! In total we traveled just over 2 days from Villach. Slow, but we have a car and the gliders here.

The accommodation is very nice. We have good beds and free internet and apparently a kitchen we can use as well.

The team ready for departure in Villach. Notice the basket of fresh fruits and vegetables brought by Primoz. We all lived off of it :-)

Second time in Dimitrovgrad? Strange!

Trying to absorb champ knowledge...

On the road to Turkey

2011-08-30T18:39:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow we (Primoz, Suan, Noel and I) will take the car train from Villach to Turkey. From the Turkish border, it still will be a 1000 km drive to Kayseri. Let the adventure start :-)

Cloud Suck

2011-08-29T16:20:00.000+02:00

I don't know who this is and I don't know why he threw the chute while he still was flying (panic?), but it really doesn't look like a joy ride. Stay away from the clouds!

British and French Open - Results, 6th overall

2011-08-26T16:07:00.001+02:00

These are the results after 6 days and 3 tasks. Since tomorrow is going to be canned as well (very high winds predicted), they're probably not going to change anymore... Look here for task scores and the rigids.

British and French Open, Day 5, Task 3

2011-08-25T18:46:00.000+02:00

Today I was flying slow and impressed by the flying conditions. I had two scary moments and I guess that didn't help my confidence to go for it in the end. 9th in goal, I will lose a few places in the overall standings... Pilot party now, a more serious report is for later.

British and French Open, Day 1 & 2, 3rd overall :-)

2011-08-23T09:41:00.000+02:00

We've had fantastic flying weather the past two days here. The first day, we had a 138 km task. One pilot decided "not to waste the day on such a short task" and went free flying instead. I agree that we could have flown a 200 km task that day, but isn't it bad sportsmanship to show your personal opinion in this way? The organization is trying to have a good comp for all. Give them a break...
So, we flew from St. Andre to Lac de Serre Ponson, then back to Pic de Chamatte and landed in Thorame Basse. The task was fast and pretty easy, with lots of ridge soaring and strong thermals. But, it was not uneventful. We had a tumble over Dormillouse, the pilot being pretty much OK, but the glider is still up on the mountain. There was hail on course line and we had lightning over the landing field, when the cloud above us didn't even look that bad. It was a big surprise!
I finished the task in 4th and was pretty happy with that result. Here's the flight.
Yesterday we were plagued by SE winds while we were on the W launch. A 113 km task to Laragne was set, but it was shortened to a 89 km task because of the late start. It was a fast task again (won by Laurent with a 60 km/h average). Same story as the day before for me. A mistake early in the task, then being rather cautious over unlandable terrain, but with a strong finish (ignore missing the turnpoint by 10 m and having to make an extra 360). I was 9th for the task. Here's the flight on Leonardo. It was fun flying from one famous flying site to the other. And you do appreciate the change terrain. Mountains with rather narrow valleys in St. Andre and then the wide open valley of Laragne, with many different routes towards the last turnpoint. Although the task was short, you still had to make your choice in the end.
The Combat does speed up nicely on final. I was taking 2 extra circles in 4 m/s up in an attempt to beat Carl and Jonas into goal and I would have done so if I hadn't missed the turnpoint. Now I was 30s slower...
I'm now in 3rd overall. That's not bad at all :-)

Flying in St. Andre

2011-08-20T11:32:00.000+02:00

I'm in St. Andre for the British & French Open. St. Andre is a place with many stories and a place which is "not for boys". There are a number of areas without landings and the valley winds are strong. So are the thermals and the turbulences.
Yesterday I had my first XC flight here. Discovering the area from high above. But there's still a lot to discover and tomorrow is the first task. It looks to be a place where local knowledge is very important. Flying low across a ridge is not something you can do when you don't know what's behind it. Definitely not here.
And racing is something else than free flying. I guess I'll have to do a lot of risk assessment in the next few days...

Flying the Dolomites - Incredible!

2011-08-19T08:30:00.001+02:00

Carl, Jamie, Jem and I had 2 days flying in the Dolomites, launching from Col Rodella. Sadly, I lost my GoPro, so I have no footage of the most amazing flight I've ever done. I put it some pics I grabbed from the net. Here's the launch site:

Carl and I set up the plan to try to fly to the 3 Zinnen. After a dusty on take-off, we all were a bit impressed with the launch conditions and were expecting turbulent thermals. Indeed, my first thermal was quite rough, but once I got higher, things became nicer. Jem, Jamie and Carl launched as well and Carl got up from pretty low on Sella. I was a bit further and decided to join him there. That was our first real Dolomites experience. The question really is how close you dare to turn next to the rock face. The first time you fly towards it, it really scares you. But the thermals are glued to the rock face, so you go for it a bit more every time. What an impressive view! Here's a pic of the south face of Sella. We were right next to it:

Once we got cloud base, we flew on to Piz Boe, the highest point of Sella, which was a very busy place. Loads of tourists there. The valley leading to Col di Lana wasn't inviting (no nice landing places), but we went anyway. The climbs were strong and we headed in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. But, when it was clear that Drei Zinnen was a bad choice, nothing but forest leading there, we turned around. The view there was incredible (Tofana, Drei Zinnen, Civetta). We headed for Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Dolomites, which still has a little glacier. Cloud base was just high enough to reach the top of it, so we played around a little, reaching cloud base, going for the top with the glacier, going back to the climb and going over the top again. What an experience!
After that, we flew over Langkofel and Rosengarten. Langkofel was special as well, climbing next to it and then we you reach the ridge height and start to soar it, you only see rock pinacles pointing right at you. No point in having a reserve chute there...
I will return to the Dolomites. This was my biggest flying experience until now!

Test flying the Wills Wing T2C 154

2011-08-18T07:35:00.000+02:00

I also had the opportunity to test the T2C. When rigging it, it was obvious that the demo glider had high sprog settings. And it was also obvious that this was the glider that was on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the Combat 13.5. The lowest aspect ratio in the field and the sail tension also seemed to be lower with full VG on. This had to be a handling machine.
I had 2 flights with it. One sled ride down from Kobala and an hour of light thermals on Lijak. Both launches were super easy. It is amazing how soon it starts flying.
On the sled ride I tried flying it as slow as possible. And it feels as if it can fly considerably slower than the Combat. The stall (VG off or 1/3) was very smooth, so gentle that it reminded me of my training glider. The handling with full VG is a lot lighter than it is on the Combat.
These characteristics helped me a lot on the flight on Lijak. The thermals were light and very close to the ridge and the WW gave me a lot of confidence to go for them, very slow and pretty close to the trees. And all this with a serious amount of high-siding. It remembered me of flying the Spyder. Except that the Spyder was tougher.
I played a little with the VG setting while thermalling. And I think it did well until 2/3 VG (in the light thermals). Above that the glider wanted to dive too much for my comfort. I lose feeling if I have to push it out too much.
The glide was very stable, but that surely was linked to the high sprog settings. I have no clue how it feels when you set them to 'Worlds settings'.
Pulling the VG was extremely light. No effort required there at all. Very, very comfortable.
On both flights I had some altitude to burn off and I did so with some wingovers. What a difference to the Combat! The WW (with high sprog settings) is a true acro machine. It was a joy!
Of course I had to land it. And here again, the easy handling comes into play. The approach was very precise and the handling in ground effect was very nice and swift, also at low speeds. I never felt any risk of dropping a wing. Now I understand why I see other pilots execute slow and low landing approaches which I normally wouldn't do with the Combat. The flare was easy and the flare window probably is quite big. Easy landing!
It was very nice to have the opportunity to fly a Wills. Now I can't wait to fly one in race trim...

Test flying the Aeros Combat 13.5 GT

2011-08-17T23:33:00.000+02:00

I had been waiting for this for almost 6 months. And thanks to Matjaz, I finally had the opportunity to fly the Combat 13.5. The 13.5 is special because it has an extreme aspect ratio of 8.5. This means the wing is 8.5 times as wide as it is long. And aerodynamics tell you that wings with higher aspect ratios fly more efficiently. That's why sailplanes have such high aspect ratios (long, thin wings). But for us, hang gliders, it is not as easy as for sailplanes to have high aspect ratios, because we lose maneuverability and pitch stability. Aeros claims that the 13.5 is as maneuverable as their other glider and has high pitch stability as well. So, with the promised extra performance and the glider being more appropriate for my weight than my current 14.2 (aspect ratio 8), I had to try it :-)
I launched into very calm air and the glider immediately felt comfortable and at least as responsive as my 14.2. It was gliding dead straight and did 3 km with a 15.7 glide ratio at 54 km/h. Hard to say how accurate this is, but it felt good.
The first thermal I hit, was a very light one. It was a struggle to stay in the air, but I immediately was sure that the glider was going to do it for me. The handling was very, very similar to my 14.2, with the exception of a much sharper stall when I was pushing too much to fly as slow as possible. I also had to push it a little all the time as the glider was trimmed a little too fast for me.
After about an hour, the day turned on and Carl and I had a 3 hour flight with amazing views over the Tolmin area. It was the first time I got into the higher mountains and you saw the remains of WWI everywhere. Trenches, bunkers, gun platforms, … We visited the war museum a few days before and now I saw it all flying just above it.
We had a few rough thermals as well and I had a tough time in those. But, I'm all over the place in rough thermals with the 14.2. I think the 13.5 was more maneuverable.
The 13.5 remains a Combat though. It is not allowing me to fly as close to the terrain as I see other gliders do. The handling with full VG is very stiff, so you have to be careful flying close to the mountains in turbulent air. But, it must be said, it is definitely not worse than the 14.2. And achieving that with a higher aspect ratio is a great job.
The effect of the higher aspect ratio was demonstrated when I had a glide next to Carl on his Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5. There was a clear gliding advantage for the 13.5. Sadly my harness rocked up a little when we went full speed, which wasn't ideal for the glide. Still, I had the same glide as Carl then, but the Combat could definitely do better.
Of course I wanted to land it nicely (Matjaz was watching in the landing field) and the landing felt easier than with my 14.2. I think it was a textbook landing with a very nice flare. The higher wing loading helps a lot to achieve this flare as I'm a bit light on my 14.2 and it is definitely harder to make that one flare nicely. Last year, I had one landing on the smaller 13.2 and that flared very nicely as well.
So, the handling of the 13.5 was at least as good as on my 14.2 (I'm light on that one!) and the glide was probably better. I liked flying it very much.
Major kudos to Matjaz for letting me fly his glider!

Dutch Open wrap up

2011-08-14T08:23:00.000+02:00

We had 4 tasks in the Dutch Open. None of the tasks had easy flying conditions, you always had to work to get somewhere. Elio Cataldi did a remarkable job, taking the lead in most of the tasks and going fast when he was out in front. But it was Paolo Rosichetti who won the meet, being very consistent. I have not been consistent at all and am flying with highs and lows. 4th on day 2 and day 3, but only short distances on the first and fourth day. See the results.

Dutch Logic

2011-08-10T20:55:00.000+02:00

The Dutch Nationals in Tolmin, Slovenia, have started. We had a special day today. In the morning it looked like it was going to be a true racing day, but at 11 o'clock it already was obvious that there was not much lift on our task area. I missed the first start gate and was low on the second as well. I landed at the first turn point, only 16 km out. But it seems that a lot of people, including very good pilots, landed out today…
Anyway, my car was on the landing place and I decided to try to hitchhike back to it, because nobody of our team was in goal (and because I deserved the punishment). I left the glider in the field, took my harness and started walking. After 20 minutes, the official retrieve van passed me, empty and driving in the direction I needed to go to. Ideal! Ok, I did not pay for retrieve, but I said they could throw me out any time they wanted to. Any distance I could make towards Tolmin was just nice.
International experience tells you this:

the Mexicans would drive by with a van that's going to break down in a few km, with 14 gliders on the roof and 10 pilots in the completely filled van. And they'd be insulted if you turned down their offer.
the Japanese immediately call the team leader who gives you within a few seconds a clear answer on whether you can drive along a bit or not
the Austrians would already be drunk and wouldn't even notice that you're not an Austrian
the Belgians would take you as far as they could. If the bus would really fill up, they'd say "sorry dude, but we'll have to drop you off here. Here's a few beers, do we need to call anyone for you?"

Dutch logic works differently. There seem to be fundamental cultural and behavioral differences. For the Dutchies, organization is important. Rules are clear rules. Nobody on the retrieve van. Not even without a glider and if you're saying yourself that they're free to throw you off at any time. I could only stand there flabbergasted and had to laugh about it :-)

Belgian Champion :-)

2011-08-09T14:08:00.000+02:00

So, the last task was canceled. The weather didn't look good and only about 15 people were on launch the last day, so what choice did we have... We decided to do a little spot landing contest and Spanish Marti won it:

I'm very happy that I managed to remain the Belgian champion, because it was not looking that way after the first few tasks. In the end, Carl, Mart and I both won 2 tasks, but Carl had a serious lead in the general classification (see results below). We had 6 tasks and 7 out of 7 days of flying, resulting in a lot of happy faces.
Here's the Belgian podium, with Jean-Claude Bodart (r) in second and Michel Bodart (l) in third:

And this is the podium in the Open comp: Carl 1st, Mart 2nd and I was 3rd:

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 6, Task 6, task win :-)

2011-08-05T19:30:00.001+02:00

Today we woke up with a nice sky and a forecast for possible overdevelopment during the day. We decided to launch from Aspres and take Pic de Bure as a first turnpoint. That's the mountain in the next picture. It's always a thrill to climb up next to the rock faces and it was a first for quite a few competitors today. Everyone loved it:-)

From there, we had to go to Hongrie, then back to Savournon (between St. Genis and Aujour) and then back to the camping. A 90 km task. Here's Carl's launch:

And this is me:

I was a bit lower than many others in the start gate, but decided to take the first after all, because of the risk of overdevelopment. The thermals were booming everywhere and soon we were at Hongrie. There we got stuck for a while and I decided to drift downwind in a weak thermal. It took me in the direction of the edge of the valley and that's where I got a decent thermal again. It allowed me to attach to Aujour and from there it was an easy and fast run in. I was in goal 20 mins ahead of Carl and 25 ahead of Mart (2nd start gate), so I won the day :-) Here's Mart, happy to be in goal:

I will have a big lead in the Belgian Championship now and will be in 3rd overall. Never thought that would still be possible after my bad start to the comp.

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 5, Task 5

2011-08-04T21:58:00.000+02:00

5 Tasks in 5 days, who thought that this was going to happen in a European comp in 2011? Well, it's happening at the Belgian Nationals. And, if we're lucky, we're going to get 7 out of 7 :-)
There was some concern that we were driving up the wrong launch today. We rigged on the lower north launch on Chabre with light north winds and a serious chance for west winds in the early afternoon. Were we going to lose the day with the best forecast of the week?
We set a 104 km task over Aiguille, Gap, Montagne d'Oule, Sigoyer and return to the camping.
We launched as early as we dared to make sure we wouldn't be stuck on the mountain due to increasing west winds. It took me some time to find the first thermal. But the west winds didn't turn on and everybody was able to have a nice and safe launch.
It turned out to be a very interesting task with W to NW winds and a moderate cloud base (2200 m, max 2500 m). I made a first mistake when I crossed the valley near Veynes in an attempt to attach to Pic de Bure. I was to low for that and ended up in light lee conditions. I lost half an hour there. By the time I took the turnpoint near Gap, Mart, who started 20 mins later, had already overtaken me and Malcolm (also 2nd start) was right below me. I returned over Ceuse and had an easy glide to Montagne d'Oule. Had I only taken this route the first time as well... d'Oule wasn't active and I found a weak thermal on the foothills west of it. Only just enough to attach to Aujour where I couldn't find the expected strong thermal. I got low a second time, between Aujour and St. Genis and lost another 20 mins. A climb above the camping allowed me to go on glide to the last turnpoint. I enjoyed the final glide very much and flew into goal in ground effect :-)
Mart Bosman flew the task an hour faster, but after the difficulties along the route, I was happy to be in goal. 3rd for the task, 1st Belgian and 4th overall. On track for the Belgian title and the podium in the general classification is now a close battle between Malcolm and me.

Jamie's pics of the Belgian Nationals

2011-08-04T08:40:00.000+02:00

Jamie is making very nice pictures. Many of them of her babe of course, but there too nice not to share ;-)

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 4, Task 4, task victory :-)

2011-08-03T19:28:00.000+02:00

When we got up this morning, we saw thick cirrus, wave clouds and SW winds. Luckily, during breakfast, the sun started to make it's appearance We decided to launch from Aspres. On arrival there, the sky didn't look very promising and we ditched our plan to fly over Pic de Bure.

We instead decided for a task going from Apsres to Hongrie, back to the north ridge of Aujour and then back to the camping. The whole Aspres valley shaded while we were flying in the start gate, so it was going to be an interesting start. I took the first gate and took a different route than Carl and Mart. They went to Aujour, the shortest path, I went over Serres and St. Genis. Mart landed soon, Carl got very low at Aujour and I got very low once I crossed the valley to Hongrie. But after some work there, things turned on and I caught Ron on the Aujour ridge, beating him into goal with a few minutes. Task victory :-) I needed that, the past few days had been pathetic...
Jamie makes really nice pictures, here you see Carl coming into goal. And she's using Carl's glider as a sun shelter for her office...

I'm now in sixth overall, 300 points ahead of Jean-Claude, second Belgian. So I'm not yet handing over the Mitsubishi to someone else ;-)

Launch Pics

2011-08-02T18:15:00.000+02:00

Sander gave me these pics. They show my launch on the first day of the Belgians. What a nice sky...

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 1, Task 3, outlanding again...

2011-08-02T17:37:00.000+02:00

The day started late today with stable conditions on launch. We had an 80 km task. Everything started out well, being on top of the gaggle with Carl. We were the first ones to take a start (we had many choices, 9 start gates in total), together with Tom and a few other people. The thermals were pretty good and the first three turnpoints were flown over in quick succession. When I flew back to Chabre I almost caught up with Carl again, who had lost a few minutes there. I didn't want to arrive low on Chabre, so I decided to aim for the east side of it, since the hot valley air, pushed by the southeasterly winds, would hit the ridge there first. I was surprised not to find any thermals there and decided to push on for the little hills north of Chabre. They also were in the flow of the valley wind, so I had high hopes for them. But, nothing worked, I had to land there, under a blue sky.
Right after landing, I saw the whole sky west of me fill up with cumi's. Not just one or two, but a whole cloud street from Chabre to Beaumont. It was amazing to see, but it also spelled very bad news, because it now was obvious for everybody in the air how to fly. I think a lot of people who have started a little later will have had a nice run there...
I now really need a few more tasks to have any chance for the title. The worst thing is that I have a really good feeling while flying. I'm going fast, I'm not feeling like I take a lot of risks, but I'm on the ground every time again. And Carl and Mart are in goal. I feel pretty bad about it.

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 1, Task 2

2011-08-01T21:40:00.000+02:00

Two tasks in two days, not usual for the 2011 comps... but good news of course.
We had rapidly rising cloud bases during the launch window, so, when the lead gaggle left on the first start gate, I returned and waited for the second. It was a good choice because I caught up with the lead gaggle (only Carl was still in front) after 40 km. I climbed to 2400 m above Aspres and started gliding towards Montagne d'Oule. I got nothing but sink and was very pissed to find myself on the ground, after such a good first half of the task.
Many landed in that area, but 4 people made goal. Carl was first in, but was followed by Mart just a few minutes later. Since Mart took the second start gate, he won the task. Tanno and Enda Carrigan also made goal. Congrats to the Dutchies, they're currently showing the Belgians how to fly.
In the general classification, I'm now 200 points behind the first Belgian. It's about time I get some better flying in. Luckily we probably will have a few more tasks. No more mistakes allowed.

2011 Belgian Nationals, Day 1, Task 1

2011-07-31T18:27:00.000+02:00

Today looked like the nicest weather to fly in. The forecasts talked about almost no wind, no chance for overdevelopment and nice thermals. We decided to launch from the north take-off on Chabre and set a task flying zig-zag along the edges of the valley. Should have been a task to get many people in goal.
The reality was that there was a serious south wind blowing at Sisteron, which decked many pilots, because we had to get the Gache waypoint. Many, including me, were flushed down in the lee winds.

I did have a good start thought and was racing with Carl Wallbank and Malcolm Brown. But that of course doesn't help you when you land out... Thanks to Mitsubishi, we had to do some off-road driving today to get my glider. 4WD works well :-)

Luckily, only Carl made goal and many, many pilots landed near Gache. I should not have lost too many points, we'll see. Many thanks to Jamie for the pictures.

Worlds ended, Belgian Nationals now

2011-07-31T08:52:00.000+02:00

The World Championships ended with a sad day. Being on a bad launch on what turned out to be a beautiful day. I ended the Worlds in 28th place (143 competitors).
I arrived in Laragne, because the Belgian Nationals are about to start here. We're going to have a minute silence for Ricky who was killed after a failed start on the north launch. Very sad news.
We have good weather forecasts for the whole weak. Hopefully we have a comp with lots of safe and enjoyable flying...

2011 Worlds, Day 7, Task 2

2011-07-28T09:43:00.000+02:00

We finally had another task on day 7 (Tuesday, 26th). It was a very interesting task. We headed off south first in real racing conditions. Fast climbs, fast glides. Then we had to head north past the windmills, where we had a turnpoint. I was a little slow on the return and to make things worse, I flew 2,5 km past the turnpoint at the windmills... I was very upset about making this mistake as I thought it ruined any chances for me that day. But, while flying further to the north, I got an interesting line and I caught up with the second gaggle. I left the gaggle early, pushing for the most north turnpoint, which was covered in shade, hoping that I could glide back before the whole valley shut down. The opposite happened. I would not have been able to glide back, but after some surviving on the Gubbio ridge, a few spots a sun came through and everybody joined in a few very dense, low thermals. At one point, I was climbing faster in the middle of two gaggles and soon both thermals converged, causing both gaggles to collide. That was the most dense, chaotic traffic I have ever flown in.
From then on, about 70 gliders were close together and it ended with a 29 km glide on the edge of the rain, with an 18:1 glide ratio at 65 km/h on average. I even had to burn off some altitude in the end, speeding up to 110 km/h on a day where everything was overcast and rain was coming our way.
The glide into goal was probably one the most dense ever in hang gliding. People like Jonny Durand and Vicky Cain said they had never seen anything like that before. I heard that 40 gliders arrived within a minute of each other. I was in the middle of that pack, placing 28th. Much better than expected after the errors early in the task.
Johan Marien, a Belgian pilot flying his 3rd flight on a Spyder was having his first flight on Monte Cucco. He was 100 m above the landing field when the whole pack zoomed in. He couldn't believe his eyes. When I spotted the Spyder on final glide, I thought "he's in for a surprise" :-) Other pilots flying higher above Cucco also witnessed the arrival and had goose bumps, just like many spectators on the ground. It's a shame a haven't found any good photo or video footage of it. Seems that everybody just watched and nobody recorded it...

Happy to be in goal pretty fast:

28th

2011-07-27T14:48:00.000+02:00

28th in the second task and in the general results. My personal target was top 30 (143 pilots present), so I'm not unhappy.

2011 Worlds, Day 5 & 6

2011-07-24T17:13:00.000+02:00

Days 5 & 6 were canceled. And there's not much as miserable as a hang gliding competition without flying...
Although we had some free flying yesterday in the early evening. I first had some fun buzzing the launch, but when I got into a thermal with some strength, I decided to take it and it soon became a solid 4,5 m/s to 2000 m. I decided to go for Gubbio against the 30 km/h wind and Karl Reichegger (I think), seemed to have the same plan. We took a 2 m/s in the middle of the valley and almost drifted back to above launch. But we had made some advance and could glide to the Gubbio ridge now. When I arrived there, the winds were almost NW and I spent 40 min soaring the ridge, but not getting any decent thermals anymore. I couldn't get back, so I landed near Gubbio.
Julia was flying herself, so when she didn't reply to my sms, I decided to walk to Gubbio and have dinner there. Gnocchi with a tomato sauce, bacon, rucola and parmesan. It tasted good and it filled the stomach.
I really hope we fly another task tomorrow! We came here to compete.

Live tracking

2011-07-23T07:36:00.000+02:00

We all have GPS trackers at this comp. And, you can follow us live on the internet. Suddenly people can see the race unfold. And it's fun to get some comments from people who watched you fly online. I didn't realize who much more transparent our sport becomes, when they gave me the tracker.
You can also replay tasks in Google Earth, certainly something to check out!

2011 Worlds, Day 4, Task 1

2011-07-23T07:20:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, we had our first task. Due to the high winds, the organization decided to launch from Monte Subasio, above Assisi, which is a 1 hour drive from Monte Cucco. The launch site is huge and there was no problem at all setting up 150 gliders. The sky looked nice, but is was evident that there was a lot of wind.
We got a 120 km task up and down and a bit into the valley of Assisi. We launched and just before the first start gate, almost 150 gliders joined in a single thermal. I've never seen that much traffic. My position was good and I wanted to go early, so I took the first start gate, as did about 100 others I think. It was a fight against the wind and I got a little behind the leaders, almost catching them at the first start point.
But I also had to manage my GPS problems. I had forgotten to enter the first turnpoint twice (once for the start gate and once for the actual turnpoint) and only had the 'optimized distance' in the user fields. So, once I canceled the route, to start a GOTO to the turnpoint, I didn't have a distance because 'Dist to WP' was not on the display and you don't seem to be able to change the user fields in flight... So I went a bit further than others did, to make sure I got the turnpoint... Many also landed at the first turnpoint.
I got a good run back to the start and at 70 km into the task I was back with the leaders. Now, the struggle into the 35 km/h headwind to the turnpoint in the valley started. At first, I was blown backwards in lighter thermals in the shade. Only after a while I got a 2 m/s and I started making progress again. I ended up 200 m below Manfred about 3,5 km before the turnpoint. We flew into a thermal and I saw Manfred go up, but only had 0,5-1 m/s myself. Not enough for a 35 km/h wind. So I pushed for the turnpoint, being quite sure that that was going to be a thermal trigger. Against my expectations, I could not reach it, because we approached it from the lee side and the glide wasn't good enough for that. I had to land and saw many gliders come over...
I'm 33rd in the results which is better than I expected when I saw everybody fly over. But I should have done better. Losing a very possible 10th-15th place 2/3rds into the task is not a nice feeling.

Day 3 Video

2011-07-23T07:04:00.000+02:00

Uploading took a few tries, but here it is:

2011 Worlds, Day 3, Canceled

2011-07-21T20:39:00.000+02:00

We all were hopeful for today and drove the whole flying circus to Monte Cucco's south launch. But soon it was clear that the winds were higher than allowed in the local regulations. Gusts over 40 km/h, so there was not going to be a task. The winds away from the mountain looked strong, but flyable, so when the task was canceled, about 2/3 of the field went free flying.
The thermals were great and I enjoyed a 1 hour flight, before I landed because there was a bit too much lift to my liking. I had to work a bit to come down to the landing field in pretty turbulent air, but that was the worst of the day. Once landed, the sky looked much friendlier again and it turned out to be a very nice afternoon.
A video with some impressions of the windy launch place is uploading. Coming soon...

Worlds 2011, Day 2, Canceled

2011-07-20T10:19:00.000+02:00

The second day has been canceled due to high winds as well. There's a real chance for flying tomorrow. Let's hope we finally get started.
Yesterday morning, I proposed the idea to go to Castelluccio to have some local flying there. The site is known to be protected from high winds. We didn't go to Castelluccio, but visited the Frassisi caves instead. It definitely was worth the visit, but it hurt when the Germans told in the evening that they were flying up to 4000 m in wave conditions at Castelluccio. Damn, I missed an exceptional opportunity...

Worlds 2011, Day 1, Canceled

2011-07-19T12:34:00.001+02:00

High winds, no task today. Going for the Frassisi caves.

Some Pics

2011-07-19T12:11:00.000+02:00

Sergey Drobyshev made these pictures on the Monte Cucco launch. спасибо!

Monte Cucco Video

2011-07-18T07:47:00.000+02:00

Monte Cucco is a special place, where you can find smooth air in strong wind conditions. We had two of those days just prior to the upcoming worlds and we played around a little. Hope you enjoy it, we did :-)

Pre-comp-nervousness

2011-07-17T16:36:00.000+02:00

There's a lot going on here. The World Championships are about to start, so everybody is nervous. And in this nervous atmosphere, everybody has to register and the technical rules are checked (sprog measurements, helmet certifications).
The sprog measurement requires 150 gliders to be measured within 2 days in quite a hot sports hall. No need to say that some people get stressed there. Moreover because some things are a bit weird. The minimum settings for the sprogs are defined by the manufacturers. That's a bit like letting the cyclist teams in the tour de france decide themselves how much doping is still safe for their riders. You can guess what the result would be...
And then there is the 'no more prototypes'-rule. It seems that some people who very much know what they are doing in this sport, arrived with gliders which are different from their certified gliders. A bit weird as well, isn't it?
Next to that, there's the discussion about helmet certifications. The rules for this are well defined and already known a year ahead. It seems that a number of people are trying to cut corners there. Please, give the organizers a break. It was really easy for all of us to comply to that simple rule...
So, as you can see, a lot of pre-comp-nervousness. May it stop soon. Let the flying begin! If the weather permits...

Munich - Fiesch Open. Turbulent times.

2011-07-14T10:40:00.000+02:00

Driving to Fiesch over the Furka-Oberalp pass was great:

Arriving in Fiesch, it was soon clear that a lot of people hadn't shown up. Fiesch has a very bad reputation when it comes to turbulences. Were people afraid, so short before the worlds? Nobody wanted to risk any injuries, that's for sure.
The first task immediately was the most turbulent flight ever for me. But what an experience it was to fly above the glacier! Here's a picture published on the OzReport:

You see the huge blocks of ice and you feel that the reserve chute is something which will only extend your life for a short while :-) It's a shame we never got to experience a high cloud base, I never got above 3000 m (although the organizers gave us a certificate telling us we participated in a comp where we flew above 4000 m, lol!).
But hey, not too much time for sightseeing, there was a race going on. The first task started with a really good start position for me, but I struggled after the first turnpoint. The rest of the task, I raced very hard and I ended up 6th, just 5 minutes behind Manfred, the Schumacher of hang gliding ;-). On final glide, the glider was rocked to all sides. The side wires slapped a few times, but I think the tail is working very, very well. Dustin flew next to me and slowed down to half VG and 80 km/h, while I could just charge on...
The second task was a big disappointment for me. I flew the first 2/3 very fast, only Primoz ahead of me and Manfred below me. When I only needed 400 m more to make goal, I didn't take a 2 m/s to cloudbase (which Manfred did take). 5 Minutes later I ended up in a sink hole and didn't react in a very smart way. I ended up on the ground and could only curse at myself...
One of the Russian girls had a bad landing and broke her hips. It was very strange to hear the organizer tell us on the briefing that she was ok because she was going to be able to fly next year. It got even stranger when he told us a few minutes later that the day was canceled because the comp didn't have any accidents and he wanted it to stay that way. Huh?
So, on the canceled day, we visited the Aletsch glacier. Pics here, they're impressive!
The third day I missed the start gate and had 2 tough moments. Ended up half an hour slower than the leaders and 26th on the task. I ended up 17th overall, but I clearly had higher expectations...

Are we going to get any comps?

2011-07-05T09:49:00.000+02:00

I took 6 months off the job to see what's possible in terms of competition flying. But the European season brings me one canceled comp after the other. Alpen Open, Italian Nationals, Austrian Nationals, they all were struck by bad weather. Next two comps are the biggest of the year. The Swiss Open in Fiesch and of course the World Championships in Italy. The past few days they had some nice flying in Switzerland, but look how the predictions look like for the comp: snow and thunderstorms. I can't believe it...

Flying in Gemona, spectacular!

2011-07-05T09:39:00.001+02:00

During the last weekend I flew in Gemona with Davide, Suan, Gerolf, Tom, Anton, Artur and the Ukrainians. On Saturday, we hit a very special day there. Cloudbase was at 2400 m above the flats and there was rain and abundant lift over the mountains. It was freezing above 2200 m and I didn't put on enough clothes on the hot and sweaty launch. Soon I was freezing in the air and after 1,5 hours, I decided to land because I was shaking all over my body. Anton and Gerolf used the cloud street in the flats and landed on the beach :-)
On Sunday we had different weather with rather turbulent conditions. NW winds were flowing over the mountains, so we mostly flew in light lee conditions on the south faced slopes. Here's a video of that flight, it's a quickly made compilation of Sunday's flight, but I think it has some spectacular views. Check it out :-)

Croation Nationals, Beautiful Istria

2011-07-04T18:37:00.000+02:00

It's about time to write down how it was in Croatia! First of all, Croatia is the first country where I was stopped at a border and told I could not cross it. The GPS sent me over some tiny roads in the middle of the night (and also in the middle of nowhere) and suddenly I saw two headlights coming my way. And they aimed straight for me. I had to stop on the tiny road and it turned out to be a border patrol sending me back. I could not cross the border there at night. And I was only 4 km from the place where I had to be. Raspadalica, above Buzet:

Raspadalica is a very nice take-off, 400 or 500 m above Buzet, with a camping right next to launch. The grass field is covered with a variety of herbs. When you drive your car to the tent, the tires roll over them, resulting in an intense perfume when you exit the car!
The competition tasks were run from Ucka, a 1400 m high mountain on the Adriatic coast. Here you can see that the rigging area was small and we needed to use every inch of it. (Funny how you swap metric systems when you swap languages...)

We had three tasks in total. Primoz won the first and third and was second in the second task. A convincing win for him. For me, the first task started with true racing with Primoz, Balasz and Franc. Somehow I thought I saw a better line leading to the second turnpoint and I went for it. Only to regret that I thought I knew better than Primoz... I got low, spent a lot of time recovering from it and had a slow run into goal then. Still 4th for the task, so it wasn't a bad result.
The landing still had a surprise. The winds were switching when I approached the field and I waited too long with my decision on how to fly the circuit:

The second task started with an interesting launch. We had NE winds above 1500 m and S winds down in the valley, which I didn't realize. I explored the area on my own before the start gate and waited under a very nice cloud. After a while, the cloud got stronger and when I exited the lift, I got into quite severe turbulence. I was scared even with the VG off. So I left that cloud and went for the cloud where all the others were. When I arrived there, 4 minutes before the start gate, I saw that Primoz was still climbing, but very slowly, while all the others were looking for other options. I also started searching for stronger lift and only found sink. So, you fly at cloud base for 45 minutes only to lose 500 m in the last minutes before the start :-( I decided to start anyway, convinced that the ridge to the first turnpoint would work. But that wasn't the case due to the S influx of maritime air into the valley. I was on the ground much sooner than expected. And I could forget about a nice classification in the comp... The 4WD Mitsubishi came in handy during the retrieve:

The third task started with magical flying before the start. A convergence set up north of Ucka and I was flying between the cloud wisps, at 2400 m, with a fantastic view over Istria and the islands in the Adriatic Sea:

The first start gate was at 14h30, which is already very late, but it was a blue day out in the flats, where the task was flown. Being the only one very high at the time of the start, I had 2 options: start and risk it on my own in the blue, or give up my position and wait for the second start, half an hour later. I opted for the first and had a 25 km glide to the ground... Here I fly into the valley where I had my last hope to find a thermal:

It ended with a landing with the drogue chute. I practiced a few a those landings since I haven't been doing them for a long time. I'm always shorter than I expect to be. The drogue chute is working well :-)

I couldn't find the scores online yet, but if I remember well I ended up 12th. Wanted to do a lot better...

Flying in Nova Gorica and heading to the Croatian Nationals

2011-06-24T20:40:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I left a very wet Greifenburg and headed for Nova Gorica. I picked up the Ukrainians in Tolmin, where conditions were sure to overdevelop and we headed for Lijak. We launched at 2 o'clock and everybody had a great flight. The conditions were magnificent and so was the view. We were just a little late to fly into the flats, because the south winds took the marine air very far inland.
So I ended up doing probably the most classical flight there is when starting from Lijak, flying up and down the ridge. 75 km in 2 hours, it was fun :-) Although I knew it wasn't going to work, I tried to go into the flats, but had to land soon after. The last little thermal came from a garbage belt, and smelled like it...
Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Buzet, Croatia, to participate in the Croatian Nationals. At last a competition with a good weather forecast:

Plans for the summer

2011-06-24T20:24:00.000+02:00

Here's a map with the agenda for this summer:

B: Croatian Nationals coming up soon (June 27th until June 30th)
C - D - E - F: Free flying in Greifenburg, visit family in Salzburg and head to Fiesch for the Fiesch Open (July 7th until July 11th).
G: World Championships at Monte Cucco, very, very much looking forward to that, 3rd and 4th week of July
H: Belgian Nationals in Laragne, immediately after the worlds (1st week of August). That will be a trip...
I: Postponed Austrian Nationals at the Diedamskopf (August 13th - August 15th)
J: British Nationals in St. Andre-les-Alpes

Greifenburg, finally some flying again

2011-06-23T20:38:00.000+02:00

The bad comp weather continues. The Austrian Nationals are postponed to mid-August. So I headed to Greifenburg, because it showed at least one good day of flying there.

While setting up, Gerolf and Zhenya arrived and Gerolf had a plan :-) And the plan included some sightseeing. The flight indeed started with extremely nice flying. It's very sad that I failed to turn on the GoPro (it only took 1 picture)!
Later, the thermals were broken and very turbulent. It was good to be flying for 3 hours. And as usual, I struggled in the turbulences. It's hard to manhandle my big glider in them. Gerolf suggests carbon leading edges ;-) I guess he's got a point there...

The second day resulted in a short flight for me. After almost an hour, I got drilled down like never before. 4 to 5 m/s down until I almost hit the deck...
In Greifenburg, I also met Juergen Pasker again on launch. He invited me to join his club and I had two very nice evenings with them. They introduced me to 'plattln', which is a lot like horseshoe throwing. Quite an interesting affair, when everybody has had his fair share of beer and schnapps. It's always good to hang around with the Austrians :-)

A few days 'dohoam' in Salzburg

2011-06-23T20:08:00.000+02:00

After Tolmin, I drove to Salzburg for a few days, knowing that the weather was bad all over the Alps. I stayed at my grandma's place, visited some family and hiked up the Untersberg. The latter was impressive because of the low clouds which were blown by the wind. I stupidly decided to run down instead of walking down, resulting in the worst muscle aches I've had for quite a while...
The days in Salzburg ended with a visit to Primoz, with a faint hope to fly. We did not do anything more than a sled ride, but Primoz had an inclinometer, so we checked my sprogs. And surprisingly, they were low. We corrected them and the glider does feel better, especially on landing. The last landings, in Europe, I really had difficulties to flare. That's solved now. And it probably also explains why I found the flights in Tolmin to be rather turbulent, while Regina and Matjaz did not experience that at all. It's a fine line. One turn on the inner sprogs makes a big difference!

Tolmin, part 3, Fly with us!

2011-06-19T22:42:00.000+02:00

When flying in Tolmin, Regina, Matjaz and I all had camera's with us. Matjaz used the footage and made a really nice video about the flying in his home valley. Thanks a lot, Mat!

Next time, we also need to provide camera's to the eagles :-)

Tolmin, part 2

2011-06-17T22:05:00.000+02:00

Regina sent me some nice memories from Tolmin:

Tolmin

2011-06-17T15:10:00.000+02:00

I had 2 days of flying in Tolmin with Matjaz and Regina. Matjaz was the perfect host. Sadly both days looked menacing and we decided to land soon on both flights. But look at this picture, Tolmin is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen:

The birds in Tolmin were flying remarkably close to us. They really seemed to like to have some friends around :-)
After we decided to land, Matjaz and I did some formation flying to get some pictures. And I tried my first wingovers again after last year's incident. I slowly started some minor wingovers, because I didn't have any confidence to try them again. This time I only pulled 2/3 VG and that made a lot of difference. Less VG gives the glider a lot more pitch and handling and still a lot of speed. It almost has the same effect as turning the sprogs up for aerobatics. The improved handling quickly resulted in some confidence and I did a few proper wingovers. I missed them, it was a lot of fun!

Monte Cucco Fun

2011-06-13T22:43:00.000+02:00

A quick impression of the flying at Monte Cucco:

Gap in between comps, flying Monte Cucco

2011-06-13T11:07:00.000+02:00

So, the last 3 comps suffered from bad weather and now there is a 2 week intermezzo until the next comp, the Austrian Open at the Diedamskopf in Tirol. It is difficult to find good flying weather over Europe these days. I left the Italian Nationals at Feltre (canceled comp) and drove to the Monte Cucco.
Flying has been very good on the first day, but I had no retrieve so I decided to fly locally and practice top landings.

The second day had thick cirrus and the locals told me not to expect anything more than a sled ride down. I said I was an optimist because the sky looked very unstable low down and that I would wait a little longer before launching. Two hours later, Gary Wirdnam arrived and when we launched we almost bombed out but managed to climb out again. It turned out that the day was very unstable indeed and an hour later I toplanded because I got scared by the developing storms. I was a bit overcautious however, it was still perfectly flyable for another hour and a half... This was the beautiful post-storm sky (and the colors in the valley were magic):

I camped on launch, which was a nice experience on Thursday night, but not on Saturday night. I think Saturday night started with a drug deal on the parking space, than had a sequence of drunk people having a little party there and it probably ended with the same guys ending their drug deal for the night... Anyway, during the week, it is a nice experience:

Yesterday turned on very soon. There was a north wind and the north east side of the ridge showed thermal from 8:30 AM. The other side, the Sigillo valley, was completely covered in fog. It was a nice view to wake up with! Gary and I set a 120 km task, flying over the valley near Matelica to start with. By the time I returned to Monte Cucco, the sky had overdeveloped and Sigillo had heavy rain. I decided to land on the north landing field, where the car was already waiting by the time I came in. At last another XC flight. Almost half the task, it was good to be covering some distance again. And over terrain I had never flown over before.
Click here to see more pictures on Facebook.
The weather forecast is not looking very good for the next days, so I'm heading to Slovenia, to Matjaz' place. Looking forward to flying there!

Wing Loading and Competition Tactics

2011-06-10T22:32:00.000+02:00

Last year, I bought the Combat 14.2 because of the 8.05 aspect ratio. I knew I was quite light for the glider (85 kg, about 100 kg hook-in) but, if needed, I could take some ballast to make sure I was heavy enough. It turned out that I liked flying the glider and the glide was good. Others were telling me my glide was very good to exceptional, but I am not convinced about that.
The handling was ok, I needed some power, but hey, it is a rather large glider. But, there was one true weakness. And that was climbing out low, in turbulent thermals. And of course, that makes perfect sense with a rather lightly loaded big glider.
When I flew in Florida, I added 4 kg of ballast. And yes, that improved handling. Not dramatically, but it definitely was better. However, that feeling did not last. As the comps progressed, it felt more and more difficult to steer the glider in turbulent conditions. I could not really understand it and I did not manage to work around it. It felt as if I did not learn, but got worse at flying instead.
Once back in Belgium, a trip to the scale was telling. I had lost 6 kg, so I was 2 kg lighter than before I used the ballast. Now I understood.
So, while flying today at Monte Cucco, I added another 4 kg. And yes, handling improved a lot again.
I'm flying my glider 'light'. And while that's not bad for free flying (as long as you can land it safely), it does have a serious impact on my competition flying. My lightly loaded Combat thermals very well in organized thermals and I regularly out-climb the competition. This means that I'm on top of the stack and have to make the decisions and lead out in front. But, some others definitely glide better. And by the time I core my next thermal, they glide in at my height or even slightly higher. A lot of work and risk taking and no rewards.
It gets even worse when the competition is eager to take some risks. When some of the top guys go for it at the start of the race, they will glide until low down. They do this to get rid of a lot of the other competitors, who are not comfortable getting low. And you can guess it, that also is a weak point for me. Lower down, the thermals are less organized, more turbulent. You need swift handling to work the bubbles of air shooting up. You don't want to miss those! A lighter loaded glider, especially with high aspect ratios, does not handle swiftly. So that was my situation, trouble low down. And as a result, not enough confidence to go with the best.
Today, with my 4 extra kg (8 in total and maybe some recovered body weight), handling was better than ever before. The glider will still be rather lightly loaded, but I felt I could throw it into bubbles when I wanted to. And that is new and was a very good feeling! So, may the comps start again, I'm ready to test some new tactics :-)

No flying...

2011-06-06T15:08:00.000+02:00

The bad weather streak is not coming to an end yet. After the bad weather at the MidWest comp and the Alpen Open, the first three days of the Italian Nationals have been canceled as well. And it is not looking good for the rest of the week. I think I'll leave and head for Salzburg for some free flying. And I will contact Primoz to testfly the 13.5 GT. My current glider is very good for free flying, but it is just a bit large for top notch competition flying. I'll write about that in a later post.
At least it seems that next week will have some decent flying weather. Let's hope so, my last serious flight is now almost 3 weeks ago...

Alpen Open

2011-06-06T15:00:00.000+02:00

The Alpen Open, well they had bad luck with the weather. Only one small task. Roland Woehrle and Suan Selenati won the comp with 95 points in total. When you know that a single day should be worth around 950 to 1000 points, than you know the flying wasn't good at all during this comp...
We took our time heading to the Alps from Belgium. We visited Virpi and Kari, Hans and Christa and my grandmum in Salzburg. Eisriesenwelt was more interesting than not being able to fly during a comp.

My mobility

2011-06-01T10:12:00.001+02:00

... has been provided by Mitsubishi Motors Belgium:

Thanks a lot to Mitsubishi for their support!

2011 MidWest comp

2011-05-21T04:00:00.000+02:00

Finally writing something on the MidWest comp! The comp didn't have the same luck with the weather as it had last year. We did get 2 tasks, the first one started with very light lift under an almost overcast sky. I had troubles with an entry circle which I incorrectly entered in the instrument and happened to take the second start at a perfect location, by coincidence. The lead gaggle had taken the first start, but lost a lot of time at the first turnpoint. They left that one just before I arrived there. That motivated me very much to join them. But a bit too much, since I was on the ground soon after skipping a thermal to catch up... First task, short distance and only one task to follow. I knew the comp was over for me.
The second task started with high expectations regarding the flying conditions. A 134 km task was set. I launched early, trying to get rid of the previous day's frustrations and climbed out nicely. 45 minutes of flying around before the first start, hopping from cloud to cloud. But from the moment we started, things were much more difficult. We had to fight a headwind and the thermals started to be disorganized. The second turnpoint was completely overcast and only Carl and Larry managed to really escape out of there, be it low. I landed at the turnpoint. Carl won the comp. Congrats Carl!
One of the Chicago guys made two really beautiful video's about the comp:

The US experience - Vehicles

2011-05-17T02:27:00.000+02:00

Vehicles. Different in the US as well. They use planes to spray the fields. Crop dusters with powerful engines. Here's an old one with a piston engine, but we've seen one in action at the ridge which had a turboprop. Quite spectacular!

And the trucks of course. Monstrous cabins and they overtake you at 75 mph… Remember Joy Ride?

I drove Davis' truck and trailer on the trip to Illinois. You don't want to mess up when your pulling someone's house on the freeway, turnpike, interstate, … (they have a lot of names here for the 'autobahn')

Dolly launches with tail

2011-05-16T22:37:00.000+02:00

Dolly launches. I have limited experience with them and I don't like them. Of course, you'll think, you're writing this after Julia's incident. But Jamie, Dave and others at Quest will know I've expressed my preference for foot launches before. And I've written about my concerns about dolly launches with the tail before. So why am I writing about it now? Because I have pictures of my tail and because I am reflecting on my first serious series of dolly launches. Of course the second reason may well be triggered by the incident.
So why don't I like them?
First of all, because they introduce a number of risks. I feel comfortable foot launching and my hang gliding instructor, Tom Haagdorens, always told me to keep things simple if possible. And I think that is a really good advice. Don't get me wrong, dolly launching is a matured way of launching. The risks are well known and there are procedures to deal with them (check AOA, check for loose wires, check connection to tow cable, use weak links, …) Still, I prefer not to have to deal with those risks at all. Of course I have to deal with the risks involved in foot launching. That includes not tripping and stabilizing the glider while running. But these are the things I'm used to deal with and I feel I have more control over those.
So, first of all, I want to keep it simple. Next to that, I feel uncomfortable when the glider is rolling on the dolly on a grass field. There are always bumps, sometimes quite violent bumps. My base bar is not made for that, I don't feel what the glider is doing anymore because I am having a real firm grip, the glider is getting a beating (think about the A frame, the harness, the jesus bolt and so on) and I don't want that. It was revealing to have 2 launches from the runway during the race and rally. I felt what the glider was doing then. I had no doubt about when to leave the dolly. I felt comfortable with the situation then.
And, the dollies are not made with gliders with tails in mind. People told me not to worry about that. Just make sure you leave the dolly late, when the glider is flying and there will be more than enough clearance for the tail. I never felt comfortable with the "do not worry" advice. And as it turned out, the day before Julia's incident, my tail got stuck to the dolly pretty badly (see the picture below). I always left the dolly late, made sure my keel had left the dolly. Yet, my tail got stuck for what seemed to be 2 to 3 seconds. I was happy to feel it launch after all, looked back and saw that the tail was partly disassembled. I immediately released and landed to check the damage. Alex rolled me back into the line after I made sure the tail was fixated again and seemed to be in good order.

We know that the dolly may jump up when the rear wheel hits a bump. I am quite convinced that that caused my problem that day. But I have no eye-witnesses…
What I know is that dollies are not designed for tails. If the tail gets caught by the keel suspension, it will not release because of the forward force applied to the glider and the backward angle of the keel suspension. You might think that we could solve that problem by making sure that the suspension is tilted forward, but that is not true. If that would be the case, a tail hitting the suspension would rise and thus possibly introduce negative pitch with a bad crash as the result.
The best solution I've seen so far are dollies with just a minor V-shaped cut-out for the keel. But you can imagine the glider to jump out of that on a bumpy field.
So, please do take care when launching with tails on dollies. I always put the AOA as high as I can, knowing that this makes me more vulnerable to crosswinds. But I need to clear the dolly with the tail.
So, now you know why I feel uncomfortable with the situation. Even with a high AOA, which you don't want to have for safety reasons, I have the safety issue of maybe not clearing the dolly with the tail. In the future, I'll ask to do foot launches if the terrain we're launching from is bumpy.

The US experience - Traveling 1300 km to Chebunse

2011-05-16T21:52:00.000+02:00

We had 35 degrees and tropical vegetation in Florida. We flew over forests and grasslands into Georgia and it still was hot. South Carolina was hot as well, but it was already completely different. The conifers had gone and the variety of trees had nice green leaves. The houses are built differently, nice wooden houses with porches and pillared balconies. Tennessee showed us some really green mountains. We went from the summer into the spring. But spring definitely can be violent there. We saw tornado damage. Trees smashed to the ground in all directions and houses without roofs and/or walls. We were told that 10 km from Lookout Mountain, a Mac Donalds restaurant was wiped away. Only the sign on a high post and the cooler were still there. The only survivor was the guy that ran into the cooler to shelter. Another family had 4 cars and couldn't find any of them after the tornado. The next day, they found one car half a mile away in the trees…

So, we headed north to Chicago from there and saw some serious flooding on our way. The Mississippi is threatening populated areas, so they are flooding grasslands along the rivers feeding the Mississippi. Not only is it spring here instead of the summer I've already experienced for a few weeks, it's also a cold spring. We have beautiful clear skies here, instead of the humid, hazy air in the south, but the temperatures have dropped accordingly. Not much above freezing at night and 12 degrees during the day. I'll need to find some warm clothes for flying! This is how the location for the Midwest Comp looks like. Flat and green:

Flytec Race and Rally - task 4 & 5

2011-05-15T15:27:00.000+02:00

The Flytec Race & Rally is over. We had some great flying with 5 tasks averaging 140 km per task. I had a really bad first task, a good second day, 2 really good days on the 3rd and 4th task, battling it out with the top of the field, but I ended on a low again, not making goal on the last day. This put me in 19th place overall. I expected to do better... But as mentioned, it was great flying. And it is a great concept. We tried to reach Lookout Mountain, Georgia and almost made it. As you can see we went east on the 2 final tasks, because of bad weather in the west. So, we didn't reach Lookout Mountain, but we did travel and flew over unknown, new territory every day.

Flytec Race and Rally - task 3

2011-05-11T01:08:00.000+02:00

The rally is going great. After 3 days, we reached Americus, Georgia. Souther Field, currently called 'Jimmy Carter Regional Airfield', is a place with history, since Charles Lindbergh learned to fly here.

It was an honor to race into goal here and take 6th place for the day. It was a fast race to goal and one of the better flights I have ever done. We almost did 50 km/h on a no-wind day. You can see I was happy on landing, more pictures in Jamie's albums.

The comp started with a really bad task for me, resulting in 43rd place, but after two good tasks I'm currently 20th. I hope I still can improve on that.
It's great to see Paris Williams fly so well on his comeback. I knew Paris only from reading 'Secrets of Champions' and here he is, showing us how to fly. He was fastest yesterday, but was 2nd in the results because Jonny took the leading points after taking the first start. Still, Paris flew at a pretty impressive speed! Oh, and he's a fellow Aeros Combat pilot :-)
The airfield is one of the busiest crop duster places in the US. Here's one them on the airfield:

Results and news can also be found on the rally's blog.

Flytec Race and Rally - first 2 tasks

2011-05-10T14:54:00.000+02:00

The rally started with a blue day and a task taking us from Quest to Keystone. It certainly was an ambitious goal and no-one made it. I was over-aggressive, leading out in the blue. At first, I was finding good lift and worked my way against the wind, but after 40 km, I had to land and saw a massive gaggle flying by. Apparently all the others decided to stay together. I had a really bad score for the task...
The second task took us from Live Oak to Moultry, Georgia. It was a 120 km headwind task, with beautiful clouds along the course. I took the first start gate and was on my own again. Most took the second and I was hoping to get a really good run when they would catch up with me. Sadly, I got low halfway through the course and I saw Jonn flying over me at cloudbase. Damn, I missed that train... Still, 13th for the day is a good score. I'm now 30th overall, so there's a lot of work to do.

Race and Rally starts tomorrow!

2011-05-08T00:14:00.000+02:00

The Flytec Race and Rally is pretty special when it comes to hang gliding competitions. As far as I know, it is the only rally. We start it at Quest, near Orlando and we hope to reach Huntsville, Alabama. It all depends on the weather of course, but I'm really looking forward to fly in a new place every single day.
And it is a new comp, so anything is possible again :-)

Rob Kells Memorial - Final task

2011-05-07T23:56:00.000+02:00

Day 6 of the comp was canceled due to strong winds and day 7 looked really good when we started the task we had an out-and-return to the NNW. But that took us into the shade caused by overdevelopment in a front just north of us. I was in the leading gaggle with Curt, Zippy and Paris, but I lost height in a very weak thermal where the other managed to maintain altitude. So I had to go out alone in the shade, heading for the dark storms (still far away) and I knew I probably just was going to glide as far as I could. And that's the way it turned out to be. I landed 700 m short of the turn point.
Paris managed to work the thermal best and managed to return 6 or 7 km and won the day. Jonny flew just a few meters less and won the comp from Dustin on the last day.
This picture was taken after task 5, landing back at the ridge.

Fast day until it shut down

2011-05-05T04:24:00.000+02:00

For the first time this comp, we were having goal at the place we launch (Florida Ridge). Here's a picture while towing:

A 111 km diamond shape task was set going in the direction of Fort Myers and back. I had a really fast run with Zippy and Shapiro until I failed to gain anything from a cloud street. That made me miss the last thermal with Zippy, who came in goal 20 minutes before me. I had a really slow leg after that missed thermal, but it was even worse for others. 3rd in goal and 4th for the day. Jonny took a later start gate, but was 7 minutes faster than me. My best performance in this comp. I think I'm back in the top 10 :-)

Why is Jonny that much faster?

2011-05-04T13:58:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Jonny was way faster than anybody else. While talking about start gates and people out in front who could be his thermal markers, he told me that they didn't help him, because they where all circling in weak lift. I compared our track logs and indeed, Jonny's vario profile is completely different than mine. His vario averaged 1.9 m/s, mine averaged 0.9 m/s and the glides where comparable...

Jonny only turns in good stuff, I have to learn how to find that.

Trying to be smart - failed

2011-05-03T16:04:00.000+02:00

Yesterday's task was a 120 km mostly crosswind task. I had a difficult start, almost had to land and relaunch, but had a low save and could make the 3rd start gate. I was in a nice gaggle with Dustin, Andre, Davis, Julia, ... Just before the first turn point I was looking at the clouds and I thought the gaggle made a strange move going that far west. I decided to take a slightly different route and 2 minutes later, I saw the gaggle coming my way. I thought I had just done a nice move. Not so, I stupidly missed the first turn point and realized that 5 km later. I tried to turn around, but had a strong headwind heading there and had to land a the turn point. What a stupidity and what a missed chance!

Rob Kells Memorial - Day 2

2011-05-02T04:19:00.001+02:00

Strong winds today, with rowdy thermals as a consequence. Quite a roller coaster ride. We had a 122 km task with a 15 km start cylinder and everyone was convinced it was going to be a late, but fast day. Which it was. I saw a nice cloud developing on the edge of the cylinder short before the 1st start gate and I got very high there, but my timing was off and I had to return because I was going to lose to much time if I started then.
I took the second start gate, which was probably early, so I was alone during the first half of the flight. About halfway, after the first turn point, I got low and lost a lot of time. I feared I would have to land and had to work broken lift for quite a while before it really turned on again. That was also the moment that I saw a whole armada of gliders (well 7 or 8) come my way. They took the 3rd start gate and caught up with me. One thermal later, I looked like a complete rookie when Jonny and Jeff Shapiro outclimbed me in a spectacular fashion. I somehow didn't catch it and they were right in the core. Still a lot to learn...
I came into goal 6th, having started a start gate earlier. In the provisional results I'm 7th for the day and I don't think that's going to change. That also puts me in 7th overall. A good day :-)
And Jonny made a video about yesterday's (where I had the rare opportunity of seeing him come into goal) and today's task:

Rob Kells Memorial - Day 1

2011-05-01T01:52:00.000+02:00

Today started with a windy sky and difficult conditions after launch. Low, weak thermals under an almost overcast sky. We had an 80 km task and I managed to jump the 3rd startgate, so I'll have a 13 or 14 minute time penalty because the start gates were 15 mins apart.
We had to cross some 'unretrievable' terrain after the start and I didn't really want to do that with the low altitude we had. Only after drifting far enough to the west, I could see the road on the other end of it and I decided to go. Just to soon, as you know. Anyway, the day got better and I had a really good climb 15 km out. I had 9/1 to goal, but hit sink on my way to goal and was seeing 6/1 numbers. I needed a few turns in a thermal 2 kms out of goal to make it. I was happy to be there. To my surprise there were fewer gliders there than I expected. I think I was 5th or 6th in goal. We landed next to a prison and the sheriff wasn't really happy about that...
So with all the difficult conditions and apparently also other people with bad start times, it's waiting for the scores to have any idea where I ended up.
Click the map screenshot to see more flight details. We were low for a large portion of it...

Rob Kells Memorial about to start

2011-04-30T01:22:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow, the Rob Kells Memorial will start. It's my first comp in the US and it is quite an international pilot list. Of course, the US hot shots are here, but there's also a large Latin-American delegation.
Many pilots arrived today at the Florida Ridge. A lot of them were assembling their short-packed gliders (made smaller for air transport). Among them where Kathryn and Dave who flew in from Sydney. They started to unpack their gliders only to find out that Kathryn's glider is completely wrecked - every major tube is broken - and that Dave's glider has a broken leading edge. You feel very sorry for them when you see that. And I can only hope that my glider will survive the flight back to Europe. On May 25th by the way, Miami - Duesseldorf.
So, keep your fingers crossed, 'cause tomorrow, it's race day, it's for real.

Many thanks to Mitsubishi and Terremark

2011-04-28T16:52:00.000+02:00

Mitsubishi Motors Belgium and Terremark are supporting me for the 2011 season. Many thanks to them! So this is how the glider now looks like:

Arrived at the Florida Ridge

2011-04-28T14:59:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, we drove south to the Florida Ridge Air Sports Park. I guess it is the hottest place I ever visited. Luckily there's a swimming pool, but I don't want to think to much about waiting in the start line, in the hang gliding harness, in those temperatures...
It's 9 A.M. and the first - be it small - cumulus clouds are drifting by.
We're surrounded by the everglades, so you really have to watch out where you land. But I haven't yet seen an alligator. It's nice to walk in the grass here. You don't have to worry about fire ants. But they do have loads of tiny flies here that seem to be willing to eat your skin. I'll try to keep those out of my tent.
They're currently having a paragliding comp here and the scorekeeper left his laptop on the car when he drove off to the shop... Hope they have a backup of the scores somewhere.

Missed opportunities?

2011-04-28T14:16:00.000+02:00

We had some great weather conditions the past few days. Davis and I tried to launch early (10:30) and succeeded, which was a first for me. But, one day I made a mistake after an hour, when the flying already was a lot easier and the other day Davis' radio wasn't working and he lost me out of sight, so we landed. We should have gone far, really far, but I guess we missed the opportunities...
It was a fun game though, to try to launch early. Cloudbases are low (700 m), but thermals are closer to each other as well. They're still weak, so it's not easy to stay up there, but when you succeed, the day gets better and you are rewarded with the prospect of a long flight. You have to finish the job however.
The saying here is that "you won't hit a home run when you swing for singles".

Belgian record flight: 255 km from Quest to Madison

2011-04-26T03:26:00.000+02:00

On Sunday, the winds were pretty east and I was the only one who wanted to launch pretty early for a long flight. The day did not start as early as other days did, but I could launch around noon. The first hour I was just drifting with the wind and surviving. I got pretty low, but from then on, the thermal became better and I could start heading north. I also needed that by that time, because I needed to avoid the forest I was heading for. Click the tracklog image for more details:

From then on I was flying from one beautiful cloud street to the other, but I could not take advantage of them, since they were east-west aligned and I needed to go north. But the thermals were there and the lift was decent.
Once past Gainsville, I finally had a cloud street lined up in a direction I could follow and I could start making some real distance. Here I'm crossing 200 km (never done that before):

The terrain I flew over changed and so did the light. It was a majestic sight. The lift was wide but still good and flying was easier than ever before. When I had 250 km and I saw the highway, I thought it was time to land. The flight deserved a better landing than I did. Somehow, the landings are not as consistent as they used to be. Most of them are good, but this one wasn't nice.

I derigged the glider and went to the restaurant next to the highway. Thanks a lot to John Theoret for picking me up and bringing me back to Quest. We arrived there at 2 A.M. with a very good weather forecast for the day after :-) Here's the video, the first half may be a bit boring, but the second half has some really nice footage:

Now I need to get the papers done, to get the Belgian record ratified. Cross your fingers!

Interaction with US law enforcement

2011-04-26T02:54:00.000+02:00

On Saturday, I landed short. It was a beautiful day, but I "felt the hand of god" flying north out of Quest. For non-hangies: it means you only find sink and get pushed towards the ground pretty fast...
Anyway, I had to get back to Quest since we all started flying without retrieve drivers. And since I landed first, I could do that if I got back to Quest somehow. I packed the glider and started hitch-hiking. The 4th car driving by was a police car. "Hey, what are you doing here?". I explained the hang gliding situation and the officer promptly emptied his passenger seat and gave me a ride back all the way to Quest. Thanks a lot!

Venice Beach Attempt video

2011-04-22T14:24:00.000+02:00

Look at the weather. What a day...

Here's the route we followed that day:

Fire ants

2011-04-21T16:17:00.001+02:00

I've got itching feet...

Landing at Venice Beach?

2011-04-21T15:39:00.000+02:00

We had a hard time deciding on Wednesday's task. There was predicted overdevelopment north of us, the winds were SE, but would shift to NE and Quest was going to be overcast by late afternoon. After a while, we decided to head SSW, to Venice beach. A 188 km task and we were not going to start before 1 PM, so we had to go for it, once we were airborne.
I was towed up and soon after Davis was towed up and joined me in my thermal. I wasn't a very nice one, so we decided to head south asap. We had a really nice flight, with beautiful clouds and some nice climbs. I'll make a video when I have some time for that.

But, I didn't make it to Venice Beach. The sea breeze front was aligned over a large swamp. I couldn't see any landing possibilities there, so I didn't dare to cross it, since I had no clue how big the swamp was. My instrument showed me I would have 200 m in spare above Venice Beach, but I knew I wasn't going to make that in the sea breeze. And since I was trapped due to the swamp, I landed 20 km short.
We had a nice meal at the beach and were back at Quest just after midnight. It's 10 A.M. now and the sky is already filled with cumi's... Have to go and set up my glider!

Going north

2011-04-21T15:28:00.000+02:00

Tuesday's forecast was really good for a long flight to the north. We had set our expectations on a 300 km flight. I launched as early as possible, but later than I hoped for. It was 12h15. I had a hard time staying in the air, but after 30 minutes, the conditions improved and I was heading north. Little cumi's formed over my head, but out in front, it remained blue and lift was hard to find.
After 2h30 flight, Davis came on the radio and suggested to try again the day after, since we were not racing ahead. I agreed, but later, on the ground, when I saw the conditions, I regretted it. We wouldn't have done 300 km, but it is very likely that it would have been 200 or maybe 250 km... Anyway, I landed after 70 km.
And I'm getting used to airport/airstrip landings:

Quest - DS - Wallaby - Quest and VG failure

2011-04-19T04:03:00.000+02:00

Today was quite an interesting day. It started when I thought the weaklink broke on tow. I was low and had almost 10 minutes of flying between 100 and 150 m off the ground. But I couldn't really get the thermal and had to land. On the ground I found out that the weaklink hadn't broken, but the release was open. It might have touched the base bar and released. I'll check whether that is possible.
So, I had to get in line again and relaunch a little later. The plan was to do Quest - Dean Stills - Wallaby - Quest. And I set up a comp route in the Compeo with an extra turnpoint (off route, huge radius) to test the optimized route feature. I got a really nice flight, which had a scare when I wanted to start final glide. The VG suddenly released, see the bolt below:

The bolt has no locking mechanism at all, so you might want to check yours before you launch next time ;-)
The release was sudden and I was weightless for a split second while I felt a big bang in the glider. I thought something went wrong with my primary hang strap or with the hang point. I thought I had so much bar pressure because I was now hanging on the backup strap which must have slid backwards on the keel. Not a nice feeling and quite an adrenaline rush. I took me some time to realize that it was just the VG... This is how it looked like:

So, the rest of the flight, I had to take it really easy, there was no point in pulling in the bar. I completed the flight and was happy about the little triangle. Here's the tracklog. We could have done more today, but tomorrow seems to be the big day. I'm curious...

Battling headwing and going north

2011-04-17T03:05:00.001+02:00

Thursday looked very much like Wednesday. Blue skies and a moderate south wind. So I wanted to take revenge on our missed task of Wednesday. Davis didn't bother about flying in those conditions.
I launched and had a moderate climb at first, but it improved and started drifting towards a lake. Then suddenly it really turned on and became a 600 fpm climb (starting to think in these numbers already, 3 m/s that is). But, much more impressive was the shape drawn by the winds on the lake. It's a shame I don't have a picture of it. The lake is perfectly circular and the thermal was visible as a large twisting wind, perfectly centered in the lake. In the middle, there was a calm center, with 2 smaller twisters running around that center. I never saw anything like that. Dave, who launched after me and already flies for 30 years, was impressed by it as well.
Back to the flight. I battled against the wind for 2 hours and reached Dean Stills, where I was supposed to go crosswind to Wallaby and then fly back to Quest. I think I started to get a feeling for lift lines, but probably also got overconfident and had to land a few kms away from Dean Stills. Damn, the hard part was done, but I wasn't making it back home... Anyway, much better than the day before and I had been on my own in the blue. It was a good training.
On Friday, the forecast looked good for a long distance flight. Davis and I launched early, but couldn't get high under an almost overcast sky and had to land again. 2 Hours later, the hopes for 200 miles were gone and we agreed on a goal in Williston, 109 km north. You can read a detailed report of the flight on the OzReport. We had a really nice flight, flying together almost the complete distance. Mike Barber - a living legend - flew along with us and landed in the same field. Here's the video:

Complete failure

2011-04-14T03:33:00.000+02:00

... to cover any distance today. The plan was to fly to Wallaby and back. I towed up first and was released right in the middle of a 3 m/s thermal which took me to 1500 m. It was a blue day and Greg and Davis were also preparing to fly, so I waited for them. Once together, we headed for Wallaby, found only one crappy bit of thermal out there and had to land only 15 km away from Quest. Miserable failure...
Others flew better today and covered some distance.
Anyway, as written before, the towing here goes quick and efficiently. Here's a video of today's tow. I got released at 2500 ft (750 m) within 2 minutes after take-off. The video also show the thermalling up to 1500 m. Ground to 1500 in 6 minutes. Not bad :-)

147 km from Quest to Keystone Heights, now on Vimeo

2011-04-13T16:25:00.000+02:00

Some people can't view the video on Youtube, so here's the same one on Vimeo:

Sharing Hang Gliding

2011-04-13T14:12:00.001+02:00

It's always nice to share your passions. 3 Weeks ago, I did a tandem flight with Hilde over Maillen, near Namur. The evening light was very beautiful and, apart from take-off, the air was completely still. Hilde said she very much enjoyed the experience.

Video - 147 km from Quest to Keystone Heights

2011-04-13T00:06:00.000+02:00

Today was a windy day, so I enjoyed yesterday's footage and made a little video about the flight:

Quest to Keystone Heights

2011-04-12T03:47:00.000+02:00

Had a nice flight today with Jamie and Davis. We got towed at Quest and flew to Keystone Heights, almost 150 km to the north. An important thing for me was to regain my landing confidence and I today's landing definitely helped with that. 2 More of those in succession and I'll feel confident again.

We landed on an airport and I'm not used to share my landing place with private jets...