Krushevo, pre-Euros, day 1

Yesterday we set a 124 km task, based on an optimistic weather forecast. Immediately after launching, the conditions were clearly weaker and more turbulent than expected, but I was confident that the conditions would improve rapidly.

Turned out I was wrong. I kept looking for a better thermal which would bring me to cloudbase, but couldn't find one and was scratching rather low the for 1,5 hours, missing the first start and obliged to take the second start low.

My flight didn't last long after that. I landed after a miserable 13 km.

Almost all did far better and 4 pilots made it to goal. Elio won, with Suan in second, followed by an incredibly low final glide by Balasz. Tullio made it to goal as well. Congrutalions! Also a strong performance by Sasha, who missed goal by 4 km.

Balasz his glide was unbelievable. From a few km's out, it was certain he wasn't going to make goal. It looked like he could turn around at any time to land. But he came closer and closer to us, seemingly without losing height and made it in with a few meters to spare.

Record flying in Spain, abort plans?

Now, this sucks. For 2015, I planned to do less competition flying and focus more on pure XC flying, trying to get the max out of a day. And the coming week should have been perfect for that. A week in Southern Spain, based with the Frenchies at Caceres. The idea was to leave for Spain today, but this morning I got a message stating that one of the 2 tow pilots is unable to be there. Looks like I need to look at an alternative.

The Alps look good for Friday and Saturday...

Flying with the Belgians in Annecy

We're having great times right now. Our group, 15 pilots strong, is flying the Annecy area and we're lucky enough to have great flying conditions. The idea is to fly together and do some XC-flying. The area is outright beautiful, with snow capped mountains all around. Yesterday, Kurt and I flew a nice 80 km flight, soaking in the views. Today's idea is to fly to the Aravis range and, if the conditions look good enough, into the Chamonix valley. 2 More days before the bad weather arrives and we'll get out of here...

Crossing the Annecy lake during the first leg of yesterday's flight with Kurt:

And this is on the way back to Annecy:

Everyone is just having good fun. Some are flying cross-country and some beginner pilots are doing local flights. No-one has outlanded yet. Time to push it a bit more and go twice as far ;-)

2015 Worlds: a statistic

Everybody's always asking what the best glider out there is. And there are many factors which play a role in that, such as pure glide performance, handling or just the fun you get when flying it. But, now, after the worlds, we can finally calculate it. Here's a statistic: take the number of gliders flown by manufacturer and the number of gliders they have in the top 20. Divide these numbers and you get a relative score which must be the definitive answer to which glider is the best one ;-)

These are the results:

Manufacturer	Score
Icaro	40
Aeros	26
Moyes	23
Wills Wing	13

So, if you buy an Icaro and participate in the Worlds, you have a 40% chance to be in the top 20. You know that statistics never lie.

Heading for the Aeros Winter Race

I still have a few holidays which have to be used soon, so the Aeros Winter Race is the perfect solution to that problem :-) Except that my harness and glider aren't back from Australia yet. They are currently in Egypt and should be home in 2 weeks time, just in time for spring in Belgium.

So, I won't be flying this Winter Race on my trustworthy RX, but will be flying my 2012 Combat GT. And Kurt has borrowed me his Skyline harness, so that should work out as well. The glider will be checked by Primoz tomorrow and I'm driving to Nova Gorica immediately after, to meet Matjaz again and we'll do some test flying on Tuesday. The comp starts on Wednesday!

Dreaming of the main Alpine Ridge

While checking out options for the Belgian Nationals (20th - 26th of July), I came across a movie of Anton & Artur, who cross the main ridge by passing by the Grossvenediger. I've seen it before, but hang gliding sure doesn't get much better. Spectacular!

Forbes 2015 Movie

By now, everybody knows that we had the greatest time in Australia. And Gijs captured that feeling in his movie about Forbes 2015: