Dutch Open wrap up

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

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 :-)

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 :-)

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

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

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 :-)

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 ;-)