Excellent vision by Adidas

Excellent news yesterday: Adidas is going to sponsor me with a new pair of Adidas Evil Eyes!

The sunglasses are very important for me, because being a little near-sighted, I need them to have correction as well. The swappable contrast-enhancing lenses already provided me very good vision with the previous model, so I'm looking forward to flying the new model. The new quick-change lens system will also help keeping the lenses clean while swapping them. Looks great!

Ook een dikke merci aan Toon en Nele van Optiek Vandeweghe om samen naar de beste oplossing te zoeken!

Gliders ready for ship(ment)

Thursday was shipment day. Having wrapped the glider in shrink wrap to keep it dry, I set of the work and brought the glider to my Dutch neighbours in the evening.

7 Gliders in a box with some spare parts. Let the sea gods have mercy ;-)

And indeed, the box was only just long enough for the Combat...

2012 Season is over, prepping for the 2013 Worlds

Rain and wind seem to have signaled the definitive return of the fall season. No more thermal flights this year. 2012 was a year which has been exceptionally bad for flying in Belgium. Although I was ready to fly almost every weekend, a combination of bad weather during weekends or the lack of towing pilots when we did have good weather, resulted in a pathetic season with only 3 XC flights in Belgium. I got a total of 60 hours airtime this year (incl the holiday flying!) and that's the worst in 3 years. So, let's quickly forget about that.

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm really looking forward to the 2013 World Championships, now 3 months ahead of us. The Worlds will be held in Forbes, 400 km from Sydney, Australia. The place is known for epic flying with strong thermals and long flying days. I really hope the weather delivers there! Let there be 300 km tasks :-)

But yes, going down under requires a number of preparations. I've teamed up with the Dutch National team to organize the logistics. These include transporting the gliders there and organizing the retrieve team. The gliders will be shipped (literally). They're going to leave the harbour in 2 weeks time and should arrive in Australia early December. Insured and nicely wrapped in a wooden box, that's a much better solution than risking them by taking them on the plane.

So, logistics are going nicely. And physical preparations are going well too. I'm running 3 times a week and I've started taking up swimming again as well, to give the shoulders some work to do. I'm still doubting whether I should start going to the gym. I don't like those cramped, sweaty places and would rather do my sports outdoors, but hey, the gym might be way more efficient...

This is Jonny Durand showing us what kind of flying we can expect down under:

Soaring the French coast

Rainy weekend in Belgium, so Rudy and I headed for Equihen and had a great day there.

Belgian Nationals - Floating Trophy

I've always heard that you could keep the Belgian Nationals' floating trophy after three consecutive wins (I started hang gliding when Francis had won the Nationals twice in succession). But now, after I've won it three times in a row, that suddenly doesn't seem to be true... Urban legend among Belgian pilots? Strange.

Some pictures

Claudia Keller sent me some very nice pictures, so here they are:

UK Nationals - Task 5 - Do your checks

The last day of UK nationals started with some rain and a clouded sky, but the forecast promised better conditions, so we headed for the Chabre launch. Condition improved indeed, but still looked pretty light while the launch window was open.

I had been rigging a bit on the side and when the sun appeared I didn't want to wait too long with taking off. I prepared myself and moved to launch. A helpful pilot offered me to do a hang check and we did the regular checks (hang strap, leg loops, helmet). I launched and immediately felt something was wrong. The harness zipper had not been closed at all, nor was the chest clip. I flew towards landing and, to my surprise, managed to close the harness. I spent an hour trying to get back on the ridge, but that didn't work out anymore. Second lost day (after being air-sick), so the UK nationals really had highs and lows for me...

Of course I am responsible myself for preparing correctly for flight (all the important security checks have been done), but it is remarkable that nobody spotted that my harness was completely open while I was on launch. Not even when I did the hang check with the other pilot. Competition flying, or any hurry or distraction from normal procedures can definitely make you forget things. So, make sure you always do you checks. For me, it is checking the glider and from now on 4 checks instead of 3 for the rest of it: hang strap, leg loops, zipper/chest buckle and helmet.

It cost me a very nice flight. Many congratulations to Gordon Rigg, who won the UK nationals a 9th time and to Luis Rizo Salom, who won the Open championship. Great flying by both of them!