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European championship HG (Áger, Spain 2010) from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Europeans the video

We need to work on focus on Nikon D90, enjoy!

9th and the last task Europeans

The overall new European champion Gerolf


Waking up in the morning showed overcastted sky with take off place in the clouds. Juaki sent us again to the top but we felt like this will only be the day for drying the gliders from rain in the morning. There was actually rain in the morning, but Gerolf rain dance was not enough to end the competition and we had to set up again on the take off. Clouds slowly raised up and the task of 87 km was called.




The task was set out to the flats and then with the tail wind to goal in Calaf. Waiting for the start gate was again crazy flying in between missiles in very rough air. Afterwards it was all much easier, it was so nice to see ground speed over 110 km/h without a big effort as tail wind helped us most of the way. I popped out of a thermal 10 km before goal as I saw Carl getting faster thermal but I was not able to find it. As I struggled to get back up for final glide Alex Primoz and the others went over me to the goal. I managed to get in to the goal behind second gaggle on 27th place.

Mario won the day quite in front of the rest but Gerolf was patience and came in to the goal with winning overall European champs.

I ended up on 28th place in overall, I am satisfied, this was actually my goal to make it in this years championship. It could be much better if I would not sit down two times just before goal but hey, it is a lesson learned every time. If I look at Gerolf I have at least 20 years more or 10 more chances to win this one day :)

The price giving ceremony took place late in the night and I seemed like it was all a really good party. We had to go home just after the price giving. I managed to get a soar muscle right after steping out of the van, better at this time then before :) I need to prepare myself for leaving to Cucco on Friday.

Here is a short video of price giving ceremony

Task 8, 67 km

Yesterday we had a short 67 km task flying from Ager valley to Vilamitiana goal again. There was really strong wind on takeoff with gusts up to 35 km/h. I felt really uncomfortable to take off in this conditions. By looking at the pilots in the air it looked like it is not turbulent at all. The hardest part was to get of the ground, afterward it was all ok. Nice lift with a low cloud base. I made a mistake on flats when I pushed out to low and got caught with strong wind which grounded me at 48 km. Many pilots in goal again with Christian winning the day in front of Tom by leading points. Tom was a bit faster in goal but leading points put Christian to the first place.

Gerold is still winning the overall ranking. Today we have a cancelled task, a bit free time to relax. For tomorrow there is a question if we will fly or not. I hope that we will.

Overall very good organised competition with leading man Juaki who impressed me with his knowledge and authority overall competition. It is only the social part of the meeting that is missing. Usually we had something organised to get pilots together, here this is not existing. As long as we fly, there is no problem with that :)

Cucco? Maybe I will be actually able to go, but just to free fly and have fun with thousands of take offs and landings at the top of the mountain. Can`t wait.

Jonny's co-pilot here in Ager (Missing)

We got to know now, what is causing the problems to Jonny with his landings lately :) He had a co-pilot in Australia and now he has been left behind, the one and only BATMAN :)

Task 7 121 km

7th task was made to 127 km around two turnpoints, one near Turbon and then flying out in to the flats of Balaguer.
The weather was predited with thermals up to 2500m and later to 3000 but strong west wind and a storm in the Pyrenes killed the good air to us who where lower then we should be. I was hiting the wall on the start cylinder with a choice of going forward and fly in to the gorge but I ended up with choice for my safety and landed before after several tries. 19 pilots in goal with Tom wining the task before young Thevenot and Dan Vyhnalik. There where some scary landings again with few broken gliders as people pushed in to the areas with out a decent landing field of course too low. There is also quite a lot of words of gaggle flying in the start gates, people are either aggressive and pushing out or they connect to the thermal going straight in to the circle of others, so if you are in position to hit him you`re the one who needs to turn. I hate people going in to the thermal like this. There has even been an air collision between gliders on one of the previous days, now imagine how scary sometimes it is in the air with all of this aggressive pilots who are willing to kill themselves and others to gain this 3 m more then the others. I find myself many times going out from the gaggle to find my own spot and ussualy I found but in 10 seconds I was in the same mess as before. Guess this is my biggest handicap which I need to make it better.

Today a storm woke us so no flying today, feels good to rest a bit but I hope for some flying until the end of the Europeans. Weather prediction is not that good but lets hope for it. I am now 31th, one place less then my plan on this Europeans but still ok. Errors have been made but learning is learning.
Gerolf is still winning the overall rankings so he is now in good position to finally get the title.


Statistics in 7 tasks

720 km
Around 30 hours of air time

Task 6, 111km

Blue sky day day said. Yet again another day where we had to struggle with big gaggle in turbulent thermals. I stayed on the ridge for two hours being below the ridge for many times. We had to fly back from take off in to a “tiger land” like Corinna usually say. No landing fields or very few, usually with slope. I was not able to regain enough height so I took a chance to the flats close to the goal field. I was nearly grounded and with out hope of making it as I hit the thermal that made this hope reality back again.

I flew with Marc from Spain for most of the time, from the first turnpoint on it was quite easy. I was in goal among the last but happy that I eventually made it. As I took the last time I ended up at 36th position. Primoz was in goal a bit before me with Franc landing before first turnpoint and Alan landing earlier due to the GPS malfunction. Gerold won the day again. Seems like it is working out finally for him.
Jonny flew after yesterday`s crash, strong will I have to say, flying like this.

The retrieve yesterday was crazy, Alen from Croatia landed in small field before first turnpoint with 10 km of offroad. Imagine us with a van driving on a road for 4*4 vehicle….
We came back to the camping at midnight and fall to the bed again.
For today they say it is big chance of overdevelopment so we will see what will they prepare for us again. I hope I wont be looking at this area close up again… 