Greifenburg

That was a long ride to Greifenburg:) I finished work at 6 in Nova Gorica and came to the camp site in Tolmin to pick up some stuff. So many people there as there is paragliding comp running. The bad forecast for Sunday was calling for a stay in Tolmin as there it was flyable. I did a evening flight with Regina the day after and then decided to leave for Greifenburg.

Today it looked like there is a slight chance of the task so I did not wanted to gamble again like I did for Bassano and lost it. I spent the night on the hard floor of the car as I seat on the camelback and got the pillow and sleeping bag all wet :) Hard life.... :) We went up in the morning, Corinna kindly offered me a place in the car to the take-off. Overcast sky did not look that we will get any of the flying but in the end the task was set to 50 km and also cancelled after an hour of cold waiting. We flew then and could make the task but with a decent shower in between so there was an safety issue to it. Tomorrow looks good for a start of the race. Looking forward to it. Here is a picture of Corinna new Litespeed Rx that is available for test flights here if any one would like to test fly it. Looks good!

Bassano is over, with out me

This was a tight gamble at home, looking at weather forecasts and web cams every morning.

Well, Thursday web cam was wrong and so they got a small task. I was driving down to work when I saw that Live tracking went on so my ride was quite dangerous after that.. Loosing one day meant that I lost the good result already but I could go down to have some fun flight but weather did not cooperated. Last day they flew the most usual task you can get in Bassano and got their race under the roof. My mistake, but in the end I am happy that I was not there in the caravan for 5 days in mud and cold loosing more then getting from this two days. A dry and decently warm place with 4 walls there would made me go there :) So as I had big scars from no flying I had to solve it somehow and so I went to Tolmin in search of snow mountain peaks (There is most of the snow there now in all winter). Nice flying, strong... But, north wind did not let me taste the peaks so I had to be satisfied with far view to the mountains. At least I flew in Tolmin after a long time.

Bassano ?

Just as I thought, whole winter we where flying all the time and now when it comes to Bassano it is turning around. Big question on what to do, I really don´t want to spend time just siting in the rain in Bassano while work is waiting for me at home. We will see.


Here is a picture from landing on Friday, thought it is one to share

Mountains

Since Winter race finished I am at work every day for 9 days now while I have to look at the guys at 3000m over Lijak take off flying the best weather in the year.
I could catch a bit of it before work but my car refused to help as it has problems with his engine so I am ground "dead".
Really really frustrating times, missing some of the best weather you can get here. Lets just hope it lasts for Bassano and I get some flying back from what work took from me.

Valic brothers?
2 brothers from Vipava valley, one of the best pg pilots in the world went on their own path producing their own wings now under the brand TRIPLE SEVEN. They already certified a wing that I might get a chance to fly one day, a easy wing with XC abilities. Well it is still a jelly ;) But they look very promising.
Why am I writing that?
Because they got a chance to fly in Tolmin over the mountain tops in the back of Tolmin and made a really nice video of it. Here is the video to look at. Damn I miss mountain flying!

Video from Saturday of Winter race

My friend Uros was free flying on Saturday, last day of Winter race. He was able to capture the feeling of flying when the clouds showed up. Well he had time to fly around them, we did not but still you will get the feeling of flying here watching his video :)


Organisers also made a good job of inviting the journalists to the race.

There was one small article in local newspaper and a huge one over one big site in national newspaper. Another great article that explains the sport in the true light, not trough the scary and heroic stuff but true beauty and respect to the nature we have doing this beautiful sport.

For Slovenian readers or if you know Slovenian language you can read the article here



Otherwise here is a picture of huge page that had this lovely article on it.

3rd task 4th day of Winter race

Whoever thought that RACE name in the tittle of the comp can actually affect the comp so much...

Today we gathered at take off, while I hardly believed we will actually fly as the forecast was due to a really strong W wind.
I got my glider together and did not even touched the harness but in the end it all started to happen as the race will go on. 102 km long task, while I was thinking about we wont have it. Well the wind did not picked up so much so we where in the air in no time.

Clouds started to evolve quite early after we took off and soon we where out in the flats thermaling for the start height.
Booming conditions and a quick start to the race with high heights for most of the pilots. Considering the strong wind that was stronger with the height, those who where flying lower had a better air and where flying faster then the rest of us under the cloudbase.

61 km/h average at 100 km task tells the story of my home place :)

Here in March :D
I, however was slow too much, loosing every km by km from point to the point, you know the day when everything goes wrong :)


Well in the end I messed up the mess even more, went our to the flats and got to the cloudbase with really good thermal so I got in to the goal 15th almost half an hour behind the first. Not good at all but in the end I managed to stay in top 10 overall.

My glider? I can finally observe the race, not struggling for the best core as it does it by its self. Standing in the crowded space is a piece of cake as you can easily climb up among the others, it is just the decisions that make the difference and that is me, the pilot.
I had a great run with Christian Chiech, with his Laminar. I played out every thermal we got in together, I wont say much of the gliding as we chosen different lines when he got lower then me. In the end his practical knowledge got him in front of me. Hey, I have at least 15 years to learn the tricks that he knows at his age :)

He deserved to be the firs in the race as he chosen the best options and the best lines, Tom Weissebnberger did a great job on all days running for the podium, Christian Zehetmaier just did overall good job with push down to the balls racing days and got to the third place.

Good job for organisers :) When the weather is good it is easy, but yes they did a great job. I love seeing foreign pilots being satisfied with the organisation here.

Another great competition from this team.

Next Saturday, dogs races of our league competition, then Bassano, uh.... I hope my boss is not looking at this :D I know my pocket gives a f... about it, but I know I will when next "small" payment comes ;)

A race day

One said today, whoever turned today made a mistake. Well we had to fly out to the flats for the last turnpoint, so some thermaling was needed, but otherwise it was a ridge run all the way. Christian Chiech made few smart moves and won followed by Christian Zehetmaier and Andre Djamarani. I made it in ninth. Results should be on after 21pm. We have a party for pots today and tonirrow last day of the race, looks like another strong W wind day.

RESULTS

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