Prize giving ceremony

First three

New and old world champion Alex Ploner

As the first guys went out in a rough air, thez canceled the task. Alex is agaon a World champion, Christian Ciech second and our Primoz Gricar third. Thanks to organisers for wise desicions.

Flying?

When pilots saw the wind dummies the mood switched to no flying. Safety comitee is just discusing the task today.

Task is set

Aldo the wind dummie had a rough time down, organisers are sending us out to fly 90km task.
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Task?

They are setting it up.

Last day

We are on Cucco north take off where we have quite low cloudbase and strong gusts at moments so we will see if we will have a task or not.

Friday the last day

Winds have turned to the North so we should be taking off from North side today. Looks like a flying day as predicted.
Yesterday we had a flight down with a 3 hour waiting in the rain after the flight. Lets hope for the best today.

Thursday

Again, overcasted sky with another team leader briefing where they will decide about the day.
It does not look good at all. But for tomorrow they say we fly.

Here is a picture from yesterday flight down the hill

Flyable taskable....

That is the picture we have on take off now, overcasted sky with cloudbase over the take off. We have a briefing in one hour so then we will see if they will send us in to that weather.

Wednesday

Looks very good here in the morning, but the forecast says rain quite soon so we need to wait for a decision from team leader briefing at 9:00 am.

9:50 am We go up to south launch. Does not look like task able.

Chasing shadows

Or we can say that shadows chased us.
Beginning with strong thermals was telling us to start fast on the ridge down to south. But the first turnpoint already got us to the top of the trees and got us fighting for the heights. Strong lift back to the wind mills where shadows started to spread over the Sigillo valley.
I was pushing in front of the gaggle as I was far behind the first one and was trying to come to a better position which almost grounded me at Gubbio.
Magic happened when a spot of sun started to grow in the valley and pushed us all to the heights where we could go back to wind mills and further down south where a shower was waiting for us 5 km from the turn point.
I was always running low behind all the gaggles.
About 70 pilots got in in 15 minutes which was crazy at the landing. I was far behind and now am at 39th place overall. I hope for some more flyable weather to get a better result but so I can make it worse :D
Do the sun dance for us! :D

2nd task

114.5 km task. Chance of overdevelopment and t storms. The fun begin at 13:20pm

Top

Looks like a great day to fly. Only one thing, thermals should stop at 5pm. Race race!

Same spot, different...

Can u see the difference from yesterdays picture? ;)
Light winds are predicted as we had out to Cucco south. There will be chances of overdevelopment but I hope we get the task and finish it as well.

Tuesday

Looks like we will fly today. I can not say Cucco south or Cucco North as the winds will be very light but at last, we will go up the hill in the sun.

Live tracking button on the right will take you to the page where you can track us. If only my tracking device will work today ;)

See you on take off.

Mare it is :)

Hang waiting

Since take off is in fog all the pilots went to the bar closr to the take off. At least we are in a hot and dry place. Doesnt look like the weather could improve so much that we would have a task. Ground is just too much wet. Picture tells a thousand words they say, well this one for sure tells the mental stage of pilots here at the moment :)

Optimistic

Would you considere this as a flying day? :)

Monday

Yesterdays storm leaved us a lot of humidity and quite cold night so now team leaders will hear what we will be up to today. Tre Pizzi with North wind? Yesterday they said so... We will see.

9:23 We go to Cucco North with out assembling the gliders, we wait on top and see.

Rules and stupid rules

Every CAT 1 competition brings out many issues with safety sistems that we are trying to make them work in the best way for all. However, things may look good on paper but in practice it is all different.

Sprog measuring

How many issues where here again and we are taking this now for a 4th time already. We still don`t know how to measure everything.

Factories put out the measurments that they think are safe.
One factory put out the numbers that are higher then DHV measurments, then another one stated numbers that are on DHV measurments but have the ability to go lower as the factory stated it is safe.
Why do we need DHV measuring then if every factory tells which are the measurments.
Measurments are also changing from year to year for same models, so we experience people running in circles to get their gliders at the right spot. Maybe it all should be published before the comp starts so pilots that are not willing to spent all day re-measuring the gliders, would get their gliders at the right spot before.

I guess spending the words about people being polite at the measuring process is useless. Pilots are pilots, but staff working on this should know exactly about everything so there wouldn`t be an if option.

PENALTIES

If you get your sprogs re-measured at the landing lower then they should be then you get a warning the first day. Then if they find you again you get 20% score down for the day...

If you make on point in the "No flying area" then you get scored ZERO points.

Where is the meaning of that?

We are more afraid of that pilot will interfere the airfield zone then pilot get killed due to too low sprog settings...

I could go down now, as I know that I will get the warning first. Or I will say like that, those who will not get the warning will all go down on the last day and so everyone will fly dangerous gliders because they can, because CIVL and FAI say we can.

If we eventually get the last day.

Paraglider pilots already made their own group of where it is able to speak about the problems at competitions, now, Americans made a group for competition pilots on fb where it is possible to speak up about the problems we get on comps. See the group HERE

Second briefing

We wait for a second briefing for a decision about flying today. Does not look that good at all.
Here are some pictures from last two days.

11:00 am (In the middle of team leader briefing it is raining again)

11:30 am Day cancelled :(

Sunday morning

We are waiting for the news from team leader briefing if we will go up or not. Looks grey sky at the moment but at least the winds went down a little.
Yesterday we went to Frasissi caves which was really interesting, but we need flying and we need it now.

Another cancelled day

We woke up to the rain so it was obvious that we wont fly today. Yesterday some pilots got 0 points for flying in Perugia zone, sadly also our Pilot Iztok.
I guess I am on 25th place out of 150 pilots which is a good jump desk for flying days that I hope will come.

The show is on

121 km seem to be too much for around 120 pilots. Strong was cuting down those who went low. First leg was in to the wind with a ridge but somehow it worked out on flat as much as on the ridge. Flying back was easy where I als catched up the first group.
From take off point was a flight out to the flats with a overcasted sky where lift was weak untill we got to the cloudbase. My mistake was that I went here on with out gaining the height to cludbase. There was a l oo t of wind from here on which grounded me at around 80km. Seems like I was the only one with out tracking. I just took the device and put it in to the harness :/
Primoz won the day ahead of Alex Ploner and Gerd Doenhuber.
Tommorow looks like strong wind again.
Sent from my Nokia phone

Short of goal

I landed on about 70 km where we had to go out on the flats. Strong wind almost grounded the first group but I ve seen them getting a small balon thermal just 50m above the ground. I see also a lot of pilots coming out of the cloud street and getting grounded as our group did. We will see what happens.
Pr I moz just reported he is on final glide to the goal.

121 km task

In the area of Assisi from Monte Subassio.
Sent from my Nokia phone

4th day

Overcasted sky and the clouds are quite fast running in the same direction as every day. We will go up the hill for sure. Fingers crossed for us.

3th day canceled

Too much wind, it must be gusting up to 70 km/h, some pilots did went for a flight but for a comp it would be just too dangerous. Today we came on top, tomorrow we fly :)

First task

We are heading for Cucco south. Still quite strong winds and predicted to be stronger later so fingers crossed for the task today. Pilots are very pumped up for flying. No sistem at take off for the pilots, only first 30 have their place, others will have to find their spot in almost 5 lines. Yes, Cucco is a huge place for rigging. Stay tuned for some more news from take off. Look for live tracking button on the right where u will be able to Live track us trough web browser or Google earth. See you on top.

Under the cloudbase

152 pilots ready for the game. Wind is getting stronger already now so we will see what will they tell us on briefing at 12.

Videos of Cucco

Sitting in rain here in the caravan when we should be running the air above Umbria makes you feel like you got stuck somewhere. I have a guitar here and internet so it makes time run smoother. Then we have some videos that can cut down the sound of rain drops.
Jochen and Julia had a fun play in the air some days ago and made a nice compilation of good shots. I was here last year and made one of my favourite videos, Cucco is the best place when you can land, put the camera somewhere else, take off again and have numerous flights in one day.
Here are two videos that represent all the fun you can get here at Cucco.

Jochens video


My video from 2010

Second day

The night brought a storm with rain so it got quite cold in the morning. The winds are high again but today also with overcast sky.
Day was cancelled of course with hopes that tomorrow we get to run this world champs.
Castellucio is also questionable so 2.5h drive would be just too big gamble to give it a go. Maybe we get to go and see the caves that many pilots did and said they look good.
I guess I did it all wrong wile writing a tittle to one of the articles "Cucco holidays". For it feels like holidays as we get to spend our time as tourists looking at the beautiful area of Umbria.
Fingers crossed for tommorow.

La cena

Today the organisers took us for a dinner to a nice castle Baccaresca. Very calm atmosphere as we all know that tommorow will be another day with out flying. But, however people flew today, south 2 hours away on Casteluccio where they made 4000m height. Painfull :) Our team will see in the morning if we will go down as well.

We would love to get in the air as soon as possible.
Forecast for next week is quite strange as they predict only 15°c. Thank god for the caravan. Lets hope for the best tommorow.
Sent from my Nokia phone

Some photos until now

1st day

Like it was predicted yesterday, the first day od World champs is cancelled. Too much wind. We hope for the best tomorrow.

First briefing

Today we had our first mandatory briefing early in the morning in the tent. The real deal with infos was spared for the team leader briefing.

Alan was again voted for our team leader. It is not nice when you have to wake up every morning, run for the briefing and get back for the preparation for flying.
Today they had it scheduled for 11 am but they returned back around 3 pm. A lot to talk.
Differences this year will be with end of the speed section which will be bigger circle around the goal. For the real deal you will of course have to get in to the goal but you will make it slowly. This was due to the dangerous low crossings at the goal fields. Goals will never be as spectacular again but safety is safety.

Then there where infos on the spots we will be using for the Live tracking sistems. You will be able to live track us from THIS LINK
Push sistem will be different as you will have another 30 s to choose if you will start or not.
Then there are rumours about some uncertified Icaro gliders... There was no talk about it at the team leader briefing.
There was also the difference in sprog measuring tolerance which is different for different brands of the gliders. Well, why is that?

Today we have a concert in town of Sigillo. Quite social event until now :) Feels nice after 14 days of no happening in Ager.
The weather for tomorrow also does not look good and for Wednesday a chance for a race in the afternoon. Lets hope for the best. I am here already a week now and am looking forward for a race to begin.

Opening ceremony

The first step to the competition was sprog measurements and registration which already produced some heat among the pilots.
I will wait for Alan to come back from the team leader briefing and see what he has to say about the sprog measurements.
There was another big arguing about the certified helmets. All helmets used in CAT 1 event need to be certified and not modificated in any way. Drilling holes in it for the radio already makes them uncertified, but here is the problem.
CIVL did not stated clear enough what modification is so there are gaps in the rules which become problems really fast among the pilots.
Gerolf was arguing about the rules and stated that he refuse to fly with other helmet than his Lumin non certified helmet. He was clear about the problem that if people fly with modificated helmets then he can fly with his Lubin helmet as well.
Well, in the end he did not registered and will not fly at the comp at all...
Strange decision, but it puts out a clear message of a problem with certified helmets that was not discused enough at the CIVL meeting, where Jamie tried to make things clear about the helmets.
Well, the drama at highest point :)

So, after all of this mess we eventually started with the opening ceremony in town Sigillo. To get the vibe of this place you can take a look at the video that I made yesterday. Since we have no practice day today due to bad weather I was able to edit it a bit and publish it to the web.

Opening ceremony

All ready for a parade :)
Sent from my Nokia phone

Picture of the day yesterday

Here is a picture from yesterday that I took while flying over Cucco.

Today looks like strong winds again, perfect to organise all the stuff with caravan and arrange everything with the team, so we can start with a practice day tomorrow.
As I got here already on Monday it feels like it is taking ages to get to the real deal of competition. I just wish it would start as soon as possible :)
Yesterday we spent the evening at Cesare bar, owner is a picture for him self :) A mixture of Polona jokes and Swiss Nick made us laugh late night :)

Today we have an opening ceremony so stay tuned for some news from there.

Chill out session

I am very happy that I did the measurments yesterday and am spending the day at Cucco. Slovenia team is making circles in the measurment place.
I did a nice flight to Gubbio and back, I started from the cloudbase and got straight back to the take off. Now we are chilling out on take off before we get a second run of flying.
Sent from my Nokia phone

Measuring

Same drama every year with measuring. I am here for three hours and will be maybe on time after another one. Wonder how they will get trough 150 pilots with that phase.
Team Slovenia arrived today, maybe we get to fly in the evening.
Sent from my Nokia phone

Cucco holidays

wont last for too long ;)
Since the first really nice day for flying there where two more with a decent weather. On Tuesday I was prepared to go to the Nort side as there where light winds predicted but I managed to somehow punch my self in the elbow so much that I rather stayed on the ground for a day and wait for the outcome of soar elbow.

They flew really nice on the North side while me and Polona prepared the Slovenia embassy in the camping at Rio Verde.

Yesterday the wind was really strong trough the day but coming back from Gubbio town we saw gliders flying on top so we rushed the hang gliding kindergarten on to of Cucco.

Nice playing around after a site seeing and swim in a pool.
However this holidays will soon come to an end when we start the usual every day rush when the comp starts.
Slovenia team is coming today, tomorrow we measure the gliders and on Sunday we have the opening ceremony.
Today the wind is too strong for flying so we will play tourists again.

Here is a quick cut edit video from yesterday play

Cucco playground

Here we are back again at Cucco 3th year now. South take off provided very nice day yesterday. Gordon Rigg is here, so is Hadewich and Cameron from Australia. They flew nice flight yesterday over wind mills and Gubbio.
I stayed at Cucco to assist our "team leader" Polona for her first taste of Cucco flying. Giovanni, Italian pilot borrowed me the winglets for Aeros to test fly. Quite interesting what does this small thing do to the glider felling, however it is to late to fly them at competition as I am used to fly with out them. Just when I wanted to land back and return them, the wind dropped and turned to the North side. I had to land in the valley but he was so kind that he drove the car down to us. Thank you for that.

Today North side.

Let the show begin

Time for the World champs is coming closer and closer. This year I decided to get the spot a bit sooner so I am already packing all the stuff for a trip tommorow. Cucco provides a lot of fun flying and good training, landing on top only makes it all much easier for logistics. This year you will be able to see the news really fresh as Nokia helped me with the device and some credit for live blogging from the event. I will do my best to bring you the news at the time they happen of course with mind on my flying as well.Another interesting thing will be live tracking of the event. You will find a link to it at official page www.cucco2011.org. How it works? Every pilot will get a device that sends coordinates every few seconds and those are translated to the server where you can watch us live via Google earth. Short news will be available also trough the Twitter which you can find on the right side of my blog. I am stuck all day with packing for three weeks of flying, but however in the end I just came from Croatia so I kind of have already things prepared for the show. Basically all I need is a glider, some clothes a blanket, uh and harness and some dishes and.... Back to work :)

Hang gliding with Nokia N8

I had many nice shots from filming for N8 producers, so why waist them on computer while I can share them. Enjoy ;)