Day 1 is all about managing risks and not losing the competition at the start, with the aim to achieve 90% to 95% of the winner's points. Job done.
The flight was very interesting and very tactical. At the start the weather was "blue", meaning no cumulus clouds to mark the thermals. In gliding terms this means gaggles. Gliders in the blue love to get together and go round and round until either someone has lost the will to live and go or someone has the courage to move on. Nobody wants to be the first, simply because as you go you are marking climbs for other people.
So at the start we were hanging around for over an hour, not going up, not going anywhere and time was running out. Eventually i said to the team, let's go, they will all come with us. And so it was, we left, called start and got going. Everyone (barring the French who were still having their lunch...) came along.
Then 5km down track we found a mediocre climb. I stopped and took it, and after couple of turns said to Claudi and Helen "let's go back for a restart". We turned back and as it was, most of gaggle stayed and carried on, and only a few came back with us. It worked beautifully. We arrived back at the start line, took a good climb and re-started 10 minutes after most of the class. We caught them up in no time.
The second half of the task was in cumulus. The climbs were ok but not great. I had a low point near the third turn point and I lost about 10 minutes there but made up some of the time on the last leg were i had a great run, barely stopping to climb at all.
More flying today.
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Rules
As tomorrow is Day 1, it's probably a good point to summarise the competition structure and rules.
There is a lot of information on my previous blog here
But in short, you race around a pre-defined course and the fastest wins. Simple. Actually it can get quite complex, more later.
Typical course distances are 150 to 500 km.
A regional or national comp would normally last 9 days, this may seem like a long time but don’t forget, gliding is very much weather dependent so in a good comp you’d expect to fly on 6 out of 9 days. Some comps last year had only 2 days. International comps are 12-14 days.
Competitions are split into classes, the main classes are:
Club class: Handicapped comp for gliders with relatively low performance
Standard class: High end gliders with 15 meter wingspan and no flaps
15 Meter class: High performance gliders with 15 meters wingspan with flaps
18 Meter class: High performance gliders with 18 meters wingspan with flaps
Open class: Anything goes – no limit on wingspan or otherwise
In this competition I am competing in the Club class with team mates Helen and Cloudy.
There is a lot of information on my previous blog here
But in short, you race around a pre-defined course and the fastest wins. Simple. Actually it can get quite complex, more later.
Typical course distances are 150 to 500 km.
A regional or national comp would normally last 9 days, this may seem like a long time but don’t forget, gliding is very much weather dependent so in a good comp you’d expect to fly on 6 out of 9 days. Some comps last year had only 2 days. International comps are 12-14 days.
Competitions are split into classes, the main classes are:
Club class: Handicapped comp for gliders with relatively low performance
Standard class: High end gliders with 15 meter wingspan and no flaps
15 Meter class: High performance gliders with 15 meters wingspan with flaps
18 Meter class: High performance gliders with 18 meters wingspan with flaps
Open class: Anything goes – no limit on wingspan or otherwise
In this competition I am competing in the Club class with team mates Helen and Cloudy.
Ceremony
The French love wine, cheese and official ceremonies. Last week the local club had an official opening ceremony for their new gliding simulator. The ceremony lasted all morning and the club was full of local and regional dignitaries.
Today is the official opening ceremony of the 7th FAI Women World Gliding championship, Issoudun, France, to give the event its full name. There will be lots of speeches (in French of course..), flag waving and ribbon cutting. Oh and there is a huge air display planned, paid for by the French military. Pictures to follow.
tomorrow is the first competition day and the weather looks very good for the rest of the week.
Today is the official opening ceremony of the 7th FAI Women World Gliding championship, Issoudun, France, to give the event its full name. There will be lots of speeches (in French of course..), flag waving and ribbon cutting. Oh and there is a huge air display planned, paid for by the French military. Pictures to follow.
tomorrow is the first competition day and the weather looks very good for the rest of the week.
Sunday, 23 June 2013
France
You would have thought that Central France in late June is a T-shirt weather so all you'd need is Ryanair-style-hand-luggage bag for your vests, swim suit and tooth brush. I was contemplating this as I was packing my enormous suitcase and filling it with long sleeve thermals, fleeces and woolly socks and reminded myself the old saying "..you are never too warm at a gliding competition!" which, of course turned out to be correct yet again.
It is freezing! The only time you are too warm is when the sun decides to take a quick glance at the wet ground for a few seconds. It then quickly retreats behind the clouds with its tail between its legs and then you are freezing again.
It is freezing! The only time you are too warm is when the sun decides to take a quick glance at the wet ground for a few seconds. It then quickly retreats behind the clouds with its tail between its legs and then you are freezing again.
Arrival
So finally I am here, in Issoudun, France, the venue for the 2013 Women World championship. The journey was not without incidents, including the SatNav routing me through a busy Paris market lane At one point I was contemplating making a U turn among the stalls, however as it turns out, it was actually a short cut...
I arrived at the cottage we rented (Gite in French) at 10 pm last night to find it closed and locked and the owners no where to be seen...waited until 11 then went back to the gliding club and spent the night in an empty caravan.
Today we are doing paper work and the likes, and being France there is a lot of paper work to do, including re-validating a perfectly valid medical certificates. At least the weather is bad so not losing any precious flying time.
I arrived at the cottage we rented (Gite in French) at 10 pm last night to find it closed and locked and the owners no where to be seen...waited until 11 then went back to the gliding club and spent the night in an empty caravan.
Today we are doing paper work and the likes, and being France there is a lot of paper work to do, including re-validating a perfectly valid medical certificates. At least the weather is bad so not losing any precious flying time.
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