Sunday Task 1

Everyone was quite excited to race today with excellent racing conditions forecast and plenty of hungry pilots. We ended up getting a late start as the task committee for some reason was slow getting a task called, and the wing truck broke down requiring one of the buses to drive most of the way back to headquarters and rescue our gliders....

They finally called an 80k out and return task.... There are some nice pictures and other info on the world cup website... You'll have to copy and paste the link into your browser until I figure out how to get a link to work on the blogspot page....

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/


My launching today was less than sterling... I honestly tried to get ready early, but it seems that 100 other pilots were also on my exact time line.... I set up in front of the main launch area, and then me and the pilot next to me were 'pushed' to launch by several aggressive pilots above us as we were effectively blocking them and the clock was rapidly moving towards the start time and pilots were really feeling pressured to get in the sky. So both of us, feeling the pressure to launch pulled up at the same time, not really seeing each other, and then our wings became tangled and we had to abort our launches. I took a nice chunk of skin off my right knee but nothing too serious.. I was then forced to either try to launch from lower down the hill or go back up to the end of the line and really be late for the start window... I choose to launch from where I had ended up after the entanglement with the other glider, but looking behind me where I would be turning and running to launch it was really ugly with large rocks and really steep, lumpy, rocky ground. I decided to wait for a good cycle of wind so that the glider would kind of pull me up the hill and then I would just take off over the rough ground and that's just what I did so managed to get on my way in plenty of time after all

I absolutely killed the start and flew really well for the first part of the race, and then that old mind started working and I decided to push out across the first long valley crossing without climbing back up to cloud base... when I looked behind me and saw the lead gaggle I was with all turning and climbing I knew right then I'd probably made a critical mistake and I was right... It was way to early in the race to make a move like that.....should have stayed with the gaggle... After that I kind of relaxed and kept pushing as best I could and managed 44th place on the first day. I'm happy with my finish and excited to get to reset and try again tomorrow. This is by far the most talented and fastest group of pilots I've ever flown with. It's really a blast and I get to learn a ton as I go....

The hotel has a nice pool, and today goal was just a couple of minutes walk from the hotel so I was able to drop my stuff and jump in the pool which was really nice after a race. Food has been "ok"... we get breakfast and dinner included with our hotel room and only have to pay for water and any other drinks we might need.

Weather looks excellent again for tomorrow.... Today there were over 100 pilots in goal so I expect tomorrow for them to call a longer, more difficult race

Friday Opening Ceremony

Well today I became famous as the pilot who caused the airspace around here to be closed to paragliding because of my near-miss with a couple of Turkish fighters yesterday.... I think the real issue was that they had scheduled the opening ceremonies in the city of Denizli and they wanted all of the pilots to participate... this meant no flying so I think airspace issues with the military were 'conveniently arranged by the competition personnel so that we would all be available to load in the buses and head into Denizli this afternoon. The official training day as been scheduled for tomorrow and the weather looks to be holding up very nicely. If my XC skies weather forecasting software tool is accurate, then Sunday, the first day of the competition is shaping up to be outstanding.... we will see!

Most of the 140 competitors have arrived and everyone is anxious to get in the air tomorrow. There have been gliders and harnesses laid out all over the hotel as pilots fine tune their equipment and make other adjustments.

Today I worked on learning how to edit some of the video I took in Austria so that I can eventually get a video posted so that others can view it.... It's a work in progress! This afternoon we all loaded up in the buses and drove about a half hour into the city of Denizli and took part in the opening ceremony for the competition. There were dancers adorned in local attire and lots of kids assigned a sign for each of the 38 countries which are in attendance. There was a marching band, and speeches by variouis dignitaries, etc... The closed a busy downtown street and we all marched in a precession for several blocks and then we were free to roam around the city for awhile before heading back to Pamukkale and dinner at the hotel....

Another training day

Today was another good warm up flying day.... we had about 25 pilots, and tomorrow we will probably have 75 or more with the rest of the 125 arriving one day prior on saturday. Had some good helpers today to fold up my glider. The other pictures are looking down the valley near the town we are staying...

Saturday is going to be a day for ceremonial activities, registration, etc.. but I think that many pilots will be flying! It's quite interesting flying here... It looks so much like California, and then you look down and see some ancient ruins or other signs that you are a long way from the US and California...

Today I had a very close call with two Turkish Air Force F4 Phantoms.... I was thermaling about 2800 meters and they came right at me at my same altitude! One went on one side of me and the other went on the other!! It was surreal and pretty scary all in the same moment... At first I thought they were raptors, but then I remembered that I hadn't flown with any raptors or "turkey" vultures since I'd been here. The "birds" I thought I saw quickly turned into figher jets!!

Pamukkale & Ancient city pics

Ancient Stadium from 50 BC... Beautiful wild flowers...chaulk/calcium pools....the village of Pamukkale - headquarters for the Turkey pwc...

From Austria to Turkey

Our travels from Abtenau went smoothly for both of us. A short taxi ride followed by about 3 hours on the train had us back at the Munich airport. Sue caught a standby flight right away to Nice, and I flew to Istanbul, and then to Denizli, with further transfers to Pamukkale. I had a few difficult moments at the Lufthansa ticket counter after I was informed that I was allowed only 20kgs (44 lbs) for my luggage, and that every kg over (2.2 lbs), I was going to be charged 10 euros (about $14.00). I'm traveling with about 65 kgs so that was going to be an additional $600 dollars just to carry the normal luggage I travel with.... The ticket itself was only $160.00!! Needless to say my heart skipped a beat when I was told this.... I'm used to paying, well let's see hmmm- nothing for extra baggage!! I eventually got the agent to treat my paragliding gear as 'sports equipment' which goes at a discounted rate. Then fortunately when I went to the different counter to pay my excess bag fees, the agent got it all confused and only charged me 70 euros (about $100) so I guess I got off easy.... Turkish Airlines out of Istanbul was much easier on me and only charged me 20 Turkish Lyra (about $15.00)

There aren't enough world cup pilots here yet to warrant a practice day so today I relaxed in the morning after an interesting breakfast.... In fact that's probably the best way to describe the food here thus far - quite interesting.... I don't get the olives mixed with chunks of lemon for breakfast. There was a huge buffet for dinner also, and I didn't recognize much of anything except the chicken.... Anyway, late this morning I went walking, and not 10 minutes from the hotel I found myself at the footsteps of the Pamukkale and Hierapolis, one of the most important tourist attractions in Turkey! Over 1.5 million visitors each year!! I had no idea whatsoever that this tourist site was located here.... So today I took a few steps back in time (about 2000 yrs worth) and did the best I could to be a tourist for the day and see what I could see. I won't get into it here on the blog but I've included a few links if you want to look deeper. Standing in a stadium on the very stones where people gathered over 2000 years ago was fascinating, to say the least!!

The pwc Turkey starts on Sunday, and runs for 7 days. Most pilots will be showing up on Friday for the official practice day on Saturday. I'm hoping to get a few flights in this week so that I can get a feel for the place. Looking at the sky today it looked like one of the best cross country skies I've ever seen, with cloud base at nearly 4000 meters and light winds aloft. Sure hope this keeps up!! I just reviewed the pilot list for this comp and many of the big guns are here so it will take every ounce of effort, focus, and skill I have to put it together and be competitive with this field. Many of the top pilots didn't travel to either of the first 2 world cup stops this year, so they are all hungry to make it into the top 15 and secure a spot in the Superfinal in Italy this fall! This will be by far the most competitive comp I've ever flown...

You'll have to copy and paste these into your browser window if you want to view them....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamukkale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis

A couple pictures from goal on the last day. The view from one of the Abteneau launches. The wild flowers are in full bloom everywhere here.....

Last race day in Abtenau

Well the last race day for the Pre-Europeans comp was windy but still quite fun... They called a 66k 'elapsed time' race which I had never done before. Basically, everyone is racing against the clock instead of with each other. This was done for safety concerns and was a good call. I decided to leave early because I knew that If I flew the course and arrived in goal early on I would get many 'leading' points which is part of the scoring algorithym. I left with a half a dozen other pilots headed across a large valley, but the initial glide didn't look good so I angled off toward a smaller mountain near the start cyclinder and found a nice climb which got me into a really good position to make the first crossing. The rest of my initial group had pushed on and were already looking pretty low. The rest of the flight I flew by myself with 140 pilots behind me. Some waited up to 45 minutes at the start before they headed out. Conditions were quite strong at times and at one point I let myself get a bit downwind of one of the turn points and I was just barely able to penetrate into the headwind to tag it. It took me almost 10 minutes just to go a little over a kilometer!! Crazy! When I finally did get that point, and then the next one the long glide to goal was straight down a large valley with a huge tail wind. I was making 80-85 kilometers per hour for much of it.... felt like I was in an airplane there for awhile. When I finally climbed up to the last ridge top and looked over and saw the large goal line I realized that I was the first one there, and even though I probably wasn't the fastest, I would have a good score with the leading points I would get.

I ended up 2nd for the day, and took 6th place overall for the competition so I'm quite happy with my result, and feel good and warmed up for the world cup event coming up next week.

Sue and I had an amazing day today hiking the mountains behind Abtenau. We didn't fly today as the forcast was for thunderstorms and high winds, but once again the forcast wasn't too acurate and the day turned out gorgeous. We hiked for about 5 hours and made it to the top of a mountain, which had a cable in place to help us up the last 30 meters or so. We sat up there and took in the view and snacked a bit, and sure enough as we were gazing a paraglider flew right by us!

On the way down we rode the rail tobagan thing which is pretty fun. Another really nice dinner with a band yodoling in the back ground. Then packing and getting ready to head out early in the morning... Sue is headed to Nice to visit with her sister and some other family, and I am headed to Munich and then to Istanbul, and then to south-western Turkey to rest up for the world cup starting on the weekend...

Task 1

Our first race day in Abtenau was one of the most memorable flights I've experienced on a paraglider. Nothing could have been more perfect (well except that I could have won the day!). The organization is excellent, the weather was perfect, it was in all regards a perfect 10 for the day. I flew quite well, and even though I was typically late for the start, I managed to play catch up for the first 50 kilometers, and then stayed right with the lead gaggle until we were 80k along the course line.... Then, after a long 20 k glide, I just didn't quite get the thermal that the other leaders were working so I decided to push out in front for the next valley crossing..... It really looked like a good move and that it should work over there but I ended up getting stuck on a ridge for almost 10 minutes looking for a thermal. Meanwhile, the entire lead gaggle and several others flew over my head and the day was over for me in terms of being competitive. I was still determined to make it to goal because 124k was the longest race I'd ever flown and almost the longest flight I'd ever flown. I finally got a climb and just relaxed for the rest of the flight, took my time to get as high as I could and try and take in the incredible scenery. I finished in 36th place for the day which was still respectable considering the caliber of pilots attending. I think almost 90 out of the 145 pilots racing made it to goal.. Simply amazing that that many pilots could all make it 124 kilometers on a paraglider on a race day....

Task 1 Launch

Monday first weather day

I'm behind already on the blog so I'll try and get things up to date.... The first two days of the Pre-Euros were cancelled due to weather, although the first day ended up being beautiful and I think there was some remorse by the organizers for not taking us up the hill to give it a go..... Sue was happy, however, as a weather day means we can do stuff together so we took the opportunity to head into Salzburg and take in the sites and emerse ourselves in some serious history.... Festung Hohensalzburg castle was incredibly fascinating with over 1000 years of history evident and preserved within. We later enjoyed a carriage ride around the city and a walk though the summer quarters of Bishops from long ago which now boasts beautiful flower gardens.

This is a beautiful place and we are really enjoying our stay. Today was the best racing day I've ever experienced.... a 124k race to goalover the Austrian Alps. I'll post pics and more about it tomorrow.... We're getting some good video with the little GoPro camera but haven't figured out how to upload it yet.....
Jack

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the competition.... however, I must admit that this place is just made for the sport... Here's how the day goes around Abtenau: Get up check the weather and head to the nearest ski resort located favorably for the forecast winds. Ride the gondola or tram up to the top of the mountain.... pick the grassy hillside launch that suits you for the day.... Have a bite to eat if you need it.... Thermal or fly xc to your hearts content and then land well, hmmm, maybe just about anywhere....more than likely near wherever it is that you're staying...

Sunday's flying

Well, as is typical at a comp anywhere but Valle de Bravo, Mexico, the weather just before the comp is great and then it goes down hill..... The warm up day here on Sunday was amazing..... everything I'd ever heard about flying the Alps and more.... Litterally paraglidng paradise..... I've posted a few pictures...
Jack

Sunday, May 17th

A couple of pics from our Hotel room balcony and the front of the resort. Sue is already off hiking and I'm getting ready to head up the hill for a warm up flight.

Hello from Abtenau, Austria!

Sue and I just finished a 24 hour journey to Abtenau, Austria, which is in the
Alps SE of Salzburg. The Austrian Nationals / Pre-Europeans 2009 kick off on
Monday with 150 pilots registered, with many top world pilots participating.

Not too bad.... 6 hours to Chicago from Anchorage.... 8+ hours to Frankfurt from Chicago.... 45 min to Munich from Frankfurt.... 3 hours via Eurorail train to Abtenau train station. Then after wandering the streets near the train station for a bit not really having any idea where we needed to go, a complete stranger, a German man who was out doing some yard work, litterally scooped us up with all of our gear and drove us 30 kilometers to the headquarters hotel!! There were no more busses running, and no taxis to be had.. Talk about hospitality!!

So basically what we saw in all directions this evening when we arrived under the puffy clouds were either 1000s of feet of granite rising above the treeline, grassy slopes as far as the eye can see on the hills below the treeline, or green grassy fields on the valley floor extending in all directions.... The headquarters hotel where we are staying is at the bottom of the ski lift with the lz out front.....

http://em2010.ikarus-abtenau.at/

I'll plan to keep up my blog with pics and possibly some GoPro video... Please everyone send good weather vibes this way.... I was initially excited just to be able to compete in this venue with this high octane pilot group.... now I'm getting excited just to fly in such a beautiful setting.... I was honestly expecting to see Julie Andrews come dancing down the grassy hillside behind the hotel singing the Sound of Music....

They are planning on doing live spot tracking for the top 10 pilots. I expect
that this effort will be a bit more successful than the recent effort made at
the US Nats in Dunlap.... I'll send links and instructions if it's a go...

Sue is excited to check out some of the great hiking spots, maybe some mountain biking, and if I know Sue, probably some river rafting.... We have nice high speed internet in our room so we will make the blog a priority so stay tuned!!

Jack & Sue

Boomerang 6 at US Nats April, 2009