Slovenian Open task 1

Well we finally got to fly today after a long morning waiting up on launch. Actually, it was quite nice and very beautiful. Things were kind of different in that after we drove as far as we could up the mountain, we got to hike for a good half hour the rest of the way to the top. There was a small cable car setup which was able to bring up our gliders, but we were able to enjoy a beautiful morning hike through the woods, and then across the high alpine meadows. There was a very nice 'hut' as they call them, which are located on most mountain tops throughout this part of Europe. I was amazed at how many locals and visitors were hiking up to the hut to have coffee, or some really nice homemade soup, or a refreshing beverage.

The weather was still being difficult today, and cloud base was still at or just above the launch altitude. The organizers were patient and using their local knowledge, seemed to think that we might have an opportunity for a short task. We got up the hill around 10:30, and at 3:00 we started a short, 29k race around the local valley, keeping on eye on buildups and showers that were in the region. During the safety briefing, the meet director was talking about the weather and how there was "no chance of thunderstorms today". Right about that time there was a nice rumble of thunder... it was pretty funny, the timing of the thunder vs. the timing of the discussion about weather for the day. That ended up being the only thunder we heard....

The organizer only gave us a 20 minute window from the opening of the launch window to the start of the race. I remember thinking when he said this that "this will be interesting getting everyone launched and 4 kilometers out to the start position in just 20 minutes". Sure enough, even after seeing it coming, I still wasn't ready in time as were most pilots, and I was still 2K from the start when the window opened. They ended up stopping the task after maybe half hour - 45 minutes because of rain showers and potential convective activity. I was behind and never had a chance to catch up over such a short window of flying. I got to re-learn another very valuable lesson... that being that I should never be thinking that the weather's crummy and we'll probably not be able to fly - even if it is!! This was exactly how my mind was working this aternoon.... I should always be ready and able just in case we do get to fly.... this is such a head game!! I had the same problem in Brazil. The conditions were really bad, but those pilots who were thinking that "it's really bad, but you just never know - they might call a task anyway and we'll get a chance to see what we can make of the lousey conditions...

After they stopped the task when I landed I managed to get a bee down my shoe and a nice sting out of the deal....don't think I've had a bee sting since I was a kid.... It's clear this evening with a nice moon. Haven't had a chance to look at the weather forecast for tomorrow yet. I finally got skype up and running on my laptop, so now I can call anywhere in the world for only pennies a minute, and anybody who has skype on their computer for free... I was able to talk to Sue this evening and hear about her plans to come over to Slovenia to join me. I'm sure it will be an adventure and I hope she makes it without too many standby blues!

Slovenian Open 2009

Arrived in Kranj, Slovenia at 5:30 am on Saturday morning after a marathon train trip form Paris. Flew American Airlines to Paris from Chicago and they treated me quite nicely. My original plan was to travel to Munich but that didn't work out so I ended up with quite a bit more time on the train than I had hoped for. From Kranj I caught a bus and then a taxi to my final destination of Zelezniki. It is a very small town nestled in the mountains near several prime paragliding sites in the Slovenian Alps.

The weather here and throughout much of Europe has been rain and thunderstorms for quite some time and the pattern seems to be continuing. The organization is saying that things are improving so we are all hopeful that we can get flying soon. I'm staying in a nice b & b with a very friendly host. They serve an excellent breakfast and it's quite comfortable. I'm hoping Sue will be able to join me in a few days so that we can hike and have some adventures together.

I always try and schedule two comps back to back when I travel this far so that if the weather is bad for one it is almost always good for the other.... we shall see. I hope we get to fly soon because the area is quite gorgeous and I'd really like to see it from the sky!

I'm working on making a video from my Austrian and Turkey trips and I'm making progress.... slowly... it takes time to figure out the video editing software, etc.

Friday Task 4

Today we were ready to fly and were rewarded with a very nice 74k race to goal. We've been forced to use a lower launch which is much more challenging for the competition. It can be quite difficult to get 135 pilots into the air in time for the start cylinder. Fortunately, my ranking was high enough that I was able to get an earlier launch window than many other pilots. This allowed me to have enough time to work my way up to cloud base, but I still ended up 3 kilometers from the start cylinder at the 1:40 pm start time. Pilots were so fast today that I was never able to catch up and finished in 34th position. It was a very fun race with turn points along the front range of the mountains and also out in the valley near the city of Denizli. I really enjoy it when I can stay high for the entire race and that's just how the day was today... Got some great video of the start gaggles and the fisrt part of the race...

I've been hanging out with the British contingent quite a bit this week, and they are doing very well in the standings... with one man, currently in first place over all, which is a great accomplishment. He is a very consistent full time test pilot for Ozone paragliders and flies many competitions each year....

Final day is tomorrow. Weather forecast says we are going to have a bit more wind to deal with so don't know if we'll get a task off or not... either way it's been a very successful comp with 4 excellent days of racing.... I've learned a ton this week about what it takes to compete at the highest level in this sport... I've always thought it mostly mental in the past but this week has really highlighted the physical requirement as well... My legs definitely aren't in shape enough to accelerate my glider as much as I need to stay with the strongest pilots here - something I need to work on!

Wednesday weather day off

Most pilots were quite content to have a day off today after 3 hard days racing. I was planning on laying around the pool and reading and relaxing but the comp had organized some traveling to visit a nearby town, and then lunch at a restaurant up in the hills above, and finally a trip up on to the high mesa to enjoy a scenic area for hiking around a lake and just relaxing and hanging out.

I enjoyed the nice lunch served, and wild flowers growing along the drive up to the mesa were beautiful. The area was scenic but the Red Bull Humvee had followed us up there (it seems to follow the competition where ever it goes), and it was playing loud music and the 'beat' was somewhat bothersome to me after a time. I walked out in the fields along the lake and found a good friend who I think wanted to be my friend for life by the time I had to leave. This poor girl had all kinds of critters on her and was basically a mess as far as her coat went, etc.... mostly skin and bones and barely getting by it looked like. But sure enough, as only a dog can do, she was all smiles and feeling the love despite her condition, happy to have someone showing so much attention..

The day finished with a very nice nap and then dinner with the British pilots....

The weather for the next 3 days of the comp looks like it could go either way. There will definitely be some stronger winds to deal with....

Tuesday Task 3

UGH!! Ok, never mind, I'm over it.... but it kind of hurts to see the lead gaggle fly over your head to goal when you've landed just short after an excellent day of good decision making and fast racing! Today was a 109k race to gaol with some turn points in the mountains and some out in the flat lands. The start was organized chaos because the day just wasn't quite on yet so 130 of us were all groveling around in front of launch in lite lift. If I was a bubble of lift I would have been terrified as I would be instantly sliced and diced up by 100 wings, and then what ever bit was left would be consumed again!

More often than not with this group if you're flying just ahead of the main gaggle, as I often try to do, when you find some lift you better really take a deep breath before you start a turn because you'll likely see a huge gaggle coming right at you and they all want what you've found!! Often I just give up trying to find a way to merge back into them and continue on unless it's too strong to pass up....

The day finally turned on during the first glide and I worked very hard to keep up and pushed out front several times. Two different times a large gaggle came in quite high above me and I just climbed underneath them until they went on glide.... and then I went on glide also, even though I could have still climbed quite a bit higher. You just have to stay with them or your race will be over... it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to catch up once they pull away unless the day is really slow with spotty lift and they get stuck somewhere. So today I flew the 2nd half of the race about 300 meters below the lead gaggle, but I was with them or ahead of them all the way. About 25k from goal there was one final crossing of the flat lands and then a very large mountain range. We flew into the slopes about half way up and just 'pinged' to cloud base... I looked at my vario averager and I was doing 7.1 meters per second up to 3600 meters. Whoooo eeeee!! Then the instruments were showing that we would only need one more small climb to make goal, but goal was once again out across the flats and the day was getting late - and the valley winds were strong below. I finished the long glide just behind about 10 in the lead gaggle and watched them get the last climb that they needed, but then I thought I would take a shot at winning the day and pushed on ahead across the slopes thinking I would surely find the climb I needed.... Lesson for the day was to recognize at what altitude the valley winds get stronger and start blowing the thermals apart, and that I'm probably not smarter than the 10 top pilots tanking up on the last nice high terrain before the final glide......So it goes... I'm still very happy with how I flew today even though the results won't show it. I'm getting the opportunity to play chess with the masters and it is teaching me more every time I play the game...

The retrieve back to HQ was an experience in itself.. All I can say is I'm so thankful for 1, my REI inflatable seat cushion, and 2, my in ear earphones to mostly drown out the drunk Germans and others who were singing bar songs and howling at the Japanese female pilot who was poll dancing around one of support poles in the front of the bus. We had to sit at goal for almost two hours waiting for the goal to close and for everyone to be retrieved that was in the area. Needless to say there was quite a bit of alcohol consumed. There were twice as many pilots than seats, and there were bodies and glider bags strewn everywhere. At one point there were bodies actually flying through the air and being tossed around like they were nothing... I really had to keep my guard up to avoid being injured!

We are looking at one, maybe two weather days for Wednesday and possibly Thursday. I hope to work on some video editing.... Today I was seriously bumbed when I discovered that I'd left my memory stick out of my camera. Here I thought I was getting all that crazy gaggle flying on video.... Darn!

Pictures are "the agony of defeat" and a goat herder who stopped by to smile and shake our hands...

Jack

Monday Task 2

All I can say about today is that me knees are killing from trying to keep up with these guys and gals!! Never have I seen such a strong field of pilots who are all pushing pushing pushing! Today was pretty fun but very tiring... an 88k race to goal with the first part of the race very fast in the mountains under strong thermals and much flying at cloud base. Then the course went out onto the flat lands and things slowed down considerably. Lots of decision making today so was quite challenging deciding the best line to take, and the best route to fly the course. I kept up as best I could and kept with one of the two lead gaggles throughout the race. The two lead gaggles went in two completely different directions for the valley crossing so was quite interesting. The one problem I still new to work on is closing out the race.... Seems like this is the most consistent mistake I make. Once again today I was still going carefully headed for the turn point that was way out in the valley, thinking that "nobody is going to make goal" and "I just need to get as far as I can and take every little scrap of lift which I find. Then a few pilots came in above me and flew right through the thermal I was working and pressed on. About that time I looked down at my instruments and realized that I was already in final glide position, and had been for awhile!! It said I would be over goal with over 500 meters to spare... so I finally shifted gears and raced in as fast as I could... Sometimes even though you still have a turn point in front of you, and goal is behind you, you still need to be racing on final glide! That mistake cost me considerably... I finished 21st, and should have been 10-12th. One of these days I'll figure out how to stay focused at the end of the race which is where I seem to lapse in concentration...

Tomorrow the wx looks great again. Today it was windy when we got up on the mountain but it gradually let up and we had a really fun task....

The pictures are of an over grown cemetary which is behind the water spring where we stop to fill up our water bottles on the way up to launch, and the 2nd pic is of the women who are preparing our lunch up on launch... a real treat!