| Flight details: | Im here in Laragne where 120 pilots (Flexwing and Rigid) are competing in the UK & French nationals. The atmosphere is fantastic and the flying so far has been good. The first task had us at the south side of Chabre, the wind was about 15-20mph on the hill and about the same high up so we had a shorter task in the open parts of the valley to stop people landing behind the mountains in the strong winds. The task was a 75ish Km dogleg in the valley. The rigids had to launch first and the flexies followed. I had a perfect start and was ahead with Paul Harvey and a very good french pilot who we flew with in the worlds Vianney Tisseau. We flew down the ridge and climbed just before the gap as we were getting low, we took a weak 1.5up but we were under a very good cloud so after a couple of minutes i decide to head on hoping i could find something better. It paid off as i got an 8up screamer and was a couple thousand feet higher than the other two when they joined my climb. This lucky decision kept me ahead for the rest of the task. The Vr made some incredible glides across big valleys and soaked up any rough air like it was a non event. on the last turn point i crossed Paul Harvey coming the other way to the second to last turn point and Vianney i could see about 8km behind me. I made one more risky decision by crossing straight to St Genis instead of the closer ridge behind. I arrived level with the top and went straight up which allowed a final glide to the last turpoint and into Goal. Vianney decided to glide for the safer option and onto the mountain behind but was stuck soaring it for 10 minutes before he climbed out which meant i was in Goal 24 minutes before him in second place and Paul arrived 18 minutes later. I really enjoyed the task, I made two risky decisions that paid off but if the went wrong they could have really slowed me down (like Task 2!)...
http://bhgcresults.wikidot.com/2014-nationals:rigids-task-1 |
