Howdy all,
Gav & I are humorously interpreting our Mexican keyboards to give you all an update of Valle de Bravo.
In a few words, ¨Fun funky flying¨. Good strong convergence from launch boosting pilots to heights of about 3100-3300m at a slow rate of about 8m/s. Seems to be quite a technical area. Gav & I are camped out with the Kieth MacCullogh (Canada), Matt Beechinor (USA), Anders Baerheim (Norway), and a few other groupies/squatters- all whom know the area very well so it has been a bonus to pick their brains over 90c coronas of an evening.
Caught up with all the usual suspects with most arriving today. As usual the poor crew of the worlds (us) are a standout with the only old gliders in the sky... Great to see the protos coming into the LZ back in town after a days flying. Some spanking new designs and a lot of purring going on with inquisitive pilots comparing feathers.
Returning to the flying again, James has been here a couple of days before Gav, Antje, and me to test fly the area with a couple a tales that I´ll let him fill you in on. The rest of us had our first flap yesterday and was generally enjoyed all round. Gav flew to town with the main gaggle and scored some good height and glides. He got some great shots over the lake of the town and I believe he is uploading them now.
I took the unusual choice of venturing out on my own (;b) to the north-west of the lake only to be told after arriving at the LZ in town later that afternoon that that is unchartered territory. Ahh, ignorance is bliss. There was also a first with one of the Germans landing on the summit of the volcano (I assume dormant) to the south-east of launch and reflying after a bit of site-seeing.
Well, winding down to the start of all things purposfull in 4 days. We are feeling pretty keen to bring it on so keep an eye on this spot for more updates.
Happy flying,
Shane.
PS: A Norwegan visiting pilot had spent four days flying with four reserve chucks, the final one entangled with another pilot in front of launch. Please someone tap me on the shoulder if this ever becomes my fate... Ciao.
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The story about the Norwegian pilot sounds a bit familiar so I thought I'd try to set the record straight. I'm an Aussie living in Oslo who traveled with the Norwegians for a fortnight prior to the competition. The guy in question managed 3 chucks in 5 days on a borrowed glider after which he changed gliders and remained airborne for the rest of the stay (still quite an achievement). A second Norwegian got entangled with an American over launch and both went down on reserves without injury. A few minutes prior to the event, Ronny had warned everyone about the American who didn't seem to understand how to thermal, which direction to turn, etc. When asked afterwards, the American apparently said words to the effect, "I assumed he (the Norwegian who was thermalling at the time) would turn and see me when I attempted to enter the thermal, then we collided". Thats my 2 cents. Best of luck with the comp.
ReplyDelete/Paul.