All over

bar the awards ceremony...

Well, all up a slightly disappointing result for me, some good day scores (23, 23, 68) let down by bombing the first task and to a lesser extent hitting the ground out in front in the third task when it all shaded out (87th). With the overall not reflecting the extent to which the Aussies pushed the pace (or maybe really reflecting the pace pushing ;-))

71st Gareth
114th Che
117th Dave
137th Brian

As a country we did about as expected, ranked 26, finished 24.

Very interesting flying when we flew, one more turn in a thermal costing 30 places in the race and generally a strange mix of very fast racing with very slow sections. 2-3 minutes at the end meaning 50 gliders.

In this comp it doesn't pay to be out the front, the good guys were leaving 10-15 pilots in front to check the conditions before committing to a line. The guys who stuck to the gaggle were rewarded for consistency, a 60th place everyday basically means a top 25 result. On the other hand it's good to be in a race where a 130km triangle task takes 3hr 30mins and 107 pilots make goal, with 130 over 110km. To finish in the top 50 on a task means really pushing along, any off line or slow transition loses many places.

Thanks to the team for awesome company, to Gav for the spare reserve, JJ for the flymaster and Louise for everything else!

Now for a long trip home!

All Over

Very windy today, task is cancelled and the comp is over! Prize giving is tonight and we all start parting ways tomorrow.

Photo of the lenticular clouds and a few more words on my blog:

http://www.paratothepeople.com.au/worlds-day-12-wind-and-wave/

Che

No task

Wind over the back. No task. They're testing the risers of all the ice peaks in the top half of the comp, so waiting at hq to get my glider back.

Update: so the took pics of the risers, but they don't know what they're looking for...

Got the glider back and we're heading up to Beklemeto Pass for soaring and scenery...

Dinner on tonight, i guess the comps more or less over... some teams are heading home already.

g

Task 6

Called for 130km then 119km then canned...

The briefing was "eventually the extreme turbulence will overwhelm the hammering backwind and it will be launchable"...

So after about an hour of delays they tossed a poor windtech off the hill into what was ugly air, he bravely (stupidly) called level 2 although it was obviously crap. The organiser then canned the day to a round of applause.

The sun was extreme, its hot and there was some impressive dusties kicking off in the valley.

Off to the pool!

g

Task 5

131km Race to goal - the other way around the valley...

3000m base, 5-6m/s max with mostly about 3-4m/s, 130km flat triangle in 3hrs 36. Now thats more like it!

I was slow in the mid course but took a good line to the last turnpoint and hammered the sketchy final glide with the leaders for about 20th i think.

Brian was just in front but dirted about 400m short and KK was 20km short.

Heres Che coming into goal:

And every nights dinner - caprese salad

All roman and stuff

Day cancelled due either the rain or the fact that the chairlift wasn't working.  I think the latter...

Road trip to the ancient city of Phillipopolis (Plovdiv) to see all the roman stuff.

Roman theatre from 140AD

Wacky roman style house

Roman style cobblestones

Roman style gate

More roman style theatres

Roman style beer ads

When not drinking soft coctails

Why not order an "erotic banana"