Austrian Arena

After several rebriefs Calvo canned the day due to a 30kmh tail wind on launch.

Myself, I came again a very disappointing 48th. Well done to all the boys who showed consistency in sometimes fickle conditions. I feel that Piedrahita can be a great place to race but does not favour the brave and the gaggle is king. It’s one of the only places I know that making a small mistake is punished by a bomb out and then 20 mins later the same line will work. Very frustrating. Still there is always next time, it was fun to see and race friends in a well organised comp.

The top 10 stand as…

See all results here

Apologies that my blog went down during the week, as we were flying so much I had no time to resove the issue. It’s back on line now just in time to let everyone know that I didn’t shake off my curse for in  the Brits either.

Today is friday and was canned due to wind and inversions but at the moment I’m currrently 48th, with the possibility of climbing a few places as some pilots could lose there points for yesterdays long 154km task for breaking the 3300m airspace ceiling. Either way I still need a lot of practice or sell me soul for better luck.

All the boys, Mark Leavesley, Russell Ogden, Craig Morgan, Mark Hyman & Innes Powell have done pretty well. The only ‘crack’ doing worse than myself at the time of writing is Mark ‘Wagga’ Watts. He also is having a shocker!!

Let’s see what happens tomorrow, but the forecast is for more wind so we not have the lluxury of more tasks to claw back some self respect and over take the mincingly slow pilots who cruised over our heads 1hr after landing.

I’m currently very happy on my wing and am looking forward to some mountain racing next week in Piave at the Czech Open. I’ll be writing a blog about that now it’s up and running again.

KF

PS the run reports for both the Nordic and British Opens is on the right hand menu.

Well the Nordic Open is over, there were 4 good but very technical tasks.

I came a very disappointing 55th, my worse ever FAI cat 2 result. Usually in the past I’ve done quite well here in Piedrahita but bad decisions and bad luck nailed me!

See overall results here.

I hope to shake off this drill and bomb curse for the Brits.

KF 

Day cancelled due to strong west winds and inversion which unabled safe crossing of the pass.

All results will be up as soon as they are published.

Day 5 Steve thinks today looks great so we are off up the hill now…
Update: strong south west wind in the high level and the commitee decided on
a 154km race to goal. The start was a little slow going with a few pilots as usual going
down before the pass. Once over the leaders(us) found a strong, broken lee side climb which
eventually got everyone out to around 3000m. The next section to Avila was fast with
convergence clouds setting up on the small hills to the north. Base was at around 3400m here
with trim cruising speeds of nearly 70kmh, it was looking very possible.
The Avila crossing is always tricky and patience was needed. At this moment the lead gaggle slowed down a little to top up. Looking down on them for the first time this comp I decided to wait until
the climb died from the bottom up, therefore forcing them to push on and mark the next climb.
The next 3 climbs were pretty broken and after a lowish save in the lee of  the south wind coming over the mountains at villa castin it was just top up to as much as possible and push on for
around 7km a time. The Crux for me came about 15km out when I got a little split up from the
leaders and had to take a weak climb, this meant that I arrived a little late on the next climb across the
badlandsjust before finals. I didn’t want to risk going in late for a leeside climb with no other option than climb out, there was NOwhere to land just trees. After taking an unexpected asymetric
I decided to push on to the windward side and ride it down to the flats.
From there it would’ve have been one small climb to get into goal but the sun was covered in cirrus and left the ground around there too cool. I was disappointed to not make goal yet again but happy with the decision I made.
You can’t come back from a poor start if you’re equipment is trashed in a tree, not to mention the embarisment!

Day 4 Again cracking conditions, forecast high base & and easterly in the high level allowed Steve Ham to set a 102km race to goal somewhere in the flats to the left of launch. Two gaggles formed taking diferent lines. One to the mountains to the north & the other one staying on the south ridge. Although the north ridge looked better as it had no crossings
I didn’t like the fact that the wind was coming over the top and was ineffect a leeside ridge for it’s entirity.
I choose not to top up on a vital part and got flushed(6m/s) into an area with NO landing options except rocks and rapids. I was worried for a while but sneaked out to the valley at 46km, after a 3km glide out from the BOONIES! Scary stuff. I’m having the worse competition yet again, now down to 60th
place overall. Terrible when I expected a top 10. Oh well, I’ll try again today. Russell Ogden won the day with mainly brits in the top 10. scores to follow.

Day 3 Good conditions allowed the commitee to set a 108km out and return to the Castle near AVila, back to a church west of Piedrahita then to goal in town. Finding myself in the lead gaggle we pushed on near the castle into a blue hole and half the leaders went down, myself included. Not great, 40km.

The slower pilots as usual had an easier time as the day had time to get going and there was around 30 in goal, some right on the land by deadline. Innes won the day but after download found that he’d mistake the goal line by 16m. Poor bloke. Therefore Polish guy Mali won the day.

Day 2 Strong winds again in the morning, forecast to drop later. After rebriefing at 1800hrs we launched and set off on a 50km task to Avila. It was elapsed time so you could take as late a start time as you’d like. Normally an advantage but those who choose too late risked the day dying on them. I land 9.7km from goal, the closest was Mark Hayman at 4km.

results

Day 1 Cancelled due to strong winds.

Task 4 was a 77km race to Avila and back to the pass. Again the beginning was slow going under a strong inversion and there were a few incidents along the ridge. Once at the pass the climbs turned on to 4-6m/s up to over 3000m. Most of the pilots took a line on the foothills to the north of the valley. The gaggle I was in started with a line heading more to the south. Myself, Mark Watts & several
of the leading pilots in the comp pushed on to a weak climb in the flats. After mincing around for a while in light lift Wagga(Watts) & I cracked on from 2800m and didn’t hit anything and landed 12km short of the turnpoint!
Bombed again!!
Mark Leavesley and the others in the gaggle we left ended up going back to a climb, which finally turned on and then cruised the rest of the task in orbit. Life just isn’t fair sometimes.
Piedrahita is a place that doesn’t favour the brave sometimes.
All the Brits got in in reasonable times, Mark Leavesley ended up 4th overall.
The goal field was in a area of convergence and it took some pilots 40mins to get down. With some dustys thrown in for good measure.
The prize giving later that night showed that the best pilots won.

1. Ronny Helgsen, Boom5, NOR
2. Anders Barheim, Targa 3, SWE
3. Juoni Makkonen, SR7, FIN
4. Mark Leavesley, Boom5, GBR

See full results here

I came a very disappointed 55th, the lowest ever position in a Cat 2.
Hopefully next week I’ll be able to shake off the Piedrahita drill & bomb curse!!