Run Report for St.Andre
Sorry for the lack of daily info for the St Andre round. Time pressure & tiredness during the days caused this.
After the first cancelled day there were 5 tasks of 53km, 71km, 87km, 66km & 45km. Conditions varied from strong to very strong during the tasks. On one of the days a dubious turnpoint choice rotored a few of the top names. After I realised what was happening with the valley winds I turned around to top up on the Crete and attack differently, this was slow but I did get in.
I broke my ‘no goal’ curse by changing to an AXISPARA - Mercury. The wing feels like it goes very well & more importantly feels safe. This gave me the confidence to complete the tasks without worrying about the wing, unlike the previous comps on the FR3. I came a respectable 16th place in the end.
There were a few incidents during the week with pilots struggling with the strength of conditions, up to 10m/s at some times. Craig Morgan crashed whilst pushing hard on the 3rd task and ended up needing a helicopter rescue. Get well soon mate.
Some of the tasks took us over highly unlandable terrain but the reliability of the thermals never really had me that worried. Although on the last 2 days whilst racing in I ended up with some very necky final glides. Arriving with only around 50m over the line each day. Had the lake not been so low it could’ve meant a dip in the lake or more likely me not making goal as landing short would’ve been safer.
To sum up it was a well organized comp with some nice tasks around the local area. I’m happy with my performance as I only had a few hours on the Mercury going into the comp. I’m feeling very confident for next year. Other good news is that I found a good home for my FR3.
- Mads Syndergard, UP proto
- Jamie Messenger, Ozone R07
- Paul Schmit, Ozone R07
16. Kelly Farina, Axispara Mercury