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The pre-Worlds, day three

Patience, wait for the day
Pre-Worlds - three
Sat, Jun 28 2008, 3:09:54 pm MDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Andreas Olsson|Attila Bertok|Bruce Kavanagh|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Pre-Worlds 2008|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|video

Results

The official pre-Worlds blog.

Jeff O'Brien's blog

Jamie Shelden's blog

Saturday, June 28th.

Tricky call today for a task and for a launch site. The organizers are trying to deal with the fact that they've got to get 120 pilots off the hill reasonably safely. The wind forecast for 2 PM is for four knots northwest at Laragne-Chabre, but the readings from the wind meter on top show 25 km/h in the morning at 8:30 AM. They are concerned that the wind will turn west, as it appears to do with light northerly winds, in the afternoon and that we've got to wait until the afternoon in order to launch the south side, as it is too hard to get up (although supposedly easy to launch) on the north side.

If we setup on the lower north launch, as we experienced the brisk north winds in the earlier afternoon and late morning, when the south "breeze" from the thermals cancelled out the north wind, just when we would want to start launching, then we wouldn't be able to launch from the lower north launch as there is no south launch area down there.

If we went to the top of Laragne-Chabre and waited for the south face thermals to start coming up, there wouldn't be enough time of safe launch conditions to get everyone off the hill. So despite that fact that Aspres wind readings were showing even stronger north winds there than Laragne-Chabre, the organizers sent us off to Aspres for a late launch, maybe on the west side (assuming that the winds would turn west and the sun would heat up the west face combining the thermals with the wind).

We got to the southwest facing launch at Aspres and it was blowing pretty strongly northeast, nothing like the day before at Laragne-Chabre, but too strong to consider launching. I was told that we will be waiting until 3 PM before launching.

Long before 3 PM they sent us up the road to the west launch, basically a long steep ridge line that would allow all of us to launch at once. We all setup not sure that we would be launching at all.

The first launch was scheduled for 3 PM with the start window open at 4:15 PM. The task was kept short, 77 km, about, so that we could finish before the 8 PM drop dead time. At 3 PM it was still not coming up the face, but the wind from the north or northeast had slowed down considerably. They delayed launch twice to 3:30, then it looked like it might be possible to get off. We all jumped into line. Suddenly the meet organizers looked very smart!

The wind was coming cross across the face from the right hand side most of the time, but every once in a while the wind would be overcome with thermals coming up the face and it was possible to launch. I waited a long time as Heather kept calling out cross wind. When it finally straightened up I and a bunch of pilots behind me were off the hill.

The lift had looked weak in front of launch with pilots climbing slowly, but I found lift right away and climbed right out to 7,400'. The American team had discussed strategy and were together. Our idea was to go across the valley in front of launch and get up on the other side under the thicker cu's, but still outside the eighteen km entry start circle. I saw a few pilots circling over there and headed over. I joined up with Zippy, the two Jeff's, and Scott as well as a number of other pilots working completely broken lift as the minutes ticked off, and as we tried to get up again to over 7,000'. The forecast had been for cloud base between 7,000'-8,000' and so far that had proven to be correct.

Finally, after twenty minutes of not getting up, we found some lift and climbed out to 7,500' just in time for the first start window to open. It was very late in the day, 4:45 PM, there were cu-nimbs way to our west which might spit out some high blocking clouds. It would be a good idea to take the first start time.

I headed off right next to Scott Barrett. He pulled out his camera and took a few shots;

More of Scott's shots from the day here.

There were plenty of cu's ahead. Scott and I were near or in the lead and I was running east down the ridge line that we had been working for the last thirty minutes. There the lift was at the end of the ridge and twenty or so pilots joined us in it as we climbed back to 7,500'. The first turnpoint was on the "volcano" to our southeast.

There was a comb of a hill between the "volcano" and us and sure enough there was lift right over it as we got there and plenty just beyond it. That was enough to quickly get us back to 7,500' and over to the "volcano" and the turnpoint. Scott and I raced together down the south ridge line of the "volcano," and again we found the lift in front of everyone nearby. We quickly climbed out to 8,200'. The two Jeff's were just a few hundred feet below us, but we heard later that Zippy flew back to take the next start time.

Scott found a little bit better lift and got above me a bit to the north. I came over to him, but lost track of him there but he was keeping track of me from above. We headed east to the next ridge line with Jeff O'Brien even though the second turnpoint was off to the southeast. This was part of our original strategy to stay on the high ground and east of the course line unless there were cu's along the course line. Jeff Shapiro headed straight down the course line.

There was a big black cu south of us on the course line so after we got up we headed south to get under it. I saw pilots turning to the southwest, but it was such a big cu and so black, that I thought that I would find better lift before I got to these guys. Indeed that worked out and I climbed at 500 fpm to 8,500' getting over these guys.

It was a quick glide to the turnpoint high on the hillside to the southeast and I could see pilots turning to the north of the turnpoint. I joined the two Jeff's, but didn't see Scott. The lift was scary and broken at the bottom, so it took a while for me to get into the core and I got just below the two Jeff's.

It was only 300 fpm on average, so it took a while to get to 8,200'. I headed out just behind Jeff Shapiro toward the turnpoint to the northwest across the river from Laragne. There was a cloud street to our west and I headed for it. Jeff Shapiro headed for the hill side further to the north and the sunshine. Jeff O'Brien was just ahead of us and higher, having found better lift in the last thermal.

We both found over 300 fpm after 6 PM and it was time to go to goal when we climbed above 7,500'. It was less than 10:1 to goal and a fast glide in.

There was a patch of rain coming down further to the south of goal, maybe five kilometers away. I had seen the rain when I was going from the second to the third turnpoint but it didn't cause me any concern. As I headed toward it toward goal from the third turnpoint I watched the rain and saw that it wouldn't cause a problem.

A good while after I landed Heather came up and said that the task had been stopped at 6:42 PM. And that the stop time was 6:27 PM. I came across goal at 6:26:02.

I told her that she had just made my job on the protest committee very difficult. She had no sympathy. I figured at least fifty to sixty pilots would be protesting. The idea was that the safety committee (all of whom were in goal) and the safety director and the meet director could tell that the rain was "approaching" the second turnpoint. I wondered how they were able to do this. They didn't have anyone in the air that they were talking to who could give them a bird's eye view.

Well, we'll see what the protests are and I'll see what is fair and do what is fair.

Jeff O'Brien took a video of my landing at goal here.

Task two:

1 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 01:26:42 825
2 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes Litespeed 5 01:20:27 809
3 Robin Hamilton Gbr Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 01:27:10 806
4 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 01:27:20 802
5 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L 01:21:08 795
6 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 01:21:25 791
7 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 01:27:40 788
8 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 01:29:44 780
9 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 01:29:34 777
10 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 01:30:04 771
11 Fredy Bircher Che Wills Wing T2 01:30:41 767
12 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Moyes Litespeed S 01:30:23 765
13 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 01:30:27 763
14 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 01:31:48 754
15 Christian Zehetmair Deu Aeros Combat L14 01:32:12 750
16 Francois Isoard Fra Aeros Combat L13 01:32:21 749
17 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 01:34:28 732
17 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 01:35:09 732
19 Chrigel Küpfer Che Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 01:35:41 727
20 Artur Dzamikhov Rus Aeros Combat L 01:35:40 725
21 Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2 154 01:35:52 724
22 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 01:37:51 712
23 Jeff Shapiro Usa Wills Wing T2 144 01:38:03 710
24 Bruce Kavanagh Gbr Wills Wing T2 01:37:43 708
25 David Matthews Gbr Moyes Litespeed S3.5 01:38:11 707
26 Anton Minskiy Rus Aeros Combat L 01:40:24 702
27 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 01:41:02 700
28 Elmar Christl Aut Moyes Litespeed S4.5 01:41:17 696

Overall:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 991 763 1754
2 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 943 802 1745
3 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 910 771 1681
4 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L 810 795 1605
5 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 802 780 1582
6 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 804 777 1581
7 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 787 791 1578
8 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 801 754 1555
9 Robin Hamilton Gbr Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 744 806 1550
10 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 806 732 1538

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