Pilots flying at Chabre.The weather forecast was ok for the morning, but it was due to storm at lunchtime. Ruth and I got up early to get a good place in the minibus queue. We were up on launch early and got ourselves organised. I have learnt loads about programming my GPS, and am just about mastering the comp routes. From the development to the east we knew there would not be a big window to fly the task and we were briefed on the level system. Level 1: good conditions; level 2: caution; level 3: task is stopped. The task was a 29km elapsed time around 3 turnpoints. We had to fly west along the ridge to the first turn point at 4km, the fly to Orpierre, then to St Genie (the volcano), then home to the campsite landing.

I launched reasonably early but struggled to get a good climb. Eventually I got a thermal over launch as another pilot got a core close to me. Everyone else chose his core, which suited me fine. All those who chose him didn’t get up and when I got to the top of my climb I flew across to him and we climbed up to near base together. I was singing nah-nah-nah-nah-nah to those who chose him. Ha! I set of on the the glide to the first turn point but decided to fly very conservatively. There were people struggeling on the ridge and I didn’t want to be one of them, so I topped up in thermals on the way. Gillian was with me on the glide along, but left me for dust on her Sigma 6. I bagged the second turn point high and glided towards Orpierre. I topped up in the valley and could see the development over Orpierre getting big. A couple of pilots were getting high ahead of me and I could see that I would be able to take a good glide to the turnpoint and beyond. I would be in lift all the way and be at cloudbase as I left the area on the glide to the next turnpoint. Unfortunately, the task was cancelled as I hit the second turnpoint, so I didn’t get a chance to try out my strategic gliding.

I landed with a bunch of others, but came in a little hard (didn’t flare strongly enough in nil wind) and jarred my right knee. Not something you want to do five weeks after surgery.

The winning distance (at the time the task was stopped) was just 17.2k. I did 8.2k and came 44, out of 110. In the sport class, I am 25th. The BE team is 7th, out of 33, which is pretty good.

Gillian did really well, as did Ruth. Third woman and 25th overall.

In the evening we were invited to dinner by the southern lads (thanks Neil, Simon and Claire), but I choked on a piece of meat. Thankfully Ruth knew what to do. I couldn’t breath any more and was getting very distressed and she dashed over and did the Heimlich maneuver which disloged the obstruction. I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t been so cool in a crisis. She’s a real hero and all round great guy!

See photos of today.

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