Comp League

The conditions for this 77-km task were absolutely perfect. The air was calm but provided good lift everywhere, even in the flatlands. Unfortunately, it got a bit shaded towards the end, making it more difficult. Many didn’t take this into account enough and just missed the goal. The rankings haven’t been published yet (!), but according to the leaderboard, Tim came in third and Roger seventh. Steve landed just a few meters short of the finish line :-( Congratulations! Photos from all 3 tasks.

We were probably a little too conservative in our task setting, and a leg to Adelboden and the Niesen chain would have been easier today than yesterday. Pilots reported still very good climbs that were "more predictable" than yesterday, and the top altitude was a few hundred meters higher. But the task was what we set, and it was a short and exciting sprint race that brought almost everyone to goal. The winner today is Stephan Morgenthaler, followed by yesterday's winner Charles De Beaufort, and Markus Wicki. Best woman is Sarah Zimmerman, best Sports Class pilot Marco Sommerfeld, best junior Jean Morisetti. Tomorrow will be very sunny, but also very windy. It will probably be flyable, but we consider it as not taskable. Day 3 is therefore cancelled.

After yesterday's tricky (at least for some) leg to the neighboring valley, and with a slightly less optimistic thermal forecast, we set a more conservative task that goes up and down the Simmental twice, to about St. Stephan, then crosses to the west side, for an End of Speed Section back near launch, and goal again at the cable car station. The race started at 13:45, the total distance is 52 km, and now that pilots are under way, we expect the fastest to finish the race around 15:30. Follow the race in our live tracking.

The situation has not changed much: There could be a few last sprinkles in our area in the next few hours, then the clouds will clear and give way to blue sky with some cumulus. Weak and variable winds up to 2800m, Thermals will develop, but later and a bit weaker than yesterday. Ticket and tracker will be handed out at the same place as yesterday, at 10:00. Go up once you have a ticket, and prepare for a briefing on the terrace at 12:00. One thing about the trackers: Today we will hand them out switched off. We will explain at the briefing why. Please bring them to the briefing.

Task 2 was set to 88 km. As forecast, the southwest wind was significantly stronger and the third turnpoint was fully in the lee. In this area two incidents occurred which later led to a task stop. The task stop was called relatively late at a point when most pilots had already passed the critical turnpoint. There was also no clear communication on the radio explaining why the task was stopped and whether landing in the Bassano area was still safe. Many pilots did not receive the stop message and a number of them also had no access to their tracker. This is something that will hopefully be improved in the coming days. The task itself was flown very fast with strong thermals up to 8 m per second. Apart from the poorly placed third turnpoint it would have been a great race. *** Deutsch *** Der zweite Task wurde heute über 88 km gesetzt. Der West Südwestwind war deutlich stärker und der dritte Wendepunkt lag vollständig im Lee. In diesem Bereich kam es zu zwei Zwischenfällen was später zu einem Task Stop führte. Der Task Stop wurde relativ spät gesetzt zu einem Zeitpunkt als die meisten Piloten den kritischen Wendepunkt bereits passiert hatten. Zudem gab es keine klare Kommunikation über Funk weshalb der Task gestoppt wurde und ob eine Landung im Raum Bassano weiterhin sicher ist. Viele Piloten haben die Stop Meldung zudem gar nicht erhalten und bei einigen bestand auch kein Zugriff auf den Tracker. Hier gibt es sicher Punkte die man für die kommenden Tage verbessern kann. Der Task selbst wurde sehr schnell geflogen mit starken Thermiken bis zu 8 m/s. Abgesehen vom ungünstig gesetzten dritten Wendepunkt wäre es ein sehr spannendes Rennen gewesen.

A low pressure system north of Scotland sends a weak warm front our way that will influence us tonight and tomorrow morning. Behind it high pressure will further build up, with mild and sunny weather. We expect the day to develop a little bit slower than today, but not much, maybe 30-60 minutes later than today. Light and variable winds up to 2000m, at 3000m still weak from the North-West. The moderate thermals will be marked by cumulus clouds, and will be a little bit weaker than today. All in all we expect again a good flying day. Provisional briefing at the top: 12:00. Final confirmation tomorrow 08:00.