Competition News

Today the organizer was confident we would fly a task, so we went to take off around noon. The tail wind was pretty strong but they thought the thermal would be able to make enough head wind to send a task. Around half past 3 they decided to send a small task of 42 km, because a wind dummy stayed in the air for about 5 minutes. 6 of the 7 first pilots in the air landed straight under take off and the wind got progressively worst and worst, so the task was cancelled around 4 O'clock. This means yesterday's results are final with Julio 30th, Nelio 15th, Diego 14th and Elie 2nd in open class. For sure next year we'll be back as the flatlands are awesome and the people very welcoming... But now after a good "small french girl" (some sort of protein and fat orgy) it's time for PARTY (hopefully not as bad as at the SC Salève...

Today the day was cancelled soon after we arrived at launch because the wind was strong and blowing from the side. This gave all the pilots the opportunity to enjoy the sun and warmth at the swimming pool. It seems tomorrow won't be flyable either (allthough you never know here...) so the organizer put up some overall results:

This morning we were surprised to discover that the wind was weaker than expected and NW. The same task than the first day was set except the radii were all of 400 m. But the ceilings were very low forcing a lot of pilots to the ground at the beginning of the flight allready, and forcing us to stay in survival mode the whole time, literally fighting for every centimeter. As if this wasn't enough trouble, the wind blew strongly from the west, inclining the thermals a lot. This forced me to fly a 2km leg facing the wind at full speed with a ground speed of about... 5km/h! Great! In the end Julio landed shortly after the first turn point, trying a revolutionary line, but missing a bit of luck. Diego landed 10 km short of goal and I ended up at 2km of goal. Today's tracklog: http://www.xcontest.org/switzerland/fr/vols/details:ElieBourdilloud/21.6.2011/12:33 More photos will follow.

Yesterday was supposed to be the best day of the week, so the tasksetters decided to set the longest task ever done in a portuguese task : a pretty much straight line of about 150 km towards the East. At first the conditions were very week with the thermals stopping around 1300m AMSL. A lot of people bombed out as we had to manage some pretty epic low saves. After about 20 km the conditions got better and we could thermal to 2000 m pretty easily, and sometimes got to 2600 m. Julio had some trouble with his GPS so he lost a lot of time and ended up bombing out about 25 km from goal. Diego tried to push forward of a gaggle alone and also ended up bombing out about 30 km from goal. I flew in a group of 3 to 4 pilots for about half the task and we got to goal :) In the morning we were discussing retrieve and thought it would be such a mess we just had to get to goal. We were perfectly right! Some pilots sat next to the road until 10 PM, and we got back in castelo at half past midnight. After that the organizers decided to beat another world record: latest GPS download ! How fun to get that thing to work at one in the morning... Today it seems the wind is not in the right direction and strong so maybe no task... Today's flight : http://www.xcontest.org/switzerland/fr/vols/details:ElieBourdilloud/20.6.2011/12:15 Some photos will follow later

4 Swiss pilots came to Portugal for the Castelo de Vide Open. Seen as the take off is small and the portuguese numerous, our strategy was to rush to take a spot in front (thus applying coach Joël's strategy of being the first one in the air). The task was a race to goal of 60 km in the flats towards the south east. Julio and I took a very good start in the lead gaggle (of 5 pilots alltogether), but were too greedy and had to fight in a low spot to get back up. After that a second gaggle came to us and we could fly in a group towards goal. Unfortunately Julio bombed out at 9 km of the goal, trying to overtake the gaggle passing under. The 3 other swiss (Diego, Nelio and I) are in goal :) Tommorrow seems the best day and some people of the committee were talking of a 140km task towards the east... The tracklog on Xcontest: http://www.xcontest.org/switzerland/en/flights/detail:ElieBourdilloud/19.6.2011/13:56