Delta News

Task 4 - Go Big
Event tough the thermal plafond was announced lower, they expect a very good day once again. Task is set, 201km with a leg south, one leg north, one to the west and south again to goal. There are different sections, ridge raceing but also quite some cruxes. especially the leg to the west towards the town of Gubio. It turned out that there the big separation, after around 100km did take place.

But event the ridges turned out be be cyclic as well, so the pilots could always catch up in between different gaggles. Franz and Petsch were at the front, Petsch always at the very front and Franz switched always between first and second gaggle. Franz did some good choices and he ended up a marvellous third place for the day. Petsch did a bad choice at a crux, when leaving the ridge for some crossing and couldn't get up anymore and landed short of goal.

JD, and Damien where struggeling, since the day is running out (which is always a problem at such tasks, not only you should be fast to be better placed, you should also try to finish the task before the day ends). This speciality is something we see more often in hanggliding competitions and unfortunately less in paragliding. So finally they landed short to goal, cause they couldn't reach the main ridge within the time needed.

Simon did a bad choice before the start and he was the first doing a restart. This is only permitted on Monte Cucco South takeoff and you have to land on the official landing field. Usually the Rules allow restarts, but you have to stay within the takeoff window (which was from 12h till 14h). So the Team worked well, Beni the driver was already at the landing and a team of supporters from different countries were waiting at takeoff to help Simon do the restart. 10min after arriving at takeoff, Simon was ready to go! Formula 1 Teams could have learned from that.

All in all it was a big day, congratulations to all pilots takeing that challenge for that big task and keeping their mood high. Primoz did win the task before Alex and Franz, with an average of 42km/h.

Today, sunday is a rest day. There is strong NE winds and very stable seabreeze kicking in. The Pilots, the Team Supporters and also the Organizing Team deserves it.