Day 7 British / French HG Nationals (Chabre Open), Laragne, France

The final day of the competition. With only 2 tasks flown out of a possible 6 so far, the pressure was on to get a third and final task in on day 7. British HG Meethead Nick  has earnt a lot of respect from within the British hang gliding community for maximising every opportunity to deliver challenging but achievable tasks against the odds. Supported by our French counterparts, Rebekah Sherwin, and other members of the competition organisation, the pressure was on to deliver.  And so we were sent on our merry way back South to St Andre....

It was definitely very noticeable that there was a signficant reduction in pilots for the last day. I cant remember exactly but the scores will show the true picture. St Andre has a reputation for being "gnarly" (ie very rough thermals that can be very difficult to fly safely) and limited landing options, I have only had a couple of recreational flights there, once on my hangie years ago, and also riding tandem on a PG with British local Mark Taggart who runs "Fly St Andre", holiday accommodation and leisure site situated just on the East side of St Andre, and is rightly known as "A Little Piece of Heaven". If you are planning to fly or play in the area its worth checking out by clicking the banner.

Gordon Rigg plotting the course
with Task Committee

Once up at Le Chalvet take off, there was a bit more room to jostle for a good rigging spot that would also allow a pilot to manoeuvre to a take off position quickly. I managed to squeeze in just behind the early birds so that when the main launch window was open I could get off the hill early. The task committee, under the guidance of Nick Pain, set to work to maximise the days flying from the conditions. deciding evetnually on a race to goal of 89km via a number of turn points across the mountain ranges and valleys, passing close to Digne and eventually landing near Oraison. The sky was looking promising and with some free flyers already starting to climb out it had the making of a good day.

An early bird is off and away

Very soon the Early Bird pilots were launching in their window of thirty minutes before main launch. As soon as the main window opened I was one of the first in the launch lane and with the helping hand of the brilliant marshalls, I was guided to the front of the hill where the wind was slightly off to the north and gusty but I made a clean launch in to some good bouyant air and had time to explore the full length of the ridge, eventually coming back down to the south side of take off to where gliders were in established climbs to cloudbase.

Looking back across the busy take off

As the sky filled with gliders quite a few of us who had launched earl;y had a good amount of time to enjoy the spectacular scenery while we waited for the first start gate.I could easily see the Fly St Andre base just by the side of the Lac De Castillan (the white building just above the dog leg where the river turns in to the lake)

As the start gate approached, I found myself, along with nearly all the other pilots, up at cloudbase, hanging around on the edge of the start cylinder ready for the off. I have never seen so many gliders all congregating in one place like this, and it took a great del of concentration to keep tabs on where everyone was, especially as some were just creeping in to the edge of the clouds as they pulled away from the "cloud suck" that can take you fully in to cloud. Not a sensible idea when there are lots of gliders flying very close by!

The start glide

And then the start was on. I glided out with the lead gaggle, staying slightly behind as I had no local knowledge of St Andre flying and didnt want to make any unnecessary mistakes. The top pilots were gunning on towards the first turn point, starting to leave some of us in their wake. After a quick top up in a strong core, I  took a route over the valley to the edge of the cylinder of the turn point, with a view that there was a ridge beyond that could provide a climb en route to the next turn point, but having got lower than expected I glided back to the ridge where I had seen gliders climbing. After a bit of searching I banked hard in to a strong climb accompanied by what a large bird of prey. (If any knows what it is from the picture let me know). It was absolutely exhilarating flying wing tip to wing tip with this magnificent creature.

Coring up with a bird of prey

Bagging the turnpoint and gliding on, I was soon scrabbling around close to a rocky escarpment accompanied amongst others by Darren Brown and Gordon Rigg - at one point I thought Darren was about to land on the rock face as his shadow almost seemed to meet his glider... Eventually we did all climb out, but not before I had started looking down the valleys for safe fields to glide to, just in case.

There can come a point in a flight where if you make one wrong decision it escalates then in to trying to make the best of a bad job. Now considering pressing on directly for the second turn point, I could see a glider low down on the face of the ridge, struggling to get up. I couldnt see if there were any landing fields so instead of opting for a direct line I fell back on to the ridge, hoping to soar along. But as I approached the ridge two gliders ahead of me had not found a climb, and were now being forced to go lee-side through a saddle back gap on the mountain. I tried for a few minutes to get enough height to push on with my plan, but eventually got drawn round to lee-side, hoping to be able to benefit from watching what the other gliders did. 

The upslope meadow

With full visibility now down this valley, there we several rocky escarpments that could have triggered thermals, but if not, there was only one possible place to land, an up-slope meadow surrounded by trees,  so all decision making on where to search for lift had to bear that in mind. First one, then two, gliders were forced on to land, followed by several others. The air was starting to bubble as I desperately searched for the low save, making an approach towards the field over rocks bathing in sunshine. But no, I was soon turning in to wind for a landing. At was at this point that I realised that I had not shifted my harness slider to the "land" position, making it quite difficult to go up on to the uprights. As I made my final turn I was still grabbing for the right upright, meaning that my turn was a lot flatter than expected. Just in the nick of time I grabbed the upright to sharpen the turn as I chased a few squirrels out of the trees surrounding the field.

Glen McFarlane asleep with his derigged wing,
with the sunny rock face that didnt deliver in the background

Caroline Greiser - up and coming German star?

I was very disappointed to be down. I could see my mistake of having not gone directly to the turnpoint, and the sky was looking fantastic, including a small cloud starting to form just where I had need to find lift. As I joined the other pilots I was surprised to Glen McFarlane derigging his glider. Oh well, if I can make the same mistake as the Aussie champ, perhaps I'm not doing too bad. Also down in the field was German female pilot
Caroline Greiser who is doing extrmeley well after only a short spell in competitions - perhaps a name to be looking out for in the future?

Having texted the organisers and Geoff Sykes, we had to wait about an hour for first the retrieve bus and then for Geoff to arrive. He was amazed that we had found somewhere safe to land, something which became apparent when we drove back down to Digne. The road was surrounded by steep, rocky, tree lined cliffs - not a landing site in place.

We stopped in Digne for a quiock drink, waiting for news of Richard. As the land-by time came and went, and the sky looked like it had stopped working, both Geoff and I became a little concerned. But then, the text came through "GOAL!". A fantastic effort by Rich on the last day. When we went to the goal field he was grinning from ear to ear! I'm sure I had a piccie :-(

So a dash back to Laragne for the Closing and Award Ceremony. Once again the French laid on a great evening with a fun atmosphere, a band playing, including the National Anthems when the winners were announced  - as our British Champion Grant Crossingham said "I felt like a racing driver, but without the money!!" There a lots of pictures from others on Facebook and via Alan Moffat Photography so check those out too.

The Brits were pipped to the post by the French, and it was a shame we only had three task-able days out of seven, but it was a good, well organised, fun, sociable competition. A big thanks to ALL the organisers for a great event.

Full results here