Not flown for nearly a month due to the monsoon, harness has had 4 inches chopped out of the (stretched) neoprene pod by my local saddlery (double the amount I asked for), one gps doesn't have any waypoints in it and the other has all its screens set to avoid having the rather useful "dist to waypoint" showing. Not enough sleep - airplane delay means only 4 hours before we get up for task 1 briefing. I curse myself as I get in the air for the technicalities gone wrong but more worryingly something feels wrong about the wing and the air.... what is going on?
I find myself feeling unstable in the harness and in danger of over controlling the glider closer to spin and stall than I usually get (or at least the drops in wing pressure that precede them). Fortunately, I have taken off early in the start window and figure out that the extra inch of opened waist strap is dramatically affecting roll feel (why did I do that while hanging from the kitchen door frame) and my new thicker gloves are distorting my usual sense for brake pressure and therafter I am able to modify my style.
With general lack of focus I let the top 30 get away from me gradually until mid task when I climb high and push past 10 or so to "the green ramp" known as a banker for a soar up with optional rippers.... the lead gaggle have used it just in front of me and from there will only be a short hop to "the green wall" and final turnpoint before a downwind blast into the goal convergence.
But.... easterly high level winds mean the whole valley is working slightly differently from the memory model of last year and pretty soon I am sliding down the ramp and low into a bowl in the partial lee of the valley wind scratching desperately with a yellow axis glider in a space too small for both of us. I choose to leave without much hope of something better but it hurts to look back to see him climbing out and shortly after I am on the deck and about 90th out of 125 pilots. Looking at the tracklogs, EvW who was 40m above when he hit the green ramp had a straight run and came in about 20th. The annoying bit is that I was well above him for the transition to get to the green ramp until the final approach... I just chose the wrong way on to it.
Day 2
Happy pilots on launch as a 100km task is called in the good weather - we are finally going to get to tour the big mountains to the E side of the Soca valley. Learning my lesson from yesterday I choose to top up and climb before difficult sections - this usually loses you a lot of time compared to the lead gaggle but today works great and I overtake them and find myself in the lead with two others for the middle third of the task. Soaring up the face of Krn mountain will stay long in the memory, especially as it was just after my first collapse on the R10 (on 3/4 speedbar). The good news is that it was preventable - I just wasn't paying attention to the glider and was thinking of route choices. I fly the last third badly, missing a couple of key strong cores but still pushing plenty bar and end up 7th. This kind of "xc task" through the big mountains suits my style and its probably not a fair reflection of my level but its definitely nice after day 1.
Day 3
A shorter task is called with an early land by time as there is concern about over development later in the day. A horrible incident on launch to a French pilot (double cravated helicopter to the deck 100m below take off) makes it hard to concentrate at the start but he uses up several of his nine lives and is not seriously injured. The lead gaggle push hard and low for the first turnpoint SW of Tolmin (Kozmerice) but grovel when they arrive there and I join the survivors before we head back for a quick zig-zag of turnpoints at the volcano (Kozlov Rob)and Volce. At only 600m and only 400m above the valley floor the entire lead gaggle sniffs the air above the volcano and decides there is a lifty line across to Volce and despite misgivings and being the lowest of the 8 I go with it and we cross the valley once to the turnpoint and then again to get back to the green wall without losing any height. Still the lowest we surf up and along the green wall but i miss the great climb that pings everyone to base and have to fight headwind to the final two turnpoints but am pleased to come in the top ten again. The other downside of the day is a talented pilot on his first few hours on a skinny wing hitting some rough air near Tolmin and landing in a tree. He will fly home the next day to wife and kids.
Day 4
Task canned while waiting at the start gate ... perhaps a little conservative but nobody grumbles much as the signs were poor although the sky did open out thereafter. One of the minibus drivers who took some of our group rafting earlier in the week takes us rock climbing up near Dresnica for the afternoon. A savage reminder of the lack of fitness paraglider pilots can develop....
Day 5
Day canned at morning briefing due to strong northerly winds. Our group goes for a 7 hour walk to the summit of Krn mountain taking in several other summits first - a spectacular day but very tiring. The mountains are full of signs (shells, shrapnel, shell casings, barbed wire, gun emplacements and even human bones) of the days when these mountains were the front line between the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Italians. At 2250m on summit of Krn Vrh in the mid afternoon the winds are less than 5kph. It looks like the sea air has pushed in from the S to stop the northerlies at low and mid levels.
