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Latest Updates from the worlds
Tweets from Jamie1246646153|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246642627|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246640682|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246640236|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246640076|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246639899|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246639452|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246639203|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246639162|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638986|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638913|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638848|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638798|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638751|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638524|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638441|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638329|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638269|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246638091|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 1246637951|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
The Brits BlogDay 4 Task 21246001698|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover  Thursday's task took the pilots on a 120km out and return flight in to the flatlands south of Sisteron. The conditions were initially weak at launch and the thermals were busy. With large numbers of gliders all flying in the same thermal and at similar altitudes it can take a lot of nerve to dive into the middle of a weaving mass of gliders. The alternative is you find yourself another thermal which is fine unless you start out climbing the gaggle then the gaggle will move over and take over your thermal and your back where you started.Without the aid of a gaggle there are a number of ways of finding a thermal, you can look for a cumulus cloud, you can look for south facing rocky slopes or in the case of the plateau's near today's last turnpoint you can detect a thermal by the smell of the lavender in the fields below. The air heats up in these fields like a bubble in a boiling pan of water and then some trigger might occur (e.g. a tractor driving into the field or in the case of a competition in Australia, a team's driver doing donuts in the retrieve vehicle ). The trigger causes the hot air to break away from the ground sucking up insects, dust and in the case of lavender fields the scent of the lavender. Four of GB team make it into goal today, unfortunately so did 55 others. The winner was Manfred Ruhmer ( World champion 3 times in the past) Manfred came across the goal line at 17:05 ~ 2hrs before the last pilots cross the goal line at 19:00. Overall Results - full results 1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro 2000 Laminar Z9 770 999 1769 2 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro 2000 Laminar 14 Z9 828 920 1748 3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro2000 Z9 918 715 1633 4 Jeff O'Brien USA Wills Wing Tee Two See 994 595 1589 5 Attila Bertók HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 780 764 1544 6 Oleg Bondarchuk UKR Aeros Combat 823 698 1521 7 Lars Bo Johansen DEN Aeros Combat L15 799 696 1495 8 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat L 14 702 743 1445 9 Gianpietro Zin FRA 794 637 1431 10 Elio Cataldi ITA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 808 622 1430 10 Nene Rotor BRA Wills Wing T2 C -144 768 662 1430 21 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed S4 762 588 1350 24 Bruce Kavanagh GBR Wills Wing T2C 739 601 1340 35 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 533 624 1157 53 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 513 530 1043 71 Gary Wirdnam GBR Wills Wing T2C 489 428 917 Team British team 8th with 3847 points, Italy with 4901 points. Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed S4 762 588 Bruce Kavanagh Wills Wing T2C 739 601 Carl Wallbank Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 533 624 Grant Crossingham Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 513 530 Gary Wirdnam Wills Wing T2C 489 428 Day 4 Task 2 Results 1 Manfred Ruhmer 999 2 Christian Ciech 920 3 Attila Bertók 764 4 Antoine Boisselier 746 5 Dan Vyhnalik 743 6 Alessandro Ploner 715 7 Davide Guiducci 712 8 Oleg Bondarchuk 698 9 Lars Bo Johansen 696 10 Curt Warren 670 19 Carl Wallbank 624 27 Bruce Kavanagh 601 31 Gordon Rigg 588 41 Grant Crossingham 530 73 Gary Wirdnam 428 Day 3 Task 11245940457|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover  After two days of no flying due to a strong Mistral blowing finally on Wednesday the wind died down and the flying conditions in the southern Alps became perfect.An ambitious 100 mile task was set which took the pilots on a circular route giving them impressive views of snow topped mountains and mountain lakes. The pilots begin to launch an hour or so before the 1st start this ensures all 120 pilots have an equal chance to start the task when they want to. Once up and high as possible the pilots can choose one of several start times to start flying the task. All of the GB team took the second start at 2:15. During the flight they work with other pilots and fly in groups (or gaggles) to maximise the chance of finding the next thermal. Those pilots who want to fly faster and get more points will leave gaggles early and fly on their own but take the risk that they wont find the next thermal as quick as the gaggle will when they work together. A gaggle is like the peloton in the Tour d'France it makes sense to keep with your gaggle but at some point if you want to win you need to make a break and go it alone. By 6:00pm the first pilot, Jeff O'Brien (USA) arrives in goal, the pilots are flying into a strong and unexpected headwind many of them are only just getting over the goal line with less than 10ft. The first UK pilot (Carl Wallbank) can be seen gliding low towards goal with one other pilot (Blay Olmos (ESP)) after a few nail biting minutes of eeking out the last few meters the two pilots land and its unclear whether they crossed the virtual goal line. It came down to some detailed analysis of Carl's GPS trace to see that he was short by 1m after flying 100miles. If you get across the goal line you get time points and on this day the time point would have been worth 30% of the overall points for Carl, so its a bitter blow to lose so many points for such a small distance. Unfortunately he wasnt the only pilot to get caught out by the strong headwind both Grant and Gary landed short on the final glide but on the plus side both Gordon and Bruce both made it into goal with reasonable times. |
Worlds Official BlogWorld Championship Winners! Friday 3 July: Task 8: 154km Wives and girlfriends Thursday 2 July: Task 7: 113km: Stopped Photos from Wed 1 July World Championships photo competition Spaghetti night at Chateauneuf de Chabre Wednesday 1 July: Task 6: 89.4km: Cancelled Tattoos on launch: 2 Phil Lardner Tuesday 30 June: Task 5: 130km: Stopped Video: Task 3 winner Christian Ciech Video: Meet Team Guatemala Monday 29 June: Task 4 cancelled Video: How not to land a hang glider part 2 Sunday 28 June: Task 3: 166km Video: Manfred Ruhmer on winning Task 2 Video: Here's........ Jonny Saturday 27 June: Too windy: no fly Friday Night Thriller: Fête de la Saint-Jean Pilot photos Friday 26 June: cancelled Thursday 25 June: Task 2: 125 km Wednesday 24 June: Task 1: 162Km |
Thats Irish :-)1246608060|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Feu de la St. Jean - Bonfire night Photos are slowly reaching me of the antics at the recent Feu de la St. Jean bonfire party the other night. As you can see, all discipline and decorum was duly tossed onto the fire along with the wood and a few paragliders for good measure! Horny devil, Swiss Nick (Roberto Nichele) tongues Comp Director Heather Mull - if he was hoping for a little punishment, he wasn't disappointed... the other photos are too frightening to be published! Oh Julia,
1246373340|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Gerolf on VG At the Mandatory Pilot's Safety Briefing on day one, we were all treated to a riviting lecture on sprog adjustment and the use of VG when flying on glide by Gerolf Heinrichs. Gerolf wanted to persuade us all that flying with full VG, bar to the bollox, was not a safe thing to do when racing, and that really we should never use more than about 3/4 or at most 4/5 VG when on speed glide. That way we'd all arrive at goal safely... behind Gerolf! I suppose this must have seemed
1246286400|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Engineers & Oil Rags... Storm clouds were gathering at the Worlds HQ this evening as the Irish team departed after having the brains sucked out of their GPSs at the end of Task #2. In casual innocence I remarked to Mark (chief tech-weenie in charge of GPSs and scoring) that the office was a haven of ordered industry and efficiency, and complimented them on doing such a good job. "Oh well," he replies, "it's us engineers over this side of the room who do all the real work," referring to hims
25th July - Camping Monteglin - Laragne1246075080|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Team Japan Meet Masahiro Kitano, Hiroshi Suzuki, Kazuyuki Hirabayashi, Norihisa Wada and Koji Daimon (Team Japan) who are all flying well and busy putting a different slant on the Worlds! Good luck lads (googleTranslate to Japanese) Team GuatemalaJose Herrarte (Loco) of Team Guatemala wheezed his way, puffing and panting under the weight of his glider all the way to the far end of the high south take-off at the Charbe today. When he stopped beside me for a breather and to sweat quietly
Comp Day #2 - Close... but no cigar!1245926040|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Well, we went up to the Chabre's lower north take-off this morning and were greeted with a not entirely unexpected howling gail at the top. What did surprise us was just how cold the wind was, which caught many pilots and batten bunnies out in their skimpy shorts and pleasingly tight T-shtirs. This blog doesn't record the effect the cold wind had on Meet Director Heather Mull's nipples, but we imagine that they were no hardship to gaze upon! If anyone has any photos then do please let me h
Langer? What's a langer?1245764340|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Well, it's a local Irish expression. You'll have to go here for a full definition!
1245750600|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover 21:38 - 22nd June - It Sucks when it Blows Well, as forecast the Mistral is still blowing hard today but is forecast to drop off over night, and pilots have been put on notice to prepare for a southerly task tomorrow (Tuesday.) With no flying so far and little in the way of real news to report, I've had to work doubly hard to scrape together enough scuttlebutt to keep you up to date on the rumour mill. But in the best traditions of journalism, when you can't confirm facts, fiction can do
1245640200|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Sunday 21st June - 23:29 - My skull hurts. Yours would hurt too if you'd been drinking the same quantities on booze we have been consuming... mostly courtesy of Le Brasser O'Neill. Good stuff... just too much of it! So, what happened today? Being a non-starter for flying (still blowing like a $50 hooker) and with no pressing engagements to fulfil, we took a lazy morning, crawling out of bed at a leisurly 9am for a little brekkie alfresco. Plans for our approach to the competition were d
1245557160|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Saturday 20th - The caravan was rocking hard last night... but that was purely due to the Mistral wind that was howling all night! It's still blowing hard this morning and it looks like there won't be any flying today... and possibly for the next few days. This means that there won't be any practice day to sort out GPS and other issues before the first task, so fingers crossed on that score. Shaun has been getting in some good flights here recently and Geoff has managed to bag three flight
Booming skies, dodgy transport and Dutch Girls1245554580|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover Friday 19th - 18:00 Marseille MP2 - Successful escaped the clutches of Ruinair's execrable passenger and baggage handling 'services' and was shocked to find that the limousine that was booked for me by my fellow team mates had failed to turn up. Transport finally arrived to pick me up in the form of Shaun in his ancient, temperamental (but apparently well loved) Landrover Defender that looks like it hadn't quite survived WW2. Predictably the heavens opened just as he pulled up in front of
Party Time!1245428880|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover WooHoo! Swarming bees, empty bank accounts and aged rellies dropping dead inconveniently close to my departure notwithstanding... I'm in the air and headin' south to Laragne for some serious fun and games at the 2009 Hang Gliding World Championships at last!Although flying with Ireland's lamest excuse for an airline, suffering Ruinair's torture flight to Marseille has got it's benefits. I find myself pleasingly wedged into the seat next to a pneumatically enhanced vision of sexiness in the form
Meet the Irish HG Worlds Team1245063000|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover The Irish Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association are proud to sponsor Geoff McMahon and Shaun O'Neill in the 2009 Hang Gliding World Championships in Laragne this summer. It would have been even prouder to be able to sponsor a larger team (as it did in the 2008 Pre-Worlds) but the other three pilots basically turned out to be pretty crap and we weren't going to waste any more money on them after they eliminated themselves from the last year's pre-Worlds comp in a variety of spectacular accid
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Welcome to the British Hang Gliding Competitions web site.
Within these pages you will find information, Competition News, results and various other pieces of useful information relating to the BHPA hang gliding competitions
Its Primary role is to keep UK hang glider pilots informed about what is happening where, when, and keeping a historical record of those events, both home and abroad.
Latest NewsWorlds 2009Markus is on the ball here, and all stuff relating to the 2009 worlds Comp will be found here: (read more…) The NationalsThe forms required for the nationals have recently changed. They can be found at the bottom of the front page or here (read more…) Panel UpdatesThere have recently been some major changes to the Comps Panel. (read more…) |
Recent Posts
Many thanks to all who responded, I've now found myself a LS 4.5S & Tenax harness
(by miles hockliffe (guest) 1245074861|%O ago, posts: 2)
I Have been asked by the organisers of the HG Worlds in Laragne to post the following:
For safety...
(by Nicky Moss (guest) 1243931204|%O ago, posts: 1)
WANTED Litespeed 4.5 S or 5 S or poss RS 4.5
Cash waiting for the right...
(by Miles (guest) 1242829157|%O ago, posts: 2)
I reckon the little calendar of HG comps would be better on the front page than hidden in the...
(by Andrew Hurst (guest) 1242731328|%O ago, posts: 5)
I was asked to pass my details on to you via Geoff May who flew with us here over the weekend.
I...
(by Phil Chett 1242606045|%O ago, posts: 1)
Comps Panel
* John Aldridge
* Kathleen Rigg
* Mike Armstrong
* Nigel Bray
I shall redesign the...
(by Phil Chett 1242586680|%O ago, posts: 3) |
2009 season Forms
BOS
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Nationals
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