The Opening Ceremony, More Mistral - and how to scare yourself - Via Ferrata

The opening ceremony was fun up until the speeches. A very loud contemporary percusion group led the marchers as we danced through the streets of Laragne.

The Mistral continues to howl. 4 Americans, the two Jeffs, Katie, Karla and I climbed a Via Ferrata down near Sisteron. Overhangs, wire bridges and ziplines. Challenging and awesome fun.

Some vid of one of the ziplines, Jeff OB, and a couple of us on some vertical

The brick for my laptop blew up and half of the 140 pilots are trying to get on the web at once so getting web time to do bills, e-mail and even blog is a challenge.

3 more days practice, Mistral, party tricks and kayaking

After 9 days straight of getting a fly, the Mistral has started. Strong gusty wind that can blow for days. My glider turned up at last with Carl Freisenbichler and Robert Reisinger, though everything else in the box is still in Austria. My two T shirts are getting well cycled. I had a good fly around on the 3.5S just in time and it is flying just as good as it was at Dalby.













Everybody is here now with Jonny coming in from Spain. Bill, Molly and Vicki came through Italy. The Aussies and Americans continue to have gastronomic feasts in the evening. Jeff OB entertained us with a neat party trick.

Some of the Aust team flew Aspre which is an alternative launch to Chabre and about 20km north. I was impressed. Nice grassy rounded mountains facing the sun. We went onto Pic du Burre and did a tour of the valley north of Gap. My instrument pod wouldn't fit on the old Laminar hence the dodgy looking setup.

Yesterday Davis, Belinda, Katharina, Scott and I went for an 18km 2,5 hour kayak down the Durance. It was good cross training.

I needed a harness zipper replacement before the comp. Phil Truman (below) lives six months of the year on the very edge of the landing area at the Camping at Laragne. He has an industrial sewing machine and makes waterproof bags as well as doing other repairs. How handy is that?

http://gliderbags.com/

6th practice day - 4 of the team here

Quite a few more pilots turning up. The Russians have tails on their Aeros' and the sprog debate is hotting up.




Gerolf is saying something like (in an Austrian accent) "Denis, you pass my gliders or I will rip off your balls.










The Aus team had a flap today. Cam and Scott have the new airborne "Rev". I landed up near Gap in a beautiful freshly cut hay field. Thanks to Monica Barrett and Cam for the quick retrieve















Curt's first flight since "replacing his zipper"











The Aus team With Davis and Belinda were joined by a very jet lagged Conrad and family. Conrad, in the foreground, is a Kiwi but lives in Newcastle. Curt and Louise are at the end of the table

More of the team arrives.

I had a flap out to the west today with the Pommy team. When I returned to the camping / landing I could see Scott Barratt assembling his glider next to the cabin.

Cameron turned up later frm Holland, Curt and Louise from the French Nationals. Denis Pagen is here to measure sprogs and had a long and serious conversation with Scott. Certification and sprog settings is going to be an issue.

We are in a cabin next to Davis and had an evening feast with the Straubs and friends.

Curt had a unfortunate incident with his harness zipper on the 2nd last day of the French nats. He was forced to land prone next to a pre school. After cutting the offending section of zipper out it was 4 hours later in hospital and on morphine that he was finally separated from the zip. Curt was not shy in showing us the damage. Cameron thought it looked like a bulldog eating custard. Curt and Louise are actually on their honeymoon! No picture for this.

Good day up high

Had 3.5 hours doing a circle up to Serre, most of the way to Gap and down to Sisteron again. 10,000 ft and many sailplanes. One was happy to bank up and circle tight with me. Thermals died on me getting home and landed 6km out again.

Borrowed a car to pick up gear early this morning...........beautiful day.

A blue tour of the valley

It was a blow to find out my glider is still in Austria.............communication breakdown. Thanks to Bernard the local HG instructor I have a 13.5 MR Laminar to tide me over the next 5 days or so till my baby gets here.



Last night Bernard gave me a lift up the hill with his students. Chabre was ridge soarable till dark and I landed at the campsite and made a few adjustments ready to have a workout today.



Thought there was poor lift and wind it was enough to get down to some awesome rock faces near Sisteron and push almost all the way back. I tagged onto a pilot who seemed to fly where I wanted to go. He turned out to be Peter from Germany and saved me the 6km walk back to Larangne.



Broken up blue days are the same the world over and the best thermals mean a dive into leeside. The saiulplanes were good lift markers today.

Getting to Larangne

All up it took nearly 48 hours to get here. There were some beautiful cloudstreets in the north of SA and a blur of French countryside but in the main, cattle class long distance travel, is....................well you just want to be there.

It was a good demonstration of French technology getting here. A380 (big, quiet, smooth) and the TGV (smooth and very fast - 300kph - they hold the train record at 570kph!)

I was picked up from the station by the campsite owner Anne Rozoy, had a good meal with some Dutch pilots on holiday, caught up with my family on Skype video and crashed.

The landing site for the worlds is right outside my window and Larangne is a hang gliding Mecca. All I have to do is track down my glider and hopefully I will have something more exciting soon.

Breaking news - I see past world champ Manfred Ruhmer is back on the Austrian team.