Quixada

Day 6... now that is what I am talking about...

sunrise at 5ish: check

nice blue sky and no cirrus: check

As Matt was busy uploading his third 200km flight here in Quixada we were a tad late for take off, at least the day was looking good with the first fade whisps popping over the take off. Off we go and at 7:00 it looks that it is launchable. I get ready and at 7:30 I take off, 7:40 and I am climbing close to base, yooohooo this is it. I can taste victory or at least I am given the chance for a big flight. Over the back I scratch and this time I get some help from some birds. It is a great feeling thermalling away, drifting downwing at that time of the day. So if I stay up I be in the 300-400km range.

I fly slow, the sky gets better but the clouds don't dissipate very fast and it starts feeling in. I get low a couple of times but manage to get back up. But as I found myself under an area of spreadout and upwind the big lake can't get back to base, GAME OVER 40km from take off.

But boy it felt good while it lasted, that is why I came here for, chance to put the big flight in, well tasting victory is sometimes as good as victory itself :) will fight another day.

40 minutes after I landed I spot an R11 gliding over my head, good luck I shout on the radio. The sky had now opened up, Raf on his R11 is still flying 300km+, wonder what time is Matt going to be back as he is on the same retrieve car...

Day 5

The wind looked as strong on the ground but a thin layer of high cirrus clouds meant that the thermals were not as strong. It was possible to take off early today, in fact for what I know it could have been ok yesterday as well, it is just that there weren't any hard-core Quixada pilots about to let us know and it looked howling to us. I took off at 08:00 am, I found a thermal with what felt like a strong core and committed over the back. Unfortunately although I tried to maintain in zeros and -0.5m/s, I didn't manage to escape the sink and landed at the same spot as yesterday with no forward speed. Had another go for a take off as it was still earlier than 10:00 but bombed out out the front. Wednesday looks promising for 300km I am going to wait for that.

What I mean by "it is not worth going for the 200km" is that Matt for example came back at the hotel at 02:00 am this morning, no doubt fresh for another day :)

Day 3-4

The retrieves are so difficult over here, and waiting at take off so tiring that really demands for being picky whether to fly at all or not. My goal being 300km I have a time deadline of 10:00 am, if I am not in the air by then I am standing down.

Today it was possible to take off at 10:00ish which would put me in the 200+ -300- range, a vertical Quixada take off but didn't reach base before I started getting blown off the hill so made a run for it and didn't connect over the back, being rather low made the safe decision of picking my landing spot rather than the trigger. Had I gone back to take off I would have been able to have a go for a 150+ flight but then I would be tired for tomorrow, saving myself for the early days.

Tomorrow looks similar to today but there is hope for tuesday. Being early back at the hotel means that I could have a go at doing some analysis on python, oh the joys of technology.!

Day 2

Got some flying in today.

Tactic of the day : "if you can't be bothered, then straight line-it"

Had the pleasure of a proper Quixada take-off, glad it looks worse that it feels like, also realised that during take off one of the speedbar hooks came off, so I sat it out being blown upwards a tad bit backwards until I was at a safe altitude to do something about it.

Day1

and me and Matt spend it sleeping in a hammock!

not bad, but not flying is much more tiring than flying for some weird reason, especially mentally!

Sky was looking lovely,

and we are looking for an

early start ~6:30 am tomorrow

Records or Bones...

...Something is going to give...

...and I sure hope it is the first one. Realistically not putting at least a personal best in Quixada should be rather difficult. I have achieved more than 38km/h average speeds before over an entire flight and this alone should put me in the 300k league with a good endurance flight. Sure this is not a world record braking year in Brazil, as they are having a wet season but good days will come.

I need a 300k to come back smiling, am I going to get it? Tactics, tactics, think I need to train myself to fly slower again and this is a great opportunity, will have a tons of days to fly (what was I really thinking when I booked three weeks to brazil? well this is beyond me :) ).

Here is another link which I think it is better suited for tracking my SPOT signal: http://chorlton.homeip.net/spotmap/scottish.html

Next blog entry from Quixada hopefully after the first good flight in Brazil.

Reset

It is now well and truly tested and if something is consistent then that is the "reset" button a visit to the Dolomites does to one's psychology. Once I again I spent a truly amazing 4 days flying from Col Rodella, this time I found myself exploring a bit more of the area. Seems like last year's flying hasn't all gone to waste, I certainly have developed a better eye and feel for flying.

The cherry on the cake was the three days I spent after the trip to the Dolomites doing an SIF in lake lugano. I surprised myself by finding how much I loved executing full stalls. Now I am all too keen in D-bagging from a Hot air ballon or just rolling over if it be hard to get hold of the D-bag

Always look at the bright side...

It has to be said, this has been a personal best in a continuous run of PWs (personal worst) for me this year. But some times you have to look at it from the bright side :). From the reserve ride in Mexico and some nervousness that left on me, to the streak of mediocre flights in Scotland and a broken hand last Monday. It is probably unfair to blame it to stress coming from personal life but it may have contributed a bit.

There is always a way you can twist reality to translate bad things into positive. so yeah it has been a personal best.

ride on

"This is Trias"... "Over and Out"....NOT

To say the last two days had been incredible frustrating would be a gross understatement. In two days I managed to loose my three main and to mind achievable competitive paragliding goals.

Yesterday the Scottish Open Distance record (Well done to Ian Miskin for his flight with an Omega 8 from blackmount to Dungavel ~130km), got busted while I suffered seeing the guys flying overhead at about 50k.

An even harder punch today when the UK national triangle record fall...but to the wrong hands. After planning the flight and picking the hill it was me that landed short of goal with three other pilots completing the task. A fantastic day though, never had I experienced such good conditions in Scotland before.

Lost the will to live mind you competing in the xcleague. Hard to find any motivation or money for 5 hour drives to the long mynd. Obviously with the ridicilous amount of points gained by this triangle flight (as it has been declared beforehand) the guys are ahead of me by more points than I will score at the end of the season (that bad).

So I am checking out.

On a different perspective, I really enjoy flying my Omega 8, and this would be the first time I consider my wing as a friend. It is very comunicative in a good manner, especially with thermals. It sniffs them from miles ahead and makes sure you get the point, fantastic.

This is Trias Over and Out.

...what the fuck am I going to do now with my life...

EDIT

I am of course not checking out of anything. I am incredibly frustrated I didn't take that last climb 2500ft in to the cloud so that I would make the glide to the Kinghouse, but I thought the next cloud would be ON but it wan't.

C'mon weather, throw me a good one!

I am climbing out of Balquhidder...

silence......radio noise....""I am climbing out of Balquhidder""" I shout on the radio and as the route selection pays off I am rewarded with a nice climb to base and into a small cloud.

and despite bob outflying me, me landing on a pathetic 27km in Callander; same field as last year, it was enough to put a smile on me, lasting the day after,

what a funny sport.

I told you so...

I sure thing didn't heard it through the grapevine but I am listening to it non stop the last couple of days, good old tune that is eh.

Ok I lost another good opportunity yesterday for good flying, DT demonstrated it was at least 92km day, nice one Dave. It is one of those moments when you could say I told you so, I certainly woke up yesterday in a stunning bit of Sky, it was bright alright, just a bit of haze near the ground and it was cold the night before. It sure thing felt good, and yet mr RASP was only predicting a less than moderate day... Now this is where it becomes interesting, did I know better and how much I can afford knowing better than mr RASP. I took the decision that if I am going to have to take a few days off this year (as usual for flying) I should at least stick to weather models, or I end up nowhere, franticaly driving up and down in moderate forecasts "hoping" it is better than predicted, in most cases it is more like blind fate anyways.

I guess what I am left with is doing less flying than I would normally do, but very much doubt it, things tend to even out at the end.

Just another thing, If I don't get at least 2x flights over 100 points by the end of June, I am dropping the QUEST for the holy grail and going on holiday, who know I may just go somewhere nice and warm for a change.

Vol libre my friend; vol libre