Steves Paragliding Blog

Final Report

2009-09-16T03:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay the gremlins that have plagued my attempts to keep you all up to date continued in Rome, where having written the final report I fired it off or so I thought, until a message from Ian at cngroup told me it had got lost in eworld.

So here we go as I had said in my last report the final day looked doubtful but we woke to blue skies and light wind and headed up the hill, to be presented with a 57km task along the mountains to Retie then across the valley and back to the Goal field, unfortunately the poor organisation that has been the main feature of this event continued and instead of an early start to get ahead of the forecast rain we messed about until the start gate opened at 1-30 pm, after the first two Tps I was in my best position of the event just behind Russell who was once again leading the whole field with Adrian, Jamie and me right on his tail ,with it looking like a podium place for the Brits if we could hold on to our excellent start we headed towards darker skies, unfortunately at 2-30pm the rain arrived and the task was cancelled.
The gods where not kind again and cost Russ the overall championship with a number of unfair twists and turns of fate.
Anyway it was Charles Cazzau from France who took the title even though Russ had beaten him in three of the four scouring tasks, with the Italian pilot Luca Donnini in third.
The prize giving was one of the few things that ran on time and after two weeks with eight flyable days but only four tasks the Super final was over. Russ took his trophy and check for 400euros (which just covered his entry fee) and a new chapter in paragliding had started, it is the use of Simi ridged spars in the wings the Ozone Gliders of Charles and Russ where clearly Superior to anything else but there will be long hard discussions on what a paraglider is and I will look on with interest.
I would like to thank Claire my lovely wife for her support over the last few years as I have indulged myself in the PWCA and followed this crazy event all over the world, and also a big thanks to Niviuk UK and Andy Talbot for there support and help over the last two years.
Next year it’s the European championships in Austria and the Fai World championships in central Spain in 2011.at the moment I think I have had enough but as Claire will tell you all she has heard that before.

the final day

2009-09-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

After my bold statement last night that I thought the competition was over, Saturday dawned bright and clear with light winds. The first buses have gone up the hill and we are hoping for good conditions on launch.
I will know soon enough. Ciao for now.

A quick update

2009-09-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

I will try to get up to date,Wednesday was a 79km task with 11 people landing in goal the rest of the field, including me landed either side of the 40 km mark. The winnner was our own Russel Ogden,with his team mate Charles Cazzau in hot pursuit, it was an awsome display by the Ozone boys, as Stephan Wyss led out with about 1km lead, with about 7 to 8 kms to go looking like he had the win in the bag.The new Ozone wings proved their claimed superiority, and destroyed the rest of the field; with a better glide ratio and more speed than any of the pursuing gliders.
Thursday we went to the launch at Poggio. It always looked like a forlorn hope to me, and although we started out on the task,having looked at the aproaching bad weather I was already on my way to a cold beer in the landing field when the "task cancelled" message came over our radios.
Friday is much easier to report on - we drove up the hill then did a U turn and drove back down. I think anyone but the most optomistic pilots know that that was our last chance to fly.
The prize giving will be tomorrow and I will get a certificate to say I finished 49th in the world.
As it stands Charles Cazzau will be the winner with Russel Ogden in 2nd place.
All in all, not a super final but an enjoyable event never the less.
Lets hope I am wrong about the weather. If not I will fill in all the details and provide some pictures on my return home.

blown out!

2009-09-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

after a tough day yesterday,we went to the take off full of treppidation,my expectation that it was too windy proved correct as gliders launched and glided backwards in unpleasent looking way some landing in bushes others in trees,it took the italian organisation longer than it should to can the task but they got there eventually.
so now its the long drive back to poggio.

norma

2009-09-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

today we traveled 150 to a flying site to the se of rome,the plan to escape the strong north wind blowing down from the alps worked.
we flew an amazing task of 79km,I think the winners time will be under 1-40mins,which on a floppy bit of string and nylon is amazing.
I managed to come in about 9 mins behind the winner which I am quite happy with as its really not my sort of flying,which today was climb fast then stamp on the speed bar which for those who haven't flown means the wing becomes much more likely to collapse.
anyway another bonus is we are staying here in norma in a very nice hotel and will fly here tomorrow.

sunday no task

2009-09-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

it looks like we are in for a spell of bad weather,its very windy and we are hoping for an improvement in a couple of days time,fingers crossed.

An overdue update

2009-09-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hallo everyone,sorry for the delayed report, internet has struggled to reach this part of Italy,anyway the first day was a 70 ish km race won by stephan mortnagler with our own Russ Ogden in 2nd place and the rest of the brits spread down the leader board.
I finished in 80th position which I am happy with,I was only 20mins behind the winner and scored 750 pts.
The secound day involved a trip to L'Quila, the idea was to show support for the local people as this was the site of the huge earthquake earlier this year where hundreds of people lost thier lives,although we could not have a task some pilots managed to fly to the landing field where the locals had laid on a fine spread of local produce, beer and wine for us to sample and the idea was to try and show life coming back to normal by stagging a task in slowley recovering City.
Day three back up the hill at Poggio for a 75km task around 7 turnpoints finishing at the Poggio landing field,unfortunatly the task was stopped at 46.7km the good news is I finished in secound place,my best finish so far in a PWC.

I do have loads of great pictures but no way to upload them at the moment,watch this space,I will keep trying.

Again, sorry for typos and spelling,I am a bit lost without spellcheck.

Tomorrow looks like ther will be north winds and we will go to the other side of the mountains,but I am not quite sure where.B4N Steve

Rome and beyound

2009-09-01T00:49:00.000-07:00

After saying goodbye at the airport to Claire, Katy, and my mum ,The flight into rome on Easyjet was EARLY!!! and gave me a good shot at getting across the city for the 10-45pm bus to Reiti.
So with 40kg of luggage split between 3 bags I headed out into the 35 deg evening air,and turned into one huge sweat glang,I swear water was sqwirting out of me like a shower.
After a pleasent air conditioned bus ride into the city center I plundged into the even hotter underground system, found the correct line and headed for the Turbutina Coach station on the other side of the city, jumped on the Coach for Reiti and hey presto at midnight I was getting onto my carry mat in a city center car park for my first night away.
I woke at 6am for the 6-40am bus to Poggio Bustoni and the base for the first Paragliding World Cup super final ,but after being sent by the bus inspector from one end of town to the other with 40kgs of luggage,then back by the coach driver,then back by the inspector I phoned for a Taxi(mistake)who was delighted, in a very missarable way yo relive me of 42euros for a 12km taxi ride,but I had arrived I put up my tent and fell asleep.
That afternoon I met up with some of the Brits had a pleasent afternoon and now after two showers a lovely evening meal and a good nights sleep I am ready for the Practice day with the event actually starting on wednesday.
Next update coming soon B4N

Ps I cannot spell check on the hotels pc so please excuse.

testing testing

2009-08-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

it is the day before I leave for rome and I am sending this post from my mobile phone,as you can see I cannot suss the caps function or the spell check but I have a long journey ahead to figure it out.next stop sunny rome

A few days to go

2009-08-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

In three days time I should be in Rome trying to find my way too Poggio Bustoni,I will drop you all a line or two when I am in my tent and online in the field which will be the center of the competition and the landing/camping/headquarters for the first PWCA Super Final.

PWCA Super Final

2009-07-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

The top 100 pilots in the world have been selected for the Paragliding World Cup super final,along with the top ten women and many of the past World, European and PWC champions who have also been given discretionary places.
This is likely to be a very special event so I have decided ( because of time restraint problems)not to go to the final round of the UK championships ,but instead take my place in the PWCA final.
It will be held over 12 days from the 1st of September, in the southern Apennines,based at Podgio Bustoni,about 100km north of Rome and is one of my favorite flying areas in Europe.

link to pwc web site
http://www.paraglidingcup.com/

PWCA Super Final

2009-07-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have just found out that I have qualified for the Paragliding World Cup Super final in Italy in September by finishing as one of the top 100 pilots in the PWCA this year.
I now need to decide if I can Justify taking two weeks holiday to go to the first true world championships ( you can only qualify for it through your previous comp results unlike the FAI events when a team is selected by each country and the pilot quality can be very poor) .
I will let everyone know what I am going to do very soon.

piedrahita

2009-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of post,I am not at work and could not access my account.
old news
Piedrahita was Ok its not my favorite venue but I was 19th overall and third in serial class,yes I was flying a Niviuk peak,which was very interesting after years of flying comp wings,unfortunatly after a good 1st task and a fantastic, most of the flight secound task, I was gliding into goal with Craig Morgan in fourth position when I realised why people fly comp wings,I left higher than Craig and Kia but on the final 5km into wind could not compeate with thier glides and decked it a couple of km short,in the next task I flew 4.8km past the first Turn Point and had A painfully long into wind push to retrase my flightback and then had to fly back getting to goal 1/2 an hour latter than I should have taken BUGGER the final task was a short downwing dash and I was 10 mins behind the winner.
So all in all a pleasent week with a good bunch of guys in our peaceful village retreat,not a great result but not bad in the UK Championships I ended up as 2nd serial only a few pts behind the winner and 400pts behind Adrian who won this round of the championships.

Piedrahita

2009-06-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

So the big one for British pilots arrives ,its Wednesday now and on Friday all the UK comp pilots are on our way another British championships in Piedrahita.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for epic full on conditions and not to much of the famed sink that decks so many good pilots,it is the only place in the world where I have had solid 5-8 mps sink from 3000mts to the ground AHHHHHHHH.

flaming june

2009-06-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a f****ing month so far ,but hopefully that's about to change, I am on holiday now and heading for Malvern on Sunday to make the most of a good forecast for the start of next week.Somehow I am sure I wont be alone!!!
I will update you next week before I head of to Piedrahita for the first round of the British Champs.

Parlick again

2009-05-25T06:59:00.002-07:00

Me and Mike Cav went to Parlick for the good forecast on Sunday of the May bank holiday weekend and where rewarded with a fantastic 5 hour wing tip too wingtip flight across the width of the UK over the dales with a dramatic low save from Malham,I could see climbers on the routes I had climbed 15 years ago then over to Kilnsey and out into the flatlands with the North york moors a glide or two away and on to Whitby,that is three times I have flown Parlick and it has given me fantastic flying everytime with 114-58-151 km flights hopefully I can get that elusive 200km from what is fast becoming my favored XC launch.

Parlick

2009-05-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

OH I forgot to mention a nice little 58km flight from Parlick,I had declared a 106km goal flight but after 50km flying with Andy Wallace, John Ellison and Simon Ballie we sort of decided enough was enough, on what was a windy and scary looking day and landed at Whitestones. quite happy with our decisions to land.
I didn't take any pics but Sammy Sky god has some nice ones on this site

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69796&id=841147304&l=5325866256

The Boarders

2009-05-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Uk comps have kicked off with the British Paragliding Cup in the scotish Boarders 60 keen pilots flew a 46km task from Broughton Heights to Hawick on Sunday with 16 pilots making the goal, the winner was Martin Sandwith.
I flew the task just to be sociable but made the mistake of flying in a teashirt and wind proof jacket and at about -10deg taking into account windchill I was a tad cold.
It was a grand flight with spectacular views from the east to west coast only marred by the £50 taxi fare back to Mikes car ,but a price worth paying for a very special flight

Hurray the Uk gets going

2009-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Many great flights have been flown over the last couple of weeks with Andy Wallace , John Stevenson,Jean Luc Boudan,making 150km flights from Eyam to Whitby,the same day I flew 110km for a new Parlick site record to Spennymore Co Durham, a fantastic flight over the heart of the Yorkshire dales ,then the next weekend John Ellison flew 150km from the Dales to Berwick upon Tweed and those who ventured up to the Lakes where rewarded with a once in 10 years day with 6-7000ft Cloud base and epic flying so here are some pictures from Sunday in the Lakes.

Over and Done

2009-03-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

Well its all over and I realy dont know what to say,I suppose dissapointed would sum this week up.
Poor weather, poor tasks, and a poorer scoring system which ended up discarding three of the five tasks with only Friday and Saturday scoring,this left a lot of people bemused and upset,after flying consistantly through the week and being in 17th position on Friday, I finished in 18th place with 923 pts on Saturday and dropped to 27th overall,the PWCA seem to be making a deliberate attempt to push racing at all costs,and punish good consistant good flying,and its not a route I want to go down.
So good bye from a wet, in more ways than one, GV PWC

Penultamet Day Horray

2009-03-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to report a real task even if it was a realy slow xc sort of task,after 3 1/2 hours there were 12 pilots in goal ,unfortunatley no brits but four of us were about 6kms short,me Niel ,Kia and Mark all landing within a spit of the goal field,it does seem the days are pretty much over by 4pm (its dark by six) well its all change with the new PWCA scoring system and we will have to wait till tomorrow for the scores but me Niel and Kia should be very close and hopefully in the running for a good finish on Saturday,it maybe a big party on the final day so I will not promise a post tomorrow, good night from Brazil

steve.e

Rain Thermals ####

2009-03-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday Task.
I stood on launch the window open the rain falling wathching pilots fly down to cloud base and dissapear,I think its a poor show that the PWCA in desperation to get a task in can set a 35km task in conditions I would not leave the house in to go flying and allow cloud flying in the rain to be the winning tacktics for the day(seven or so pilots who took the rain thermal gamble got too goal),my wing stayed packed up until an hour latter when the rain stopped and it looked like there was a chance of a dry glide angle test.Me and Neil sank down 8km towards goal landing in the same field and watched the rest of the field follow us down,all in all a pretty poor day!!

Rain

2009-03-25T04:54:00.001-07:00

Its raining A LOT

Brazil Tuesday 24th March

2009-03-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Its a slight change of plan from my previous post when I said I would not go to Brazil and here I am in Brazil, Govenor Valadres too be presice,it the third day of the Paragliding World Cup but unfortunatly no task today.
I am curently in 15th position after the first two tasks,with my Niviuk Uk team mate Neil roberts in 17t,not bad for a couple of old giffers from up north,trying to get used to Brazilian conditions, which translates too weak lift and 30 degs with high humidity.
I am doing a fine impersonation of a garden sprinkler as I type this at 6pm in the sweltering heat,I may have to retreat to our room and down a few more ice cold largers ,its a hardlife but someone has to do it.
Oh almost forgot there are three more brits out here,Kia Colmen around the middle of the table ,mark Haymen in 80 ish and Craig Morgan in 108.I have some good pictures and will post as soon as I get a chance.
B4N Steve

Long Mynd Sunday 15th of march

2009-03-14T04:48:00.001-07:00

About time,its a good forecast for Sunday 15th of March,Pete and me are heading of this evening for an early start,I have just sent a declaration for 160km flight to goal

Summary

Route Distance: 160 km	Estimated Time:4:43
Total Ascent: 0 m	Total Descent: 0 m

Elevation Profile

Waypoints

Leg	Name / Position / Elevation	Bearing	Distance	Ascent	Time	Comments	Photo
0	WP0001 SO 40357 92074
1	WP0002 SP 80491 15749	118°T	160 km	0 m	1 day, 4:43
Totals:			160 km	0 m	1 day, 4:43

Overview Map

No go

2009-01-27T13:33:00.000-08:00

After a tough week of hard decisions its no go for Brazil I simply cannot justify £2000+ for a weeks flying so I will have to stick it out through winter in the UK,oh well.

XP3

2009-01-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I flew the xp3 for the first time,it had sat under my bed for over two weeks,so off I went into the damp/wet Cumbrian fells,after an hours wait the 40km breeze dropped to 10-15 kmph so of I went,I pulled up the glider and flew off into what I was later told was the wind gusting in excess of 40 kmph, shit!
So my first flight was on 1/2 speed bar about 50 mts above the ground being pushed and bullied around by a very mixed up airmass,I soon found out I can't big ears this wing so I was going forward but up,looking down I could'ent help picking out the biggest bushes thinking when I do crash that one looks softest,anyway the glider stayed infalted and I got down, beyond that I could'ent give an opinion on the wing, other than I am amazed it did not collapse compleatly,unlike my mate Dave who had two full bag of washing behind him collapses and numerous aysametrics trying to land,lucky boy.
the weather looks poor for quite a while now so I just need to book my flights for Brazil and wait for the first good spring to arrive.

Paragliding World Cup

2009-01-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have just had conformation that I have a place in the first round of the PWC in Brazil, Hurray so I am off to Govenor Valadaries or GV on the 19th of February with Niel Roberts so the beginning of the team Niviuk uks season starts to fall into place.Here is a link to the PWC Brazil 2006

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/steveflyorama/Brazil06#

Oh well

2009-01-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

Four days to go and I still have a very slim chance of a place,I have Calvo the team manager on the case and if anyone can swing a last minute place its him.
If the Mexico worlds do not happen the next option is to go for the first round of the paragliding world cup in Brazil,the selection for the PWC as it is called starts tomorrow the 21st of Jan wish me luck.

Steve.e

The Worlds

2009-01-03T09:56:00.001-08:00

I have just been chatting with the Uk team manager,we are still waiting to see if I can get one of the seven remaining places in the world championships.It is getting a bit stressful only three weeks until the competition starts,I don't have a place a plane ticket or a passport,but I am keeping my fingers crossed.
My new glider was sent from Spain on friday so maybe everthing will come together at the last moment,as soon as I know more I will post the info.

!st January 2009

2009-01-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody,well the first day of the year arrived and gave the lakes a day of unbroken sunshine and light SE winds at valley level with stronger 20kph+ over the fells.
John McKeever and I headed for Souther fell and after a quick walk up arrived at take off to find a light SE breeze coming gently in and out of phase,we launched into gentle lift and were soon soaring above the fells.I headed for our goal at Threlkeld and after arriving on Blencatra found the unpleasant side of the cold east wind in the form of strong katabatic winds and 2/3mps flushing out into the valley,after a little 40% collapse I retreated to the safety of the valley and the football pitch were John soon picked me,and whisked me off for tea at his house,and a fine end to day one of 2009.

Getting Started for 2009

2008-12-31T05:33:00.000-08:00

News has just come in, my Icepeak 3 will be dispatched from Spain on Friday 2nd Jan 2009, so a new paragliding year is about to begin.
Unfortunately although selected for the UK team for the worlds in Mexico,team places have been limited to four, although I am ranked forth and have been for most of the year the one month when I needed to be in the top four I dropped to 5th place by 0.9 of a point behind Waga Watts BUGGERY BOLLOCKS.
Anyway just had a great Xmas skiing trip out at Jakes place with Claire,Craig and the Roberts Clan so that took my mind off things for a while.
I will report in next week when my new toy arrives B4N