Once again a good soaring day with light winds from the N.  Climbs not going too high and our group flew towards Barco. A few went down around Santiago and Aldeanuevea.  Paul went down after crossing the river at Barco and Mike just before.  Bob Ginger and myself got the climb after the river, myself flying up towards the lagoons in the mountains at the Tornavacas Pass, and Bob dropping out half way along.

Huge evening restitution though we had to get off on the lower launch.

The cold front having gone through very early in the morning left us with some Stratocumulus on the mountain but which cleard by 11am and rose to arond 2600 by mid afternoon.   Great conditions both on the mountain and valley.  We did some ridge running and then moved out into the valley.  Nick and I flew NW along the small chain of hills to the N of Peña Negra, then back across the valley to the Red Roofs before comming home.  Great visibility and thermal conditons.

Easy evening flying, with a little N to do the whole ridge run.

A bank of Cirrus and strengthening winds cut short the flight yesterday.  Cath, Ian and Nick up near the Pass and Bob, Paul and myself going over, but landing in the shade and about 20km/hr of wind not far over the other side.

A front and rain has passed during the night, though things are beginning to clear

A nice day for arrival with very nice evening flying for our newly arrived group.

An epic day with strong convergence in Ambles.  Great Cus and light W winds.  Perfect soaring conditions, though it got pretty turbulent in the convergence with 6m/s + climbs.  Many made it back.    Pepe Maleki apparently went on and was at Segovia at 4pm, and made a little over the 200km.  Today is flyable but windier from the W and a potential 300km day.  Many pilots are going back today, some after landing and maybe 300km nearer their homes.

Yesterday was a bit breezy early on but with superb Cu development .  Some pilots flew to the W to the N or Bejar, but most stayed local.

Today (Thursday) a very good day with light winds from the N and superb Cus dotted around the sky.  Most are trying a training race task around the valley, but some have gone down the Cherry Tree Valley and are now well south around the 150km mark (Pepe Maleki).  It would have been a classic race day if…..

Tomorrow and Saturday and going well into next week are the onkin´ stonking days of July we have been waiting for.  Light SW tomorrow so convergence guaranteed for 200km + flights.  I don´t feel much like spending the day in the van tomorrow.

The spanish Federation mailed to all autonomous regions today prohibiting the use of Open Class Gliders in competitions in Spain.  Calvo has been of to the UK, and via the forums it seems that the UK has gone that way for the moment as well.

Strong SW and some big Congestus today.  On arrival home I noticed a lot of bees around a hole in the soffit above the front door.  I should have acted straight away, as they were just explorer bees, and the main swarm had yet to arrive. (I could have set up an alternative bait hive next to the hole in the soffit).  In the time I went to the kitchen to prepare a coffee the main swarm arrived which I could hear from within the house.  Going outside I could see the swarm hovering over the roof and begginging to enter their new home.  The more who find the route the easier it is for the rest to find their way in.  They send out a scent via their Nasanov glands, fanning the pheremone with their wings to give a chemical marker to show the new way home.   Soon here was a stream of bees walking along the wall into their new front door  in the Fascia above the soffit.  (I sort of remember Brian Hindle and I putting that bit of the roof up a year or so back and having to bodge that corner leaving this small hole).   I put the ladder up to watch closely to see if I could see the queen going in.  Even at this late stage, by plucking the queen out of the line of bees walking in I could still have got them into another hive.   Within 10 minutes all of the thousands of bees were neatly installed and will now be clustered and building comb.

Curiously I had time yesterday to check the hives (they are only about 50 m away) and noticed that some of the swarms from May had perished.   I was rather hoping for another strong swarm, but it is a shame that they decided not to go to one of the empty hives.  Anyway, it was a great spectacle which I rarely get to see.  Normally they pick good flying days when I am on the hill or flying.  The bees do not normally swarm if there is a risk of thunderstorms.  It seems that they were better informed since  although we have a lot of wind and some big build ups it now seems we are unlikely to get  full Cbs.   It bees seem to have interpreted the temperature trace better than me today.

The final best distances yesterday were 245km and 235km.  Today strong southerly winds and tomorrow risk of storms, so no flying probably till Wednesday.  We will probably only have around 23-30 by then, but will try to do something interesting.  It seems the repercussions of the CIVL prohibition are echoing around the world.  Calvo is flying out Thursday to the UK to attend a meeting with the BHPA to discuss the Opens.  In Germans and Belgium it seems they are now banned from uncertified gliders.  Also the X-Alps is going Serial.

One of the Polish team made 220km yesterday (he attended the prize giving from the air).  I know, since I collected him o his long retrieve (a hotel last night and hitching all day today till I came across him at Muñogalindo (there was no retrieve yesterday).

We are now of course only around 40 pilots.  With the light wind SW forecast, the probably racing task would have ended back in Piedrahita.  However, we gave pilots the option for retrieves along the axix of the N110.  Some such as Josh Cohn made it back from Avila with a 100km O&R.  2 other American pilots (Jack and Greg) were still flying half an hour ago ate the 200km mark and at 3000m, so I imagine they will bag at least 240km.  No meet directing for me today, just the weather brief and suggestions.  I then did a bit of Air Marshalling/Safety Patrol along the mountain, then later the retrieve driver role.   Paul Russell our hard working IT web man finally got in the air after almos 2 weeks being locked in darkness dealing with registration, web and presentation demands.

Weather tomorrow may be not so good, but from Wednesday looking very nice again.

I have had little to say on this blog for the last days.  Of course the tragic events and the high number of incidents have brought about a dramatic statement from the CIVL and of course the closure of the Worlds event here in Piedrahita.   A fatality or otherwise serious incident is of course what we have most been fearing in the lead up to this competition, especially with the high number of accidents in the CAT 2 events preceeding the Worlds in the last months (including our own Spanish Nationals in June).  Since the accident it has been so hard to satisfy the needs and demands of the pilots and the authorities which have been of course in many cases quite contrary.

As the majority of the pilots wished to continue with the event then I tried to see a way through in which we might convince the FAI and CIVL that we could proceed with a higher degree of safety.  Of course the right and proper thing to do in respect of Eitel and Tato would have been to stop immediately, which has been the correct and final thing we have done.    Sometimes it is difficult to see the right decision when you are at the centre of such a major tragedy and I sincerely hope that my  actions have show no disrespect to Eitel and Tato.  The Town Hall held 2 days of offical mourning , and during this time I proposed that working groups of those interested in going ahead should find a way to proceed with a safe competition with the current rule structure.   I warned them that this would need a radical rethink of the whole structure of paragliding racing which the current format enforces.  Of course this very race format is exactly what many of them find most exciting, so it was aways going to be difficult to find a solution accepted by all.   I also demanded that the paraglider manufatureres and their test pilots present should hold a seminar with the test videos and explain the full implications of flying these new 2 line gliders.  At this time of course I was dealing very much within this small intense circle of people without looking at opinion from the outside world.  Yesterday morning after looking at the reaction in the wider world and with further evidence and reports that some of these accidents were happening even at trim speed, then of course it looked as though there could be no solution that would satisfy the CIVL and allow us to continue with the event.   On a positive side the working groups have come up with some good ideas for the future.   Also the Seminar by the test pilots and designers demonstrated that many of the pilots present were flying a wing that gives a strong feeling of security, but which few of them could deal with correctly in the case of a major colapse, either accelerated or trim in unstable air.

We made a prize ceremony today as the even has been validated.   There have been of course other CAT 1 events with only 2 tasks, so we should rightly applaud our new champions.  Of course we and the winners  never wanted it that way.  The prize giving should have been a week later, and with the weather forecast, it looks as though we might only have lost 1 task.    Of course I am especially pleased for the British Team and am very gratefull to Burkitt Rudd for his assistance in chairing the working group, and especially Russell Ogden who helped us on our first Mandatory Safety Briefing and with Luc in the Test Pilot/Designer Briefing yesterday.

We still have a lot of pilots with us who don´t return home  untill later in the week.  Tomorrow the Team Leaders will get to fly.  Even myself and Paul hope to get into the air.  We will be handing out the live trackkers so you can see what we are up to on the live trackker page of www.piedrahita2011.com.