A bright sunny day, with no wind early in the morning showed good promise.  However, strong southerlies came down by midday.  Bourki and Achim Joos did some filming at Lastra during the morning, but with stronger winds that would have been safe to fly in for recreational pilots.  We sat out till late at Lastra, watching the Black and Griffon vultures, but the wind failed to moderate.

With our small group form Holland, France and the UK we made 5 trips up the hill today.  At around 3.30 pm the inversions finally broke and I left a huge climb when passing through 2800m to go to the valley and land for some tandems I had arranged.  Charlie from the DHV was filming Burkhart Martens and Achim Joos who are making an XC documentary here at the moment.

17 plots made it to goal at 96km.  The prize giving was a big affair amongst hoards of town folk on the main stage, during a rest period for the Band.  Plenty of drunken  revelers.  In fact, most of the pilots on the goal bus were well pissed by 11pm when we arrived, and by 2am at the prize giving…. a little more.

My thanks for all the pilots in the German Open for putting up with some difficult days with great humour.  Below are a few photos of the prize giving.

Sunday was a trip to the airport for many, myself included to collect 5 pilots for this week.  Amongst them Colin out for his 4th week this year.  Some nice evening soaring for most of the group.

The final task for the GO, with light NNE winds but a poor blue ceiling of around 2200m. A 92km task along the N110 to the west, over the Tornavacas pass, through the Cherry tree valley and beyond Plasencia. The gaggles moved very slow and cautiously towards the pass. So slow in fact that I was the first to the antenna after Barco, waiting for some company for the trip down Cherry valley. Amazing how some threw themselves over the pass with hardly any height at all. I only went with 2000m, but others seemed to lift their legs to get over the low point at the road. I wend down the south side, though some went straight to the lee sided slopes north of the road. Quite tense flying as we never really go much above the tops, and of course the landing options are not so good for the first part of the valley. Half way along, many pilots crossed to the leeside from the south side. I followed, more out of curiosity to see what the alpine pilots do in these circumstances…they get a good whacking, and I wish I had stayed on the windward side. After about 10km in the lee, I got a good climb putting me on the outskirts of Plasenica. I flew quite high along the south side, hoping for a good climb, but was probably too mesmerized by looking at the Cathedral and town to concentrate on the climbs and ended up bombing just after some 15km from Goal. 15 pilots in goal and plenty of hassle finding pilots spread around Plasencia. Back in town for 11pm, but now we have to wait till 2am for the prize giving in the main square during the rest break of the band.

Too much wind and poor thermic conditions on this cold day with sunny skies. Many pilots free flew, some reporting better conditions in the valley. Bad news for the German league, as it cannot now validate a champion even if we fly tomorrow. Good luck for Oliver Rossell, who remains German Champion from last year (without even coming here). Pictures Aaron Blaser.

The forecast today was not really suitable for a task, with increasing winds from the W and low cloudbase. The only viable task to get pilots to a goal would be a task to the Ambles Valley towards Avila, but the danger of crossing the pass ruled that out. An elapsed time race was set (with 20minute gates) towards Peñaranda de Bracamonte as a safer alternative in the flats.

Abundant lift in front of take off encouraged most of the field off, but strong NW winds in the valley made progress hard and the task was finally stopped at 3.50, allowing the task to be validated with the 90 minute after race rule . However, although a race, it had varous gates more like an elapsed time. I am unaware of the German rules, but normally it needs to be a race with one start to be valid for stopped tasks. Let us hope it is so as the German league are having terrible luck with not one task validated this year.

Picture Peter Myles.

A 60km valley race was set, from Corrals to the start near take off, then corrals, Hoyoredondo, Bonilla, red rood, then goal near Piedrahita. A classic looking Cu filled sky until around 3.15pm, but all the while large congestus clouds forming on the plateau behind, with rain falling beyond Chia from around 2.30. Conditions along the ridge were quite gentle, with cloud base around 2500m. With the leading pilots closing on the Hoyoredondo turnpoint, the task was stopped at around 3.21. This was just nine minutes short of getting in a validated task (the rule is that the race must run for 90minutes after the start gate is opened. There was grumbling from some during the briefing that the original start gate open time of 1.40pm was too early to allow ALL the pilots to get to the start gate. If we had run with the original start time the task would have given the German league their first valid task of the year. I wish people would realise that tasks are often designed so that not all the pilots will be at the start gate on time. I would normally work for just the top third to the there. If all are there then there will be a safety crowding issue. By making pilots fly a good number of kms before the start gate we ensure two safety factors. Spreading out along course, and getting pilots off the hill early before stronger launch winds and Read the rest of this entry »

Stormy weather today for the German Paragliding open, so plenty of time to do some bee jobs which need to be done. A few day ago I removed from a tree one of my few successful bait hives. It was a cylindrical double walled plastic piece of tubing, normally used for drainage, which I cut to a volume of around 40litres, coated the inside with bees was, and made an entrance smothered in propolis. The top was sealed with a Warre sized top bar grid, and on top of this covered with cloth, and on top of that sealed with plastic to make it watertight.

The idea was that I could just lift out a small colony straight into a Warre box with minimal disturbance. However, this colony had already grown to a weight of around 20kilos (honey, wax and bees and container), so any attempt to transfer to a standard box would involve lots of comb breakage and distress for the bees. I decided to leave them in the container, but remove the bottom an put them over a joining board so that they can grow down into a Warre box and use one of my adapted Warre floors for varroa monitoring. Paul and Peter helped, and the transfer can bee seen in the photos.

After this I removed a Warre box full of honey which as been a few days with a clearer board separating the top box from the rest of the colony (this is essentially a board that allows the bees to leave the top box, but which makes it more difficult for them to go back up. Thus after a few days you can remove the honey harvest without too many bees to worry you. There were perhaps 50 or so bees, a few more that the last time it did it. Maybe leaving it on for so long (5 days) some bees learnt how to access the top again. I now have the box full of comb honey which I will cut and drain tomorrow if there is time

No task today due to risk of storms and rain which arrived by 2pm.

Yesterday after the start gate Peter Groger was seen to spiral down an impact near the top of the Big Spine.  Although pilots landed to help immediately and the competition doctor was on the scene within 30minutes, the extent of the injury was too great for any form of resuscitation.  My sincere thanks to those pilots landing and attending at the accident site and my condolences to Peter´s family.  Today, Dieter, the meet director has called for a non flying day out of respect for Peter.  The German Open will resume tomorrow (Tuesday 9th Sept) if the weather conditions permit.