Newcastle Hang Gliding Club

The fourth race task is a local race, with multiple valley crossings to keep us all in the local area. I race off right on the clock and expect to have some followers, hovever I race alone straight line for turnpoint. I will need three climbs to make it. I am off to a good start, the first climb is 4m/s I see others behind and to the sides, taking detours for shroter glides and more frequent lift. My third climb is slow and the others get ahead a little. The climb after the turn is very slow and although it comes good, there are a lot of pilots in it and it is scary.

WE SAT ON THE HILL WITH THE WIND BLOWING OVER THE BACK (AT ASPRES WITH ONLY ONE LAUNCH DIRECTION), ONLY A FEW PILOTS COULD LAUNCH DUE TO POOR LAUNCH CONDITIONS. CAMMO GOT A NICE FLY BACK TO THE CAMPGROUND. i WAS GROUNDED, EVEN AFTER BEING IN A PUSH FOR AN HOUR.

WE HOPE TO FLY TOMORROW

There are a number of pilots who are feeling a little tired after the bonfire and DJ event in town.

The worlds have pace that consumes a lot of time and makes it difficult to make posts as well as sell equipment, help with tuning, do my own tuning, fly, stand in a near endless line to have GPS downloads done and attend to every day overheads. The most relaxing time is sleep and flying. I write this as it rains and thunderstorms outside. I have taken off and flown around for 50 minutes, there is no task today. I made some video, photos and when a convergence arrived, I dove down and landed before rain arrived.

The Irish team blog of the Worlds is worth a read. Monica appears numerous times and is even seen "Spanking" one of the Irish team members.

http://www.irish-hg-worlds-2009.blogspot.com/

The first competition day is a strong North Mistral wind. It is very clear that we do not need to go up the hill.
We had a day of reading and walked up a local hill. I found the clearest Quartz that I have ever seen and a large piece of fossilized coral.

Today is the opening ceremony, it is blown out today, as was yesterday and it is likely for the next couple of days.
Yesterday I went kayaking with Blanki, Katha, Davis, Belinda.
Nice party last night here at the camp ground, the strong winds help a lot with the intensity of hang gliding parties. You cant fly the next day anyway!

Today I iron a shirt, have a shave, parade around....then go and listen to a presentation on local meteorology by a local legend sailplane pilot. Folowed by a compulsary safety meeting.

Fast train from paris yesterday. Picked up by Katharina in Lyon. Got my gliders in good condition today. Off to Larange now. Scott

Received: 15/06/2009 7:21pm

Glen is house sitting and minding the dogs while they stay at home, they have already made good friends. Mon and I are off on a grand adventure. Conrad, Anusha and Cammo left today and Mon and I are off early tommorow.

Thanks all for your kind wishes, Airborne and Wingtech put in a lot of effort to get us some great new gliders, Billo helped us aerotow and get some hours on them. Some people provided sponsorship, others wished us well, thank you.

We will deliver Kiros car to the airport as he arrives back from Canada tomorrow. He had a rough time

Those people going to the worlds who would like to keep the rest of us updated with information should consider getting Twitter account and corresponding software for their mobile phone. Once you have a twitter account you can send tweets using your phone and those tweets can appear on our site. I did it with an iPhone at Dalby. I just need to organize a block for your incoming tweets. It is very quick to send a tweet with the task or what the day is looking like or when you landed and who with. Please consider it as I know there are a lot of people that appreciate it.