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Venturi Slope is born
Day 1 Report
The forecast was talking about wind and showers by the end of the day, so the idea was to really make the best to get rounds done ASAP.
After the usual croissant/coffee meeting, the wind started blowing at more than 5m/s so round 1 started. Quite constant conditions with best runs at 53sec, some 55/57sec and 60s. then a thermal came and Reto did perfect use of it with a superb 47seconds. Unfortunately, soon after the fog came and we were forced to stop the round. we managed to get another 2 pilots flying in between the clouds coming and going, and had to stop again….. 2 pilots left to validate the round!!…… But the clouds were too strong and we never managed to relaunch and validate that first round…. To bad but still fair for everyone.
We decided to move further West beyond the West slope to get out of the clouds and run again some rounds. Wind was at 40deg and more on the left and only 1 pilot flew (Niklaus) and almost ended down the slope as wind went down also. And just to make it complete, Fog came to the party and killed the day. No more chance of flying.
Tomorrow meeting at 10 for hopefully better conditions and RUNS this time!
PS: great attention has been developped to give as much as possible fair flying conditions to everyone, with minimum wind speed set at 4m/s, everage wind during the whole flight above 4m/s and wind orientation limited to less than 40deg. This way, everyone is sure to have decent flying conditions.
Competition has started!!
Flying Order – UPDATED (2)
As we are only 1 week from the competition, here is the flying order.
Everyone is using 2,4GHz except 1 pilot, so no peg or anything will be required during the contest.
First pilot on round 1 will be picked up on friday morning, so no stress Christian 😉
I have made some mixed teams for those who did not specify one.
Weather Forecast
NEWS BULLETIN
Dear Pilots,
the competition is coming close so here are some news and details for you.
Free Flight:
The slope is available for flying everyday, and club members are coming pretty much everyday too. So please if you wish to fly on Thursday (or even before if you are spending some vacations here) respect them too. They will offer the slope for 3 days, kindly share the slope on those pre-competition days. The club rule is to put your name and frequency on the board, even if you are flying 2,4GHz, please follow it.
Friday, Meeting:
The meeting on friday is planned at 9AM at the slope. We will check frequencies (should be quick…..) and offer coffee and croissants as usual. If conditions are quickly OK we will launch the first round as soon as possible, else no more free flight after 10AM. We will try to make as many rounds as possible on Friday, so end of flights when light or wind insuficient.
Saturday, Banquet:
We have had several problems with the initially planned restaurant and were forced to change location. The restaurant will be in Roquefort les Pins, 30 minutes from the slope. Below you will find GPS coordinates to it.
The restaurant will serve a welcome alcohol drink, Salade Nicoise, a choice of Meat or Fish, your choice of dessert out of a whole selection of home made fresh tiramisu, fruit tarts, flans etc…., coffee and 1/4 wine.
So for all the people who ordered the banquet, please confirm by this friday your choice between:
-Meat: Jumbo Tortillas “house recipe” (when I say jumbo I mean JUMBO!!!!)
-Fish: will depend on the morning market, but local cuisine.
Useful GPS locations:
Slope: 43.751734 N 6.926584 E
Restaurant “Le Petit Eloi”:43.679921 N 7.034948 E
2013 REGISTRATION OPEN
Day One Report
This first day was more complicated than expected. For the whole week, we had a nice West wind blowing with average of 10-12m/s. The forecast was the same for this saturday and sunday, so we all had great expectations for today. Meeting at 9 with the traditionnal croissants, registration of competitors until the wind went fine around 11AM, already a little later than expected…. Briefing, everyone got ready and we waited for the steady conditions. Round one started at 12:10. We managed to get a good half of the pilots flying in variable conditions (still 4-5m/s wind) and then the wind stopped, Matthieu Mervelet was in the air and finished down the slope at the top of a big tree. He will have to get his FS4 tomorrow with a big ladder… After a 30minute break, this first round got cancelled. We waited a bit more and then decided to move to the south (main) slope as the orientation seemed to have changed, against the forecast. Wind was good for a few minutes, then none, then north!!!??? We clearly had to wait a bit before launching any round… And finally the West wind came! Move back to the initial slope, nice 8-10m/s wind correctly oriented. We managed to do a first round with constant conditions starting at 4PM, then a second with very light wind at the end for the last pilotsand some showers in the middle. As decision was made from the begining not to launch any more round after 7PM, the Course Director took the decision at 6:30 to start and try a third one. It actually happened to be a great decision, steady conditions and we ended up the day at almost 8PM with three valid rounds. Tomorrow breifing at 10 with the croissants at the “Schmidt” (large telescope).
