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Jeff O\\'Brien\\'s blog

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Sunday, June 29th.

In spite of the very steep and forgiving launch site on Saturday there was at least one, if not two crashes, on launch. One pilot suffered broken bones. I haven't heard about the other pilot yet, if any. I can only imagine what would happen when we try to get off Laragne-Chabre in light conditions.

With a forecast for south or southwesterly winds at 4,000' the organizers send us up Laragne-Chabre. The wind and the thermal "breeze" should combine for good launch conditions. The forecast also called for over development in the mountains. The task committee called two tasks, one just a shortened version of the first task, in case it looks like the over development is happening quickly.

The launch conditions were switchy and light. The breeze was actually not from the west (the right on launch) but from the left, south or southeast direction. I got dressed early and got to the head of the launch line, well actually there wasn't any line, as the launch wasn't open yet. I was thinking that the launch conditions would deteriorate as time went on and I wanted the best conditions.

It was cross on launch when there was a breeze, and when the breeze died down to almost nothing it trickled up. I was waiting for a nice flow up the hill but it was not happening. When the bushes below showed a little movement and the flags showed up the hill, I ran off. Later Jamie Shelden would launch in the same lane and say that launch conditions improved substantially later and she had a very nice breeze coming up the launch.

There were cu's every where and it was easy to find lift in the house thermal to the west of launch. After getting  up I headed 5 km to the west to join a few other pilots getting to cloud base at over 7,000'. Looking to the north to our turnpoint, it looked like the over development had already happened. I couldn't see any rain or lightening, but it was shaded on the ground near where I thought our turnpoint was. I wondered if they would cancel the task.

We worked lift under the cu's north of the ridge line over the valleys to get closer to the edge of the 24 km start cylinder. The lift wasn't confined to the hill tops, but it did look blue between us and the darkening turnpoint. Pilots were doing their best to get just as high as possible for the start.

Five minutes before the start window opened, the day was cancelled. I could tell as pilots turned and headed back to the launch area and they took their legs out of their harnesses and did the bicycle motion. I didn't hear that the task was canceled on the radio for another twenty minutes.

Some pilots didn't hear that the task was cancelled, or just did the task anyway. I spoke with Wolfi and he said the task was great without any problems.

No protest filed, so far. Great for me.

At 6 PM there is overdevelopment near Laragnem, no storms or rain.

Later we heard that a competition pilot was hurt landing near Aspres today. The first turnpoint was the mountain across from Aspres so this pilot was apparently flying the task. He was landing and what happened next is unclear as the pilot doesn't remember. He lost three teeth. He had a full face helmet on. His flying buddy landed next to him when he didn't move (he was knocked out). He is (or was) in the hospital. Apparently other than facial damage he is okay.

The task committee apparently was a bit lazy is not calling a real alternate task. Alex Ploner flew to the south and east and had a good flight. There were plenty of opportunities to have a task away from the northern mountains.