facebook js

Follow Planet-Soaring on Facebook

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

La Muela (Spain), Eurotour F3F

Easter means for me "La Muela" since 1995 ! As the date is alternatively beginning of April or end of April, we can have differences in term of weather and flying conditions. In 2014, it was very late so we could expect sunny weather and cool temperatures. But we got also 2 calm days with no to very few wind. Hopefully the contest is now on 3 days so it is easier to manage some rounds.

On Thursday, the program was "Fare niente", sun cream but also sun burns. the thermal wind played with us, turning around the hill all day long. We could however enjoyed some thermal flight, HLG session, and plenty of discussion here and there.

Friday started the same, so people started to be a bit worried about the possibility ro fly over the week-end. End of afternoon, we started a first round on the south slope that has been interrupted then cancelled after 5 or 6 pilots, as the wind shifted to the west slope. So we moved and started again round 1. finally we could complete 2 rounds there, finishing around 7:45 pm.

Saturday has been much better. The wind started to blow end of the morning, so we could start news rounds around midday. We have been able to achieve 7 additional rounds with a best time at 33s (Aubry Gabanon). Matthieu Mervelet won the competition for the second time in a row, followed by Sebastien Lanes and Andreas Fricke.

On my side, after 2 very bad rounds on friday (one is my fault, the second is because of the start order, flying at the very end of the day with crossed wind and decreasing wind speed), I couldn't pretend to be on the podium. However, I did a good climb on the last day, with no major mistakes.

Organisation did a real good job over the week-end: efficient logistics, quick decision, extreme reactivity and adpatability to ensure we could do the best from the weather conditions. They ran the competition very smoothly and have been warmly thanked and applauded at the price giving. Again a big thanks to the organising team (Torra Miguel Jr, Roberto Polo, Charli Sanz, Carlos Ruano G, Alvaro Sampe, Miguel Medina, Inigo Herrera, Miguel Torra, Gerardo Plazza). I will come back for sure !


Below is an excellent video from Aubry Gabanon about La Muela Eurotour F3F. It summarizes very well the week-end and gives a new perspective of the slope.


Full results can be found here



No comments:

Post a Comment

Jehnedi (CZ) F3G Eurotour final contest report

Text and photos:  Sebastian Haase (German version below) In my last and first report on the new, young and upcoming FAI class F3G, Pierre an...