This stage of the French F3F Cup is always a pleasure, offering a chance to rediscover the landscapes and scents of the Southern Alps, even if the lavender isn't in bloom at this time of year.
Eighteen pilots gathered at the foot of Mont Ventoux, the region's iconic mountain, at 1910 meters, for two days of sunshine.
On Saturday, we met at 10:30 a.m., drove to the flying site, and prepared for the race. The wind was still light but was expected to pick up when the sun hit the valley. After a briefing from the organizer, Philippe Lanes, we started flying around noon and completed eight rounds in rising but still very variable conditions. The wind gusted between 4 and 10 m/s, and the gliders flew either empty or ballasted up to 2.8 kg.
At the end of the first day, Pierre Diatta was leading the race. Behind him, the points were tight and nothing was decided.
On Sunday, we resumed racing late in the morning on the same slope. The conditions were still very variable, and in this game of "who benefits from the best conditions," Roland Henninot came out on top, piloting his Wasabi 2 perfectly to seal the deal in the last four rounds, for a total of 12 rounds over the weekend. In second place, I wasn't as lucky as Roland and tried to minimize the damage to avoid losing too many points. The last round finished me off with very low lift conditions, forcing me to dive to maintain some speed. I wasn't the only one to suffer from this variability; Pierre Diatta finished just off the podium, while Philippe Lanes snatched third place.
Our two juniors performed admirably in this competition, gaining valuable experience in managing altitude gain and adapting trajectories to the prevailing conditions.
All in all, we had a fantastic weekend together, topped off with a delicious meal at a great restaurant on Saturday evening. A huge thank you to Philippe Lanes for the organization, Joël Marin for the timing logistics, and the launchers and launchers.
See you soon for the next round of the league!
Full results: https://f3xvault.com/?action=event&function=event_view&event_id=4224