Into the valley.

Tracking: Flymaster

Here we are for the 15th Chabre Open.

A two year gap for Covid frustrated us all, but here we are full of beans and ready to go..

The weeks before the comp were first super hot with bases above 3000m. But the last week had unusually strong Southerlies that kept most of us on the ground.

It now looks like the week is starting ok and getting better towards the end, building to a crescendo we hope.

We are looking forward to some great flying.

See the facebook page:

9:30 Safety briefing and ready for the practice day.

It looks like we'll fly from Chabre today with a Southerly wind we'll go North.

The forecast is for a breeze from the South and a predicted base of 2500m. It looks a bit blowy up high

We had a short 35km task: Take-off at Chabre and goal at Aspres via Col St Ange, St Genis, Longue Dent and the Glider ridge. It was elapsed time with take-off opening at 13:20.

The wind on launch was ever present, the climbs very smooth and not very fast. The clouds were growing to the West.

A few brave souls pushed first and struggled, but the clouds and wind helped people down the course.

31 people made goal and base did go up to 2500m.

Winner of the Practice task was Nicola Moeckli (BGD Lynx). Second was Andy Brown (Advance Sigma10) and third Ton Stokkermans (Swing Nyos Rs). Top Woman was Lisa Davis (Ozone Delta 4).

We all had a lovely day. And everything worked even after the long break

Tonight is the Apero welcome night, after a lovely de-brief of the day.

Looking at the weather: It may be windier than yesterday from the South. The forecasts have been a little varied, so we are going to launch to see what we can see.

We went up, we came down. Now in camping the wind is strong.

Hasta Manana

The forecast is ok, but a bit mixed.

We are going to try a task off Chabre, but it could be tricky.

It was tricky. The wind blew over the back all morning. We waited. We waited until it looked like it would never change. Then it changed.

Due to the chances of dust devils we made it an elapsed time to goal at Veynes, 41km to the North, Via Col St Ange, Orpierres, Longue Dent and the glider ridge.

The launch window opened and the wind sporadically came up the face. Two launched and went down enough to hold everyone on launch. Then the lift came and there were launches a plenty.

Quite a strong South wind made heading West quite slow. Gradually pilots got the pre-start turnpoint and fired off towards Orpierre. Choices of routes over the volcano or Beaumont to Longue Dent saw diverging groups, then a meeting up later on. The last turnpoint and goal proved tricky as shaded areas and a strong drift made finding climbs tricky.

31 pilots made it into goal, well done.

First was Robert Mepham (leading out and going fast) on his Advance Sigma11. Second Kevin Gosden (Flow Fusion) and third Steven Montfoort (Ozone Alpina 3). First woman was Ali Matthews (Nova Ion 6). Fantastic.

It did rain dogs and antelopes for a while. But cleared up later.

Pizza and Paella in Ribiers was a hoot and a hit with everyone.

Forecast for winds from the North West today, so we are likely to head to the town of Sederon and fly from Bergies or Buc.

We got to Begies pretty early and had a task in mind. The wind on launch was light and fickle.

The task was briefed: Malajai goal, via a raduis around Sisteron and La Colette. 51km.

Launch conditions were not ideal with wind coming light from the West. Some early folks got off and then the window closed for some time before re-opening.

Conditions on course started tricky but improved as time went by. Convergence gave quite a lot of lower cloud as we entered the main valley and then the clouds were more sparse. The glide South East had some serious sink and a couple of good climbs.

40 pilots were in goal. First in was Nicola Moeckli (BGD Lynx) followed by Steven Montfoort (Ozone Alpina 3) and Jens Cullmann (Advance Iota). Top woman today was Eva Henneman (Ozone Swift5). Well done everybody.

Today we have a South wind. It may be strong. The forecasts are not all aligned. We'll see.

We went up Chabre, the wind was light, the sky was full of Cirrus, no sun on the ground.

We set the task: 36km to Aspres via Col St Ange, North TO, La Garde, Longue Dent and Glider ridge.

The cirrus had a few gaps forming and some stronger wind was coming up the hill. After the window opened pilots dribbled off in soarable conditions with thermals tracking back over the hill. As time went on the thermals improved and with good height and drift. Dropping back to La Garde (near Orpierre) early was a gamble and many pilots got there low. The patient got climbs to over 2000m. The crossing to the volcano or the shark's fin or the valley between was the crux, the valley was probably the fastest, with dribbly thermals up to Longue Dent. It then started to get a lot easier as the sky started to get a bit grey and the wind got stronger. The glide to goal was pretty buoyant and then really buoyant and the task was stopped as the clouds were darkening and the wind was blowing.

No one got to goal and the winner of the day was Steven Montfoort (Ozone Alpina 3) followed by Nicholas Dowdall (Ozone Rush 4) and Douglas Redpath (Advance Sigma10). First woman was Leontien Kragten (Swing Nyos). Well done everybody, it was not easy.

It looks like a Bergies day today. The wind looks fine but base may not be very high.

On take off everything looked fine and a task was briefed for a 43km task to Laragne Camping.

During the briefing the wind turned West and it became unlaunchable. The window opening was on hold. Gradually the wind came on and the window was open at 13:00.

The first group launched and formed a melee at launch height. The thermals were weak and broken. The same happened to the next two groups and gradually climbs were found to about 1800m. The wind was significant and due to increase, so the task was cancelled.

And that, as they say, was that.

Let's go swimming

All of the results are on the results page.

Task reports by Mark Graham