In Spain, again...

Just like last year I have spent one week in Jaca, Spain, with flying colleagues from Airbus

Some classical place were flown : the high Sierras, the Ordessa Cañon nearby "la brèche de Roland" ...


... but also some new spots for me : the Aneto summit & its lakes.



More south, here are the "Malos de Riglos", funny stones coming out of the ground.
A very nice week indeed, good flying & nice sightseeing from my chait in the sky !

French 15m national

I have participate for the first time to a french national, 15m class, taking place in Vinon sur Verdon. The other classes flown were two siters-20m (more or less DuoDiscus monotype...) & open class.

The area flown was southern french alps. I knew a bit the area, but with competition pressure I have done things I had never tried before (very low on slopes, things like that...)


It was a bit difficult for me at least at the beginning, two outlanding for starting, I choose to go to airfields soon enough...

Saint Auban, "Les Mées" in the runaway axis

Gap (Thank to Céline & Denis for the road retrieval)

For the next flights I was able to be back home !

It is quite difficult to take photographs during competition flight, as you are much occupied. Hopefully there was a few calm moment when it was possible to reach the camera.

In Vercors wave :


In Queyras, with Mont Viso behind the clouds :


I ended 18th out of 23, no very glorious, people used to flying flying in mountain were for sure in a better position. Still I have flown very nice flight, I did not get too much scared by the different situation in the mountain, & I did not end up into the rocks !
So very nice experience, for my next competition I may rather try flat area though !

You can find here the competition diary.

Back in flight

Flying season is back!

I have choosen a lot of colors this year, the objective being to be seen by the other pilots.
According to my colleagues, this is very well done !




Some shot of "les gorges du Tarn"

Winter works

This is winter, AD is receiving a full hard wax treatment for his gelcoat

As far as only the fuselage is concerned, a car can still enter the garage.



But when I need to work on the wing, nothing else than the bikes can fit the 7.5 length garage !

Flying in Spain - Video

It is winter time, the period to sort photos & videos of the flying season...

Here are some "souvenirs" of energetic flying with AD from Jaca airfield.

Nice shots in la Montagne Noire

Very nice photos taken during the last 2008 SWAF meeting :


http://julienbersheim.blogspot.com/2008/11/week-end-swaf-la-montagne-noire.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wabgs/sets/72157609168824410/detail/

http://yves.calzetta.free.fr/Telechargements/Videos/Grandeur.wmv


Sadly I was not flying this day, even if it was planned...

Article published in Technical Soaring

Last July my article on Flight Template has been published in technical soaring. Flight Template is a tool to be used for aerodynamic optimization, based on statistical study of igc files.


See also the article from Christof Maul, another kind of statistical study based on IGC file.

NB : a copy of Technical soaring can be get at OSTIV : http://www.ostiv.fai.org/