Spain SGP

Well that all seemed to go well. The contest was held at Santa Cilia on the West end of the Pyrenees - a place I haven't flown at before. Beautiful scenery in the air, loads of really big birds: vultures, buzzards, eagle, a big easy airfield and locally good outlanding fields. The only downside is the building of a new motorway along the valley, like much of Spain it will be really nice if they ever finish it.

Over the top of the Pyrenees with no spare tyre

It all started a bit shakily - I popped a trailer tyre in a service station and had a tough time changing it. I was then stupid enough to do well in the practice day so the omens weren't great. Midway through the competition the glider main wheel went flat and I spent a morning chasing round like a looney trying to find a replacement inner tube, with no success. It was therefore a case of patching the old pone and praying. Fortunately it all worked out...

Santa Cilia Airfield

Day 1 I flew pretty well and entered the last TP convinced I was going to win the day. Annoyingly the route I took out, North to the ridge I'd just left, wasn't as good as the route to the South taken by Thomas Gostner and Aldo Rodriguez. Third for the day at 114kph then.

The following days I finished 4th, 4th and 2nd: consistent but not good enough. All the throwing tyres around had me with searing back pain so I was walking like a Centenarian and only really comfortable once I was sat in the glider.

Going into the last day and in third place I felt strangely confident: I knew I was going to do OK. That delusion evaporated within 5 minutes of going through the start when I was 1000' below the pack. Dammit! A bit of persistence paid of though, and once back in the game I was able to keep pushing while staying high. 80kms out from home GT and OS stopped just behind me for a 2 knot climb - I carried on to where I reckoned the ridge had sun on it and was rewarded with a nice 5 knot average. Up onto a 3 maccready glide I set off for home, getting a bit of a shock when OS popped up on Flarm below on my left with 20 kms to run. This time I had the right route and was able to come home 20 seconds ahead of him. That was good enough to win the day, win the contest and qualify for the World Final in Vitacura, Santiago in Chile in January 2018. It was even my birthday - life does not get better!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL69N-UnL_0

The ticket to Chile....