Mads Syndergaard reports from the test task at the the Worlds
Safety and two-liners is the big issue. Russell Ogden (GB) from Ozone briefs pilots at the two-liner safety briefing held before the competition kicks off today. Photo: MS
The one thing that has always puzzled me in these big CIVL events is the fact that as the organisations grow larger (and these are the largest of the lot) they take on a life of their own, meaning in a comp that surely SHOULD be FOR the pilots, who have all paid very substantial amounts of money to be here, something goes awry and the pilots turn into something not unlike background noise in the whole machinery of the event.
This isn’t actually a given; Mexico had a good grip on it, but it is surely oozing into this here event, in spite of some very good personalities in the management.
So although there aren’t any more pilots here than in standard events there are perhaps 3-5 times more staff, and I suspect that this is where things go out on a tangent. I also suspect that this will be my last CIVL event.
We had a very good little training task today (66km, five turnpoints, cloudbase 3,000m), with almost everyone who joined it in goal and only one reserve throw that I’m aware of.
Paragliding World Championships 2011 test task, Monday 4 July 2011
I watched the guy float down from great altitude, over woody slopes and some open fields, and sure enough he landed perfectly in one of the few open fields available although he was on a standard round canopy with zero steering ability.
This corresponds to my hypothesis that things will generally try to go well when at all possible, and as soon as you get the reserve out you will be fine, even if it feels scary on the way down – do get it out.
Pilots landing in goal at the World Paragliding Championships 2011. Video: equidispar
Most pilots didn’t turn in their tracks so the scoring of the training task must be a little erratic, but it gave us a good taste of what is to come. Team South Africa tells me that the weather is looking promising for the next week or so, so we should get plenty of airtime soon.
The launch today was quite hectic, with very many pilots struggling in the brisk breeze – let’s hope that gets better over the course of the next few weeks, as we literally had to jump for our lives when out-of-control pilots were getting dragged and dumped all over the place
today 🙂
Brad Gunnuscio shows the way on the practice day
Tomorrow [Tuesday 5 July] is the first real task day, and pilots are busy trying to work out how to get the airspace file loaded into their instruments – that is also what I’ll be doing now, over and out from Piedrahita from now 🙂
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Mad Syndergaard is author of Flying Rags for Glory: An A-Z of Competition Paragliding
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