Pilot and photographer Kieran Campbell reports from the British Allcomers Open in Feltre, Italy, 21-27 July 2018
“In summary, conditions were relatively unstable creating challenging tasking conditions all week. Most tasks started with the field vying for the best spot at (or in!) cloudbase.
“Sunday saw the first task stopped due to rain at the farthest turnpoint.
“Monday’s task proved too difficult for everyone, with the field strewn far and wide across the course, giving the retrieve drivers a busy afternoon.
“Yuki Sato-Colombé was the only pilot to make the ESS, but with less than 100m AGL, her flight finished very soon after.
“Tuesday’s conditions looked better but an incident in front of launch, and the resulting helicopter rescue, invalidated the start window.
“Moving to Bassano on Wednesday saw 46 pilots make goal, boosting morale considerably.
“Thursday was binned due to the forecast overdevelopment. Many chose to free fly before it did bubble up, including a dozen of us who landed at the nearby mountain refuge for a light lunch.
“The smiles in the group photo soon disappeared as we were all consumed by heavy rain almost as soon as we’d started our glide back to Feltre. Ten tense minutes of pushing bar and spiralling to the LZ gave way to an afternoon spent drying our wings.
“Friday started promisingly with strong climbs to base from the get-go, however 15 minutes before the start gate the development over the back shaded out most of the area, stifling most of the field, and ultimately the task was stopped before anyone reached goal.”
Loris Berta (ITA, Ozone Enzo 3) won the overall competition, with Yuki Sato Colombe (JPN, Zeno) in second and Manuel Laly (FR, Enzo 3) in third.
Yuki Sato Colombe won the Women’s class.
Full results at
hwww.airtribune.com/british-all-comers-open-2018/results
