Adventures and Misadventures, Flight Reports, Scores... http://fracas.us/2006nordic/ The 81K task on Friday was epic, but our big hike to the Col Des Fretes on Sunday morning was sweeeeet! This may be the shortest movie you ever see, but trust me, there's no acting going on here. Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:24:19 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=ColDeFrettesLaunch.wmv movie Nick and I hiked the 4000' vertical from the planfait LZ up to Col Des Fretes in about 2 1/2 hours. We started at 05:00 in the AM. This is the last year I carry the heavy stuff! Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:07:25 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=TheHike.jpg pic Place Name Glider Nation 1 Erik Rehnfeldt Mac Para, Magus 25 SWE 2 Bertrand Chol Sol Dynamic ARF2 FRA 3 Rolf Dale UP Targa 2 M NOR 4 Erwan Didriche Niviuk Icespeak FRA 5 Len Szafaryn Gin Boomerang Sport USA 6 Lars Anders Jonsson Gin Boomerang4 SWE 7 Eric Olivier FRA 8 Jouni Makkonen Gradient Avax RSF FIN 9 Marcus Malmqvist AVAX RSF 26 DNK 10 Ari Sahlstrom Gin Boomerang 4 FIN All results are here on the "Official 2006 Nordic Open Site" link on the left. Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:09:04 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=12 text Sat, 24 Jun 2006 15:15:18 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Pilots_2.jpg pic Sat, 24 Jun 2006 15:13:55 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Pilots_1.jpg pic The organizers cancelled the day at 10 AM, kind of unusual to cancel so early. But these guys know the weather very well and they were concerned about cumulous clouds developing above the valley haze where they would not be seen until it was too late. Many pilots took multiple sledders, some went to the beach for swimming, and others started early on tonites planned festivities. Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:53:17 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Picture%20026.jpg pic Big 80K task today. Fastest pilots in 2:37 hours, slowest pilots almost 5 hours. Finally Annecy shows it's true potential as a site. Tomorrow is the grand finale, weather looks decent. Everybody needs to get a good nights sleep as today was an exhausting flight. Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:53:06 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Nordics06_Day3Len.JPG pic Wow, what a day. Perhaps it was just the fact that we actually flew after thinking that we'd be having another weather day. The task committee did a spectacular job of using what the day offered. A 40K task around the lake was the call with an elapsed time race. The race was incredibly fast for the first 3/4, then everything came to a drastic halt after the last turnpoint in St. Joiroz, Eric Rehnfeld was high enough on the Roc De Boeuf to jump over the back and head to goal, it was an incredibly brave decision and he landed 15m inside the goal cylinder - screaming downwind with the cornstalks blasting through his teeth, but he made it!!! The rest of us festered for over an hour on the lower ridge in front of Roc De Boeuf, finally a few pilots drove upwind, caught the increasing lake winds, and then made the final 4K to goal. Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:43:22 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Nordics06_Day2Len3D.JPG pic Today we get to go to Le Grand Bornand. It will be so much fun to wait on a NEW launch for 6 or 7 hours :>) The lift has been so poor that we can see the birds sweating as they fly overhead. Thu, 22 Jun 2006 06:44:12 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=RainDay.jpg pic Another frustrating day, the task was finally canelled at 4PM after 7 hours of waiting on top of the mountain. There was some free flying to be had in the 25 K headwinds and 1400 ft/min sink on the way to the LZ. Geez we're hoping the weather gets better for tomorrow, when we're scheduled to go to Le Grand Bornand for a task. Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:22:04 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=6 text Everybody was happy in the LZ today. Len was happy to see Anna, and Norwegian Tony was happy to see Len. Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:42:01 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=LZHugs.jpg pic What a great day. 51K task, fast pilot was Eric Rehnfeld from Sweden who flew the entire course in about 1:45. Almost 80 pilots in goal. Here is Len's track log for the day. Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:29:19 GMT http://fracas.us/2006nordic/?file=Nordics06_Day1Len3D.JPG pic