03 February 2008

Finns finished before the finnish

Unfortunately none of the Finns made goal on the last day of the Pre-Worlds. The task was a short 56 km but with a few tricky places along the route.

Jouni was most unfortunate as after a twisted collapse he had 7 broken lines. Luckily he had the altitude and skills to get it all sorted out and land safely in a field.

Ari was in the leading pack but didn't find any lift near the Colora turnpoint. This area was a hurdle for many.

Jari fared better and almost made it to the next turnpoint.

Esa bombed out before the start and just went up again for an afternoon flight.

I myself (Robert) was doing very well up to the Gordo turnpoint but choose a bad line from there and didn't get up any more.

All in all team Finland could and should have done quite a lot better, especially Jouni and me. But we all surely learnt a lot and above all enjoyed the sunny sky, and the friendly atmosphere. We will be back next year, well prepared and with a lot of finnish sisu!

02 February 2008

Euphoria and trees

Another really nice day to fly. The task was a whoppy 101 km. In the afternoon nice clouds formed and some 40 pilots made goal where all were welcomed with cold beer and fruits.

Amongst these happy people Jouni who came nicely back after yesterdays early landing. Unfortunately Ari did not quite made it although he led the pack for the first half of the race. Jari and Esa did over 40 km.

Today it was my turn to have a really bad day. Shortly after launch I had a collapse while scratching low over a ridge. It was easy to clear the collapse but due to the strong thermal I couldn't turn away from the ridge fast enough and landed between the trees. Luckily without any harm. I managed to get my glider out of the trees and hiked up to launch. Once I had cleared all the lines from knots and checked the glider I took off again. And flew through the beautiful sky straight to the goal to meet Jouni and those beers!

Tomorrow we fly the last task and should try to improve our team score. Ari did indeed make goal yesterday, but with my adventure today we probably drop a bit in the nation ranking.