Here we go again - 5th edition

The Aeros Winter Race 2014 website is prepared - and registration is open already. So we are all looking forward to meet top european pilots again in march 2014.
There are some changes that we introduced to the registration and confirmation of participation procedures. Pilot is obliged, in order to confirm his/her participation, to pay part of the entry fee (30 eur) at the registration - so we will not send any confirmation mails prior the competition. This change will make registration much more straitforward - and, what is the most important, pilots will now know immediately whether they are on list or not - this is especially important with late registrations.

Memories...

Primož writes about the 2nd day of Aeros WR 2013

After the first day launching too late and making many mistakes on the course, trying to catch up,thus arriving to goal over 20 min after the winners I knew there are basically two options, if I want to improve: Wait for mistakes of others or try to risk a lot. After the first 2 legs I saw, that with concentrated flying it was possible to pull away from others a bit, but not from Christian. He didn’t make any mistakes. So only one option was left – risk.

The opportity was soon there, after making the Nanos Antena turnpoint and returning to the west edge of the Ridge Christian and myself were able to climb to 2300m, followed tightly by Edoardo and the others.We started to glide in freezing air, with wind chill Faktor arround –45 deg (at 85 kph), going for some clouds on the course. At that point I decided to go for a risky option, try to approach a lee trap Cavn directly across the Vipava valley. Christian followed and so did most of the others.Through observation of my gliders performance on the last 2 days I knew that in a long glide against the wind my odds are high.

Since Iztok did great on the previous day ( he came in 3^rd) the two of us had decided to share the radio frequency with, Oleg as a ground crew, giving valuable tips in order to increase our chances. Iztok had just flown in his brand new GT, and got a fresh fine tuning from Oleg on this day. After the Nanos Antenna he missed a thermal and fell a bit behind, so he took the standard route to Cavn, a detour across the ridge, the safe option.

Christian and myself were getting closer to Cavn, the air kept getting worse and Christian hit strong sink, I started to thermal just next to it. He couldn find my lift, so he glided on,sinking strongly. My climb was quite weak with a lot of drift, over me Franc left it and glided to the ridge, 2 km away. Christian being very low in front had to escape into the valley and I made the best decision of all  - glided on against the wind in the middle of flat part of the moutain below the ridge – with too litle height and on my own.  I was on the ground in no time. L.

Meanwhile Iztok made a succsessful transition with a comfortable height over Cavn. He came in first on this day, second overall behind Christian, who by a miracle got up again in terrible lee air.. Well done! J Third was Franc.

My senceire congratulation to the winners!

This way an official oppening of the european competition season 2013 took place. It was very educational for me, lets see if I had learned anything. J

Best regards,

 

Primoz

Finished!

Yet another successfull Aeros Winter Race is finished. The comp started with bad weather and poor prediction, but, anyway we managed te get fully valid competition with 2 tasks, first worth 949 pts and second full 1000 pts. The fact that we had no luck with weather at the begining of the comp resulted in only 22 pilots showed up to compete - special congratulations to them all - and a lesson to learn for the organisation team; next year we will change the confirmation procedure.

Day 4, 16.3.2016 info

The SW winds are setting in so we are going to Kovk today. The schedule is:
9:30 Loading gliders on official transport
10:30 Official transport departure
12:30 Task briefing on launch
ASAP Prize giving

Task 1 results

The results for task 1 are out. You can check them out on our web page (http://hg.sffa.org/aeros_wr). Christian Ciech won the task ahead of Franc Peternel and Iztok Jarc! 10 pilots made it to goal, which was windier as expected. For tomorow we will use the Kovk starting place, we expect SW wind, and finaly day without "burja" wind.

Day 3, 15.3.2013 info

Finally we have flyable condition. Schedule for today:
9:30 Loading gliders on official transport
10:30 Official transport departure
12:30 Task briefing on launch

Aeros winter race - Primož writes:

As our plan was to introduce the new generation of Combat 13,5 GT at the winter race, Markus and myself had to decide,what to do, becouse the glider was put togehter in Bern, I was already in Vipava, and becouse of bad weather forcasts noone from pilots, who could bring me the glider were driving this route from Swiss to Slovenia.
So we have decided to use this opportunity and make additional fine tuning flight tests in Interlaken by Markus and meet at DHV the week after WR to complete the certification tests, so the NG will be all set for Tropheo Montegrappa.
The reports of Markus from first flights with new carbon Combat are exceeding our expectations. I am quite excited about beginning to use it in competitions.
Luckily enough I took my 2012 Tecnora C13,5 GT with me to WR, and copied the settings from my Worlds GT on it before comming to Vipava, not being able to testfly it though becouse of winter conditions. Despite the big scale bad weather the specific climate at Nova Gorica allowed one short testflight on the very day Oleg and myself arrived to the site.
On this flight I could perceive the cultivated behaviour of the GT, giving a great confident feeling that one can master any situation. And if I had any critic on this specific glider about too high barpressure before, with the tuning it was all gone. The glider has mutated into a rocket with light allways positive barpressure, and great handling even with full VG.
Today we had winter break through here in the valley, so the bus full of enthusiasts went for a ride to world famous Postojna cave, 30 min away from HQ. My last visit to this monument of nature was 25 years ago, so it was like being there for the first time. The impressions in a cave 120m below the ground were really something. Beside the gigantic visual aspect there was also a well known effect on the mind - you disconnect from the outer world and experience like a mind reset, a real relief from everyday madness. Oleg and myself came out like with loaded bateries.
One of the reasons for this effect could be the absence of EM smog deep below the earth.
Perhaps this adds a new aspect to the Aeros Winter Race - beside flying there is also a great possibility of pilots associating with each other and taking a rest from everyday life. I have suggested to make this cave visit every year.
From Tomorrow on we are expecting very good conditions, the NE wind is dropping more and more by the hour.

Best regards,

Primoz

Day 2, 14.3.2013 info

During the night bura wind set in - as it was forcasted. Today is not possible to fly, so the day is canceled. According to that, pilots will become tourists today and will visit the world famouse Postojna cave. We meet at the competition office at 11am, to do a half hour drive to Postojna.
Tomorow... finaly flying!
Registration will continue this afternoon from 17pm till 19pm.

Day 1, 13.03.2013 info

Right now (9am) we have overcasted sky, here in Ajdovscina, with light SSE winds and it is flyable. However we expect rain later in the day so no flying today. We will continue with the registration this afternoon, competition office will be open from 5 pm till 7 pm.
Forecast for tomorow is not very good as well - it looks better in the afternoon - so it depand on how fast cold front will move through. The good news is that tomorow is last bad weather day and we will fly later on.
The plan for tomorow is to take all competitiors on tourist trip to Postojna cave - but official information on this tomorow morning, when we will see what the weather is doing.

Weather - registration - weather

We have some trouble with weather (as you may have noticed ;)) but anyway the registration for Aeros Winter Race 2013 will start today (Tuesday march 12th) as scheduled. Important is that the registration will stay open till the first task, we will publish exact times on the task board at the competition office and on the internet.

However, according to weather forecast we have prepared some other activities for the pilots as well. So if forcast for thursday will come true (not flyable) we invite all competitors to world famous attraction - POSTOJNA CAVE. Postojna Cave is the best-known cave in the world. It is also the greatest tourist attraction in Slovenia and one of the world's largest karst monuments. You can find out more about it here: http://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/

There is a fair chance to fly on Friday, later on Friday's night we prepared a party at TOURIST FARM BIRSA - the same place as last year. Tourist farm Birsa is known by their delicious food, excellent wine, friendly hosts, attractive surroundings and comfortable beds in their rooms and flats. More about them you can find here: http://kmetijabirsa.com/index.php?lang=en

THE RACE IS ON!!

The decision has been accepted - the Aeros Winter Race 2013 will start on tuesday, march 12 with the registration in Pizzerija Anja!

p.s. don't forget your GPS cable!

Invitations

As we are all covered by snow here in Slovenia, Aeros sent us a list of pilots who are this years their invitees. They all registered late, but now they are on the pilots list for Aeros Winter Race 2013. You can check who they are on web page.