The Brit Team has had a bad day.

After storming round in the lead gaggle all day it all went very wrong in the last 15k because we all got stuck and watched the chasing pack fly over our collective heads to take the glory and more importantly all the points.  By the time we’d got ourselves un-stuck we’d run out of time to get to goal and we all landed just short.  Cleverly not only had we managed to get stuck but all three of us who should have been scoring had managed to do it in exactly the same place. (more…)

Sorry for the lack of a blog yesterday.  I got back to start writing and was so tired that I fell asleep whilst typing.  I woke up at 3am with a cold cup of tea next to me, all the lights on and about 20,000 full stops on the page as I’d obviously dozed off with my finger resting on this key.

Anyway we had another good task today which I’ll talk about in tomorrow’s blog along with how pilots plan their tactics for such a long event as this. (more…)

In the continued absence of any catastrophes, bad management, poor organisation or inclement weather to give me something to rant on about (today’s task was, again, close to perfect) I thought I’d write a quick few lines about the comp pilot’s nemesis. (more…)

I’m annoyed.

I’ve got nothing to moan about.

The first task of the World’s was run yesterday in glorious weather.  The organisation was perfect, the take off was in fantastic condition and the launch ordering system used to get everyone off quickly worked well and minimised queues.  The task was an intelligently set race with a lovely glide into the goal in Valle de Bravo, which was full of cheering crowds and pretty girls.  The retrieves for those that needed them were quick and if you made goal the ever friendly flight director J.C. gave you a massive high-5 and directed you to a beer and food tent if you were hungry or thirsty.  Download went smoothly, the computers didn’t crash and they’d laid on free coffee and Red Bull to sip whilst you waited. (more…)

Registration was amusing on Saturday as all the World’s best pilots queued up to present paperwork, FAI Licences and GPS’s to the organisation.  Arriving in my normal shambolic manner half an hour before registration was due to close there seemed to be some sort of drinking competition going on outside the registration building.  A water drinking competition. (more…)

Well we all managed to get out and have a fly yesterday.  After the usual buggering about involved in getting 5 people coordinated and in taxis we rocked up at about 2.30pm to a windy and strong looking El Penon launch still arguing about whose fault it was that we were so late.  As usual it was agreed that it was mine as I’d apparently spent all morning writing yesterday’s blog and “blowing Russ’s loo up” instead of getting my kit together.  Hey ho… (more…)

I noticed a comment to my earlier post about the forthcoming dope testing and particularly the alcohol limit imposed by the FAI’s banned list. The comment was left by Peter Saundby who is the President of the FAI Medical Commission (CIMP). In the comment he ‘assures me the CIMP has done their best to preserve [my] wishes to have a few drinks after flying and not be in breach of the regulations the next day’. On a technical note he states that UK Aviation Law has a limit of 2g per litre of blood and not 8g as per road law. (more…)

Sorry for the lack of a blog yesterday. I was in the oblivion of sleep deprivation, jet lag and general misery that modern intercontinental airline travel still attempts to market as in some way glamorous and racy. Well, if being forced to undergo intrusive and rude security checks at pretty much every stage of the experience (how long till you’re forced to bend over whilst an ill-tempered customs agent shines a torch up your arse before being allowed to visit the loo in departures, I wonder?) and then attempting to sleep for 12 long hours on a seat harder than granite in a space smaller than the average battery-hen gets to live in, I hate to see what ‘roughing it’ is like… (more…)

Well everything is set and I’m off today. Which means the ‘P-Word’ rears its ugly head. Packing… (more…)

I’ve found a few minutes to unfurl my new glider and have a look at it.

Disappointingly I have to report that, apart from the fact that it seems to have lines made out of something considerably thinner than a pair of Paris Hilton’s g-strings, it looks exactly like the old one.

Miffed at this discovery I folded it all up again only to find that I’d put the whole left hand side exactly above the piece of ground where we have our barbeques. The glider is white, of course, and the muck from the BBQ is a mixture of yellow burger fat mixed with powdered charcoal. It was also now all over the leading edge of the wing. Lovely. (more…)