Delta News

In the end, the class sport task from the north take-off got cancelled, due to the strong north wind and low cloud base, coupled with a very tricky cylinder start. In class 1, Marco Laurenzi won the 92 km task by just 1 point in front of Alex Ploner ! Last competition day took place at the south take-off. Conditions turned out to be very good but also tricky, with some cirrus clouds passing from time to time and cutting off the thermals. Many pilots got grounded because of these cirrus. For class 1, a 109 km task was set, going south of Colfiorito, then Gubbio, then back to Sigillo. Alex Ploner won the task again, in front of Moroder and Bau. For sport class, a 48 km task was set, similar as the two first ones (flying south and back to Sigillo). I took a good start in front of everybody, and led all the way to the goal, making almost no mistake and completing the course in 1h13, with Andrea 2nd in 1h35, closely followed by Pawel in 1h38 and Luca in 1h40. Close race for these ones ! In the end, Alex Ploner wins the Italian open 2019 and is pre-european champion, with a huge gap of more than 500 points on Marco Laurenzi and more than 700 points on Davide Guiducci. Winning 4 out of the 5 tasks, not for nothing he's the world champion ! In class 5 (forgot to mention it in the summaries, sorry ), Jochen Zeyher wins the competition with just 47 points on Konrad Baumgartner. Federico Baratto is 3rd. In sport class, i take the first place by winning all the tasks, which is really great ! Pawel Wierzbowski comes 2nd and Fabio Caresi is 3rd and becomes the sport class Italian champion ! Really looking forward to see the progress of the italian pilots, like Fabio, Andrea and Luca, who fly hang gliders for much less time than me but are already very good in thermals and make the goal from time to time. Keep on the good progress guys, you are not far ! Last word : thanks a lot to the organization, Tonino Tarsi, Flavio Tebaldi and all the staff of the Volo Libero Monte Cucco, who put together an amazing event, safety wise and atmosphere wise. For sure the european championships will be a huge success next year !

After two cancelled days due to bad weather (bit of rain, strong north wind, risks of thunderstorm), the weather improved yesterday. Because of the still quite strong north wind, the organisation decided to go to Tre Pizzi, with a goal at the aeromodelism airfield. For the open class, a 90 km task was set, going to the south of the take-off, then to the north (Fabriano), then back to south, then goal. Alex Ploner again won the task, in front of Evgen Lysenko and Valentino Bau. For the sport class, a small 34 km task was set, going 6 km to the south, the north to Fabriano, then in goal. Again we faced difficult conditions at the start. I really struggled to get some altitude on the first half of the course, especially when flying against the wind, which Pawel did much better than me. It was only back in the take-off area that i could hit some nice altitudes, around 1800 m. I closed on Pawel in the last thermal, which i left for the final glide maybe one minute after him. But i chose a much better line (more over the valley whereas he took one in the mountains), so iwas able to get on front of him before the goal. Then, the stupid moment happened. Because the flight had been quite short, i didn't want to land too early and took a thermal just before the end of speed section, because i had some margin on Pawel. But after 4 or 5 turns, i saw him coming in, so i just had the time then pull the VG and cross the speed section, which made me close the task... just 3 seconds on front of him. Lesson learned ! Today we are at the Monte Cucco north take-off. Still 2 tasks to go !

Today the weather was forecasted similar as yesterday : blue thermals with ceilings between 2000 m and 2500 m. However, today seemed to be less strong than yesterday, with the wind being a bit stronger. Therefore, the tasks distances got shorten. For the open class, a 94 km task was set, flying first south to Cave Nocera, then north to Mt Nerone, then south again to Rigali, and finally to the goal in Sigillo. Alex Ploner made it first in goal, more than 10 minute before Marco Laurenzi, followed closely by Eugen Lysenko. For the sport class, the same task as yesterday was set, but with bigger radii, which made it 52 km instead of 57 km. My start was much better, i took it alone in front of the field, bit still 6 minutes late. Arriving at the start cylinder i catched a thermal that put me in a really good position for the rest of the task, which i was able to complete first in a bit more than 1h30, so with a pretty good average speed of 33 km/h However, after two days, it seems that we get more stable conditions than the other categories at the start, especially with lower ceilings. But the organizers are very clear : they want to clearly separate each category, with different take-off windows and differents start times, and they don't want the sport class flying with the open class... It's quite a pity, because when going south, the tricky part is without doubt leaving the take-off area with enough height to make it over Fossato to the wind turbines. Lots of pilots already got trapped there, quite sad when we know that the best thermals are just a bit more south, with 3 to 5 m/s climbs and ceilings to 2200 - 2300 m. Positive day in the end, the rythm is getting on

Italian Open 2019 and HG Pre-Europeans - Monte Cucco International Trophy 2019 - Opening ceremony & day 1 / task 1 Saturday saw the opening ceremony of the pre-european hang gliding championships held in Sigillo, with a lot of nice traditional costumes, flags, and local officials who make big speeches only in Italian Sunday saw the first task being flown. For class 1, a 120 km task between north of Castellucio and Gubbio was flown, with only the recent world champion Alex Ploner making the goal. For class 1 sport, a 55 km task was flown, between Salmata and Scheggia. My start was pretty catastrophic (being at 900 m below the take-off when the start gate opens is indeed catastrophic). However, i managed to fly quite efficiently and was able to catch up my 15 min lateness when coming back at the take-off area, thanks also to others mistakes. In the end, i'm first in goal, more or less 5 minutes before the second.