Saint Hilaire Flight Festival

As every year, flight enthusiasts from all over the world flock to the air festival to see everything and everyone they need to under the same roof over a long weekend.
This year, the weather was fair although not as generous as last year. At least we were not wallowing around in mud as has been the case in previous years!

I spent my time catching up with flying friends and sponsors on the Friday, and for the first year my other half and I parted company to spend time on different manufacturer's stands. He with Ozone, me with Niviuk

Icaro managed to put together my new made-to-measure flying helmet on the spot for me, with various requested specifications, notably the size and visor. Obviously, and as is so often the case in this sport, paragliding companies just don't cater much for girls, but Icaro came up trumps. Grazie Mille Icaro!

Icaro making my new helmet

I was delighted to meet up with Dominique Cizeau from Niviuk and had a great chat with him, as with other members of the Niviuk Team, Joel Debons and Maxime Bellemin from ABAC in addition.
Thank you to everyone on the Niviuk stand for giving me such a warm welcome :-)

Nice to see Mike at the Ozone stand too. No hard feelings, and I am sure that they have a cracking season ahead of them, albeit feeling the pressure from the recent performance of the Icepeak6's.
Columbia and the Superfinal will tell.

Team Niviuk Pilot Profile

I've been absent for a while, waiting patiently for some promising sky to enjoy early autumn conditions.
St Andre didn't hold much and Annecy has been super stable with low valley cloud for a good few weeks.
However, I've been busy with Niviuk after St Hilaire Paragliding festival, and my Team Niviuk pilot profile is almost complete and ready to post to the Niviuk website.
http://www.niviuk.co.uk/comp-team-niviuk-paragliding.php
I should be visiting Niviuk UK in the next few days, so watch this spot for pictures of the great encounter!
Bye for now...

6th September - First flight on my IP6

I LOVE IT!

5th September - Europeans Championship 2012

12 th FAI Paragliding Europeans Championship 2012 update as to today's events.
Sadly they are not tasking today. I'm sure everyone is frothing at the bit to get the competition underway and hopefully the sky will "play ball" in the latter part of this week moving forward.

Suunto t3d Noir Poli | Suunto

Suunto t3d Noir Poli | Suunto
This looks a great piece of kit to monitor one's personal training.
Definitely on my next "wish-list".

12th FAI Paragliding Europeans Championship 2012

Steve Senior and I were in St Andre les Alpes, France, yesterday for team registration, safety briefing and the opening ceremony of the 12th FAI European Paragliding Championships 2012. 

Team GB. From L-R: Russ Ogden, Jamie Messenger, Neil "Slapper" Roberts, Adam Hill, Steve "Serious" Senior, Adrian "Prof" Thomas, Emile Van Wyk, Kirsty Cameron, Tom Payne, John "Sonic" Stevenson

Emile Van Wyk, Steve Senior, Myself, Adam Hill, Sonic at the parade

Parade through St Andre town

The Team Belgium kit.

Luc Armant receiving instruction from the Italian Coach!

 Although the conditions were a little cold and windy due to the tail end of the mistral, spirits were high and very positive with a now confirmed team coached by Kitt Rudd.

GB Team Briefing

Blogs from various teams can be found below, but most importantly, our own team's blog, hot off the press from 400km south of here: 

Our own official blog can be found here:
Team GB blog
Usually updated daily by one or several members of the squad.




And below, known blogs from other participating european countries:
Team Portugal
Team Swiss
Team Italy
Team German

The opening video of the competition, which think is rather good, can be seen by clicking here:
Video European Championship 2012

Although the cut-off date for this year's GB Team selection mean't that I didn't make the squad on this occasion, I will be gunning for a team place next year. In the meantime, I'll be heading back down to St Andre next weekend to report live from the Team GB HQ and share the skies with the 150 participating pilots.

Enjoy!

1 Sept - Ownership negociations over my new IP6

Yesterday afternoon the long-awaited box arrived from Niviuk. Thank you :-)

I've been patiently waiting for the new production of the 21, and shipment arrived a week early.

My new glider, the IP6 21 Cloud.

The wing is very looooooooong!

Looks like I have some ownership competition going on here! :-)

My jack-russell terrier, Gin, thinks it's hers!

Neatly packed and folded with tissue paper between the lines. Lines loosely bundled and knotted with a bag to protect the risers. Rucksack, inner bag, strap, T-shirt, brand stickers, repair sheets, replacement mini maillon stoppers, and a cute metal box containing the Niviuk mini USB key.

The rucksack looks quite big, big enough to fit my Gin Genie race harness and flight deck.

Now all I need is for the rain to go away so I can go out and play!