The forecast for the day of task 1 was for low cloudbases and weak thermals. With the previous day's downpour, that was certainly no surprise. Permission was obtained to use Col du Forclaz, a very busy site, but low enough for our purposes. Simon Oliphant gives us this account of how he won the day. Photos courtesy of Dave Wootton.
It's the first day of the British Open at Grand Bornand and we're at Annecy! listening to Bob Drury describe the first task, a 40K race to goal via 5 turnpoints. Cloudbase is low and conditions do not look promising. A few minutes later Bob calls us back and announces that there will be a validation for the task of 1 pilot past the second turnpoint. Most of us think that we'll be lucky to reach the Plan Fait landing field 5K away.
The sun is shining through a gap in the clouds, the tandem pilots are staying above take-off and Godfrey (335km) Wenness is high above us on the cliffs, doing well. The sun looks as though it may not be out much longer so I get into the queue to launch as quickly as possible and am off 5th or 6th just behind Dave Snowden.
Conditions are scratchy and it pays to fly as close to the trees as you dare. I manage to creep up the hill to the cliffs at the spot where I saw Godfrey earlier. The sun is now behind the growing clouds and so I decide to make as quick a getaway as possible. After creeping round the bottom of the Dents de Lanfon a few feet from the trees I reach the North side of the Plan Fait landing field ridge, where the sun has now started to shine. A blue glider kindly marks the lift and I am soon climbing well. Taking a look back at launch shows it to be totally dark, a great contrast to the sunshine I'm climbing in. Cloudbase is at the top of the Dents, at around 1800m. Its now an easy glide out to the first turnpoint at the beautiful Chateau de Menthen and I am soon back below the dents battling with the trees again.
The next target is to get back to the launch point and the second turnpoint. Luckily the launch looks as though it is about to catch the sun and as the clouds are threatening where I am now I set off as quickly as possible, this time along the low ridge along the Annecy lakeside.
A rock face sheltered from the valley(lake) wind but into sun gives me a nice bit of lift and I am soon back below launch in glorious sunshine. People are taking off above me and climbing but for me down with the tandems and red ribbons all heading for the landing field it's a struggle. Forty-five minutes later and I'm still struggling, despite the sunshine, but now I spot a glider climbing back at that rock face that gave me the climb previously. I glide back to join him with about 10 other gliders and am soon well above launch. The second turnpoint is now within reach but proves tricky to photograph due to hitting the best thermal of the day just as I take my hands off the brakes to get the shots. Typical.
Relief! The task is validated and I have a chance to catch up in the Nationals, where I'm languishing in 30th place. The rest of the flight consists of an extended top to bottom to the landing field at Plan Fait. When I land I see a couple of gliders fly over. One of them continues on towards turnpoint three. I assume I havent done as well as I thought. I find out later that its Eddie Colfox who got turnpoint one and then headed straight for turnpoint three. Sneaky.
With hindsight I think that taking off early and getting lucky with where the sun was shining were the factors that let me fly further than everyone else. It's a shame that the Open tasks were all similarly short and tricky, but conditions were the same for everyone and put a premium on thinking rather than racing. Each task was a bit of a lottery, but with three tasks set, the best pilots came through in the end, especially Russell Ogden who had a great flight on the last day.