When I arrived in L’aragne there was a heat wave on in France – it was hotter than Kamshet, India, in May – phew!

127 pilots from 17 countries took part int his completion. Like the Naviter, the Ozone Chabre competition was also an EN C competition.

Day 1 at the Ozone Chabre – was a Training day. I stood 2nd in Recreation Class & 12th Overall out of 127 Pilots but it was a practice day and scores would not be counted in the final results. Task 1 – An invite on landing:

Task 1 – An invite on landing

The Weather was looking good and It was supposed to be an epic day with 3500m base and lesser risk of overdevelopment. I was looking forward to great conditions for flying, Task 63 kms.  The weather wasn’t anything like the forecast as cloud base was only 2200 which made it a lot trickier than expected.  I was following the lead gaggle from lower down for quite a while and found myself stuck in washing machine like conditions twice and almost bombed out along the way after a point I got stuck low in an area and lost the lead gaggle and saw quite a few gliders overtaking me from behind.  Due to overdevelopment the task was stopped soon after I managed to get out.  

I landed out along with 20 pilots landed near a house. The lady of the house invited us to her garden by a stream and gave us cold drinks and fruits.  Reminded me of the warm friendly people of the Himalayas.  Later on we organised to send a bouquet.

Task 2  – Goal but Not Goal 🙁

It looked like it was going to be a booming day and an easy task but as soon as we left the Chabre ridge the thermals became weaker and we couldn’t get a lot of height making the task very difficult. I was flying close to the lead gaggle for most of the task, but after a certain point they got into a thermal but I was too low to join the same thermal and had to look for another one. They started gliding towards the last turn point and I followed a little later after gaining some height but as I reached half way there I realised I could not make it and turned around to find a thermal  which made me lose a lot of time but was a right decision as I saw many others bomb out. After gaining height again I went to the turn point and reached very low but managed to scratch my way out over a small hill and then glided towards goal. The task was stopped just before I reached the end of speed section. And even though I reached goal it was not counted.    Sh*t,  Sh*.t,  Sh*t 

I still managed to score #6 in Recreational class and #20 in Overall class

Task 3 –Goal Made 🙂

Task 3 started well but conditions turned adverse – I managed to make goal just before the Task 3 was stopped due to overdevelopment. ( in this task I realised that since it was difficult to keep pace with the lead gaggle on a B wing while they were all on C’s, I decided to just fly and lead out the second gaggle and this strategy worked out really well for me and I didn’t finish too far behind the lead gaggle in the end.  The task was quite straightforward with some booming thermals except for the last part where we were just flying over some small bumps in the terrain rather than over the mountains. I managed to catch a vital thermal just a few km before goal which I required to reach there. This task was also later stopped but well after I reached goal and a lot of other pilots had to go through the same pain I felt the previous day.

As I finished well ahead of all the pilots who were previously ahead of me in my class I upped my rankings to  #1 in Recreational class and   #12 in Overall class

Task 4 – Cancelled

Weather was not expected to hold so a shorter task of 26.7 Km was set – > Hit 6 m/s thermals on an average today and the peaks were over 7 m/s !!  The Task got cancelled after my T1 so the pressure was off and I enjoyed the scenery and took some pictures.

Task 5  – Hour’s walk to take-off in the heatwave !!!

Winds were westerly so we went to the Sederon Buc Take Off which was a new one for most of us. The conditions looked great so a 81.2Km longer task was set.  A lot of people bombed out in the start as the ridge wasn’t very high above the ground and was getting shaded out every now and then. It was vital to take off in the right moment which I did by waiting or a moment when I could see others climbing out in a thermal and made sure that there were no clouds near the sun and then took off right away. There was also a ceiling of 2150 meters as we were in airspace until we reached the Chabre ridge. I had a near perfect start and was amongst the first 5 gliders at the start and was higher than the others. I had to pull big ears multiple times along the way to avoid breaking the ceiling. Many pilots broke the ceiling that day. Most pilots including me planned to fly to the highest mountain nearby Belmod but me and Hugh decided to push further east because there were some good clouds there so we could gain more height but once we got there we thought it did not make sense to push into a slight headwind, and decided to take the slight tailwind towards Sauvignon instead. Little before Sauvignon we found a strong thermal but then the task was stopped.   Again, a good decision by the task committee as we could see lightening ahead along the race course.

I was delighted when the scores showed that I had finished  #1 in Recreational class and #2 in Overall class.

The next day during the briefing Jockey announced Hugh as the overall task winner (each days overall task winner won a prize) but Hugh told Jockey that I should get the prize instead as I flew very well and he had already won a task prize before. I was happier with this gesture from Hugh than the prize itself.

Task 6 – The last day of the competition.  This task was a little tricky as conditions were stable in most places and there was a ceiling to maintain (for the first 20 km )at first.  I was doing quite well and was with the lead gaggle until half way through the task the lead gaggle either bombed out or got stuck, after which we were overtaken by a lot of pilots and I found myself flying without a gaggle which made things trickier when I was gliding towards the last turn point. I got very low and had spot in mind where I could find a thermal but I was too low to connect with it and ended up bombing out just before the last turn point. I packed up and had to wait almost 2 hours for a retrieve.   Was terribly disappointed and could not help but be mad with myself.  Before this flight I was leading in the recreational class, and had a chance for a podium finish in the overall class as well and now it seemed that I had no chance of a podium finish at all.   Got back to camp and packed up my stuff.  I was not in any hurry to go to the prize-winning ceremony and after party but later changed my mind and what do you know!!!

I still managed to get a Podium Finish #3 in Recreation Class and #8 in Overall Class.

Next stop Piedrahita, Spain.