2011 British Open - St Jean de Montclar, France

Start Gaggle - Photo Andy Smart

Well it's been a while since I last posted - A lot of things like work and weather have been getting in the way of my flying this year - ho hum. But at the moment I'm enjoying myself and am in the middle of a 6 week flying trip. I'm a wandering paragliding bum living out of my new camper van and a third the way through doing three paragliding competitions: The last round of the British Champs in St Jean de Montclar, the Belgian open in Laragne and then finally the Pre-Europeans. All of them are in Southern France; I've just finished the British round and am now relaxing on the shores of Lake Como in Italy with family as I write this.

The ban on open class gliders seems to have really shaken things up a bit and I quite like the fact that punters like me flying ordinary serial gliders have a chance at winning these comps now. I'm flying my usual bad racing style and finished 3rd out of 150 pilots (and top Brit) for one of the two tasks - this is the second time now I've arrived over the goal field with no other gliders on the ground, it's a nice feeling! The other task I raced myself to the ground, not an unusual outcome ... I hope soon to find the balance between racing and gearing down with the aim of being fast and consistent. One thing for sure is I like to race - bimbling around the course isn't for me.

Lets see how the next two comps go - in the mean time I'll order another becks and read a couple more chapters of my book, not a bad life ..