Notes:
Competition Director: Arnold Pansi / Competition Scorer onsite: Arnold Pansi, remote scorer: Andreas Rieck

credits: photos and reports by Flygirl official XC-Open reporter.

No task today. We have 30km/h wind on the ground and overdevelopment in 80-100km downwind already at 11:00. Prize Giving today at Suid-Oos Kerk (south-east church) de Aar 18.00.

Great images of flying the Pre-XC Open in De Aar by Jon Pio  - The Jon Pio Collection

Jon is having a dream competition - flying incredibly well every task.

We are heading out to the airfield now.

Update:  Task not valid

Task was stopped a 12h30.  We knew it was going to be a short day.  Thunderstorms predicted and the sky was interesting, but nice in our immediate area and we all really wanted to fly.

So the organisers gave us an interesting task.  Window opened early at about 11h00 and the task would end early at 15h30.  Pilots were given 2 hours flying time once they left the 2km radius of T1, the centre of the airfield ,and then it was up to the pilot to make as much distance as they could in that time.

Dirk was amongst the first to get up and away on his red Apco Lambada.  I followed suit.  Launch was good, but the climb on tow was slow and when my winch driver stopped at the end of the runway instead of swinging onto the next runway to extend my tow, I was a little frustrated.  I could see a thermal developing up ahead and to my right and he could have pulled me into it.  So when he stopped by the hangers, I released and kicked on speedbar to get up to the lightly upwardly floating dust I had spotted.  It was not a dusty.  A vehicle had made the dust earlier and one area was gently floating skywards.  When I looked up I could see a plastic packet very high and decided I was going to join it.  The thermal was developing I just had to hang in there and be patient.

No task today too much wind.

Reason given, strong wind and over development downwind of De Aar.  I personally don't think the wind was too strong.  I have certainly flown in much stronger conditions, but the organisers need to look at it from all pilots point of view and their level of preparedness for strong wind tows and landings. 

Charles Swart did a test tow on his Gradient Avax XC 2 and had about 5kms forward speed.  Wayne Heure did a number of tows on his Aircross TriAlp but could not find any thermals.  We were allowed to free fly if we wished.  Cirrus clouds obscured the majority of the blue and everything shut down.  The over development to the south was rapidly growing so all in all, it was not a day for good flying anyway.

I think most people were relieved to have a rest day.  We are all fairly comatose after all the flying and long retrieves and we look and feel like zombies...

I can certainly feel the effects of being out of flying for so long.  I am not flying fit and these thermals the past few days have been exhausting.  The girls are kicking my ass big time!

Today I will catch up with reports and make a photo album by evening.

Adams experience today:

Adam flew 169.7kms, south past Richmond, over the mountains. For the last +- 40kms he went on best glide in still air doing 50-70kms.  Reached the south side to the mountains where he was suddenly stopped and found himself going very slowly backwards.  At first he was confused, then smelled the sea air and realised he had found the sea breeze.  He turned around, going back north and found a very rough thermal where he was joined by Jumbo. They were now flying 60kms back the way they had come.  The thermal was not very good and they both decided to land in a small field over mountains.  They landed vertically S.31.57.838  E024.23.831.  A farmer arrived and took them to an area with cellphone reception.

20 pilots flew in excess of 100kms so many very tired smiles.  Plenty of flights were over 4 hours and I am pleased that I finally scored some good airtime for myself.

Top 3
DUPAL, Ondrej ( Gradient Aspen 3) CZE 234,7km
HULETT, Nevil ( Mac Para Magus 6) ZAF 233,0km
SKOWRON, Marcin ( Swing Stratus 7 GS) POL 207,3km

Best Female
PANSI, Desiree ( Gradient Avax XC 2) ZAF 148,9km

 Results for Task 4

From Dirk Holle re Day 4, Task 3:
 
Flying De Aar means flying long distance very, very easily.
 
Well, not always...I found that out already after flying here just four days. Finding myself and my glider in thermals that just want to chuck me around and offered very little vertical lift. Wind direction changing 180 degrees (!) every 1500 feet and sheerwinds offering constant SIV sessions...I love it. Thats like flying at home in German flatlands!
So I decided to fly like in Germany. Stay in 0.5 meter lifts and fly defensive and try to not get whashed down. And the result of it? Well... a typical german FAI triangle of 50kms. But in November. Without snow and rain. That's Fying De Aar as well.

 Results for Task 3

today no task

After the second task on Sunday, Wojciech Siudek from Poland did not report back after his flight.
The last time he was heard on the radio by his team mates was at about 120 km, east of Colesburg. It took until after midnight to get the coordinates where his cell phone was last logged in.
Today up to 3 airplanes and many pilots searched for him in the area where he probably landed without finding any trace of him. Tonight the search is continued by the SA army and tomorrow by search & rescue airplanes again, searching a bigger area.

In the morning of 18-Nov-2008 Wojciech was found by one of the search & rescue airplanes. Unfortunately he was dead. The condolences by all pilots go to his family and friends. We thank all helpers who did everything humanly possible in his search and rescue.
Wojtek was 2008 Polish Champion Fun Class in the XCC and 3rd overall in Sports Class and also vice-president of the Gliding Club in Gdynia.

Today briefing at the airfield 10:00am. Weather looks good again, even better then yesterday.
We have the same task type again to keep it simple. Open Distance over 3 free choosen turnpoints with last task time at 18:00.

There were a lot of Personal Bests today:
South Africa takes Top 5 places - still to be confirmed - 7 pilot tacklogs are outstanding.

1. Nevil Hulett - 219.7 kms (MacPara Magus 6)
Route South of Gariep Dam, landing 40kms east of Venterstadt.  Really good lift on that last glide of the day.  Last 30kms straight glide landing about 17h55.

2. John 'Jacky' Lugar - 195.9kms (Skywalk Cayenne2) Personal Best.

3. Damian Sykes - 186.9kms (Gradient Aspen2) Landed at Bethulie. Personal Best.

4. Jon Pio - 172.6kms (Gradient Aspen2)  Todays comment on the air - 'rough as a goat's knee'.  Jon is having a great competition.  Yesterday he flew a Personal Best of 193.4kms.

5. Ettienne Giani - 166.7kms (Aircross TriAlp)  Might be a Personal Best - will check.

Dirk Holle, 166kms - Personal Best.  Yesterday he scored 129.8kms but flew after the cut off time for 155kms straight line.  Landed almost the same place today on the N1 north of Colesburg.

Cyril Mazibuko, 115.7kms - Personal Best.  A great flight for my Swing Astral 5 Team Mate!!

Bruno Muller, 103.4kms - Another Personal Best :-)  Interesting flying.  Bruno experienced an unintentional helicopter which he had to Full Stall out of. 

The Ladies:

1. Chrissi Drunk, South Africa (Gradient Aspen2) First Lady for Day 2 - 102.2kms
2. Sharipova, Karina, Russia (Axis Vega2) was right behind her - 98.7kms Personal Best
3. Gaynor Schoeman, South Africa (Swing Astral 5) - 58.3kms
4. Des Pansi, South Africa (Gradient Avax XC2)

Story From Nevil Hulett, recorded by Flygirl, reporter in training.
 
De Aar is surprisingly rough this year. The thermals appear not to have discernable cores but rather a collection of violent bullets. However, providing your tolerance for abuse was high and you had extreme patience, you were rewarded with high climbs (eventually) with good ground speeds of up to 92kms per hour.
After Colesburg the clouds really started to work and from 1000 m AGL you were rewarded with a smooth escalator ride to cloudbase at 4700 m ASL.
At base above Gariep Dam, 190 kms from De Aar, I fought hypoxia and took a video of the dam and myself at cloudbase.
From there I was again rewarded, this time with a long buoyant glide with a few light thermals, to eventually land in the front garden of one of the only farm houses within 90 sqaure kms.
The new compeo plus worked like a charm sending height, speed and position coordinates every 15minutes and a landing coordinate automatically sent at the end of the flight.
Having landed at 6pm I was expecting my retrieve to arrive at about 9pm, as my radio was broken, and was extremely surprised when they arrived 15 minutes later, handing out cold beers.
219 kms XC optimisation. A Personal Best for me from De Aar.
Straightline was more than 205 kms which was my previous PB from De Aar.
 
Nevil Hulett

 Results for Task 2

We had a fantastic 200km+ day yesterday, just to warm up for today.
The task is running since 11:00 local time with Open Distance Task type over 3 free choosen Turnpoints (OLC style).

1* Dupal, Ondrej (Gradient Aspen 3) - CZE * 247.6km
2* Dolezal, Adam J. (Gradient Avax XC 2) - CZE * 238.7km
3* Pansi, Desiree (Gradient Avax XC 2) - ZAF * 210.1km (F)

... simply a GRADIENT day

Late downloads this evening so precise mileage to be confirmed tomorrow, but it is in excess of 200kms. This is the furthest distance a South African woman has ever flown a paraglider.

At least two other pilots also flew 200kms plus - Ondrej and Adam from the Czech Republic.
It looks like Team Gradient may have made a clean sweep of today with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The closest pilot I know to these three was Russell Achterberg on his new Aircross U4 - he landed a few meters short of 200kms! 

 Results for Task 1