Greek Championship 2nd round

Pre Paragliding World Cup (PWC)





Task 1

74,8 km

Once again the usual suspects from the neighboring countries gathered to participate in this years edition of Aioleia competition. The pleasant surprise was tha participation of some new countries as Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, India, Serbia making the competition very interesting. A really high level competition was about to begin. 
After a short welcoming speech at the headquarters by the meet director mr Nikos Karidis all pilots and spectators were heading to the take off 148 competitors and many free flyers were ready to colure the sky over the mountains in the region of Drama.

The forecast was for superb weather for the task and the cloud base around 3000m the task committee was to decide if it was going to be a big task around 100km or to have a shorter one as it was the beginning of the comp. Finally the decision was for a 74,8km task along the valley. 
The window opened at 13:20 and the air start at 13:50 the cloudbase was around 3000m as predicted and a little higher just over 3000m late in the afternoon. 
The competitors were forming large gaggles and were all over the task path. 
First in goal Yassen Savov flying the distance in 2 hours 14 min and 14 sec proving that he is in great racing condition this year, followed by Orlin Dimov  short after Goran Dimiskovski and Slavek Matras. After that large gaggles of competitors were passing the goal line and plenty of happy faces at the goal. In total 88 pilots reached goal and plenty landed in the last kilometer making the task of the retrieval team very easy. 
A very good task for the first day of the competition with great flying conditions about 2/3 of the competitors in goal.  The pilots who were for the first time had the opportunity to reveal the flying potential of the area. A task over 100km was possible during this day. 



Task 2

55,6 km

Canceled due to thunderstorms

After a very successful first task all pilots were lazy and in a very good mood at the start for the second task. The forecast was over developments and thunderstorms later in the afternoon. The cloud base was forecasted a little lower than yesterday at 2600m approximately.
The task committee set a relatively small task along the mountain ridge with a small valley crossing from turn point 1 to 2 at the west end of the valley. 
The tatal task distance was 57,9km. The window opened at 13:00 and the air start was at 13:40 the clouds were already showing their intensions with some congestus clouds few kilometers behind the start. All pilots managed to reach the cloud base very easy at the start forming two large gaggles waiting for the air start. 
After 1 hour and 20 minutes the first group of gliders reached the area of the take of and were heading to the third turn point and the finish the weather was still ok at the west side of the task but it was clear now that it was a race against time to have a scored task with 90 min flown after the window opening. After 5 min from the area of the last two turn points the observers reported that the rain has started. 
The meet director announces that the task is stopped at 15:05 for the safety of the pilots.

Unfortunately only 85 minutes from the air start so the task was canceled no GPS downloading and everyone or almost everyone headed for the beach to have a swim and enjoy the food or a drink in the restaurants or cafe by the sea side.



Task 3

42,9 km

After the cancellation of the second task and the forecast for instability in the area all pilots and task committee were earlier at the start. Although the possibility for thunderstorms was a little lower than the previous day the task committee set a smaller task just to be sure that everything was going to be ok.
The task was a 42,9km task including a valley crossing from the take off to south east direction to village of Kali Vrisi 10,8 km away from the start after that back again to the other side of the valley and a point out to the flatland just before the finish.
The window opened early at 12:20 and the air start was at 12:50 good thermal activity in the take off area helped the pilots to reach the cloudbase easily at 2500m. There was good support in the flatland as well with thermals reaching 4-5 m/s. 
First at goal Semih Sayir in his Boomerang 5 followed by Orlin Dimov and Vladimir Pirozhkin third.
In total 56 pilots reached the goal making it a very god task as wel


Task 4

62 km


Results total

Results Greek Pilots

Tracklogs and animation,  click here

Photos from Aioleia 2008 here Galery Aioleia 2008

Video from the competition video 1 video 2 video 3 video 4