26/5/2001 - 1/6/2001
Report & Images by X. Murillo (Technical Delegate), F.Escriba and Ch. Quest (Technical Advisors).
Caution : all downloadable results files of this page are in Adobe Acrobat format
Last update: 4-Jun-2001
Konitsa is a beautiful village in the north-west of Greece close to the boarder with Albania. The take off is only 15 mn by road from the city. It has been prepared by the city and offers a south take off with enough room for 10 gliders to take off at the same time. The north take off, close to the other one, can welcome up to four gliders.
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The official PWC result's sponsor Reports & Pictures www.xcmag.com |
Results (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format):
Task 1 final results - Overall - Women
Last results update: 3-Jun-2001, Adrin Thomas was incorrectly put in the greek team in Task#2, Task 2 overall and Nation results have been updated.
Next competition... Simmental in Switzerland !
Some video from Konitsa on tvmountain.com (in french)
Friday, June 1st, 2001
As expected, the wind is much too strong and the day is cancelled.
The organization offers a trekking in the canyon that most pilots just saw from above.
This competition ends with 3 valid PWC tasks, including the very good "greek record breaking" task of 103 km. Many thanks to the local organizer who did a wonderfull job.
As expected, the wind is much too strong and the day is cancelled.
And the winners are...
Vincent Sprungli (F) wins the competition, and leads the PWC, followed by Peter Brinkeby (SWE) and Patrick Bérod (F).
Petra Krausova (CZ) is the first woman, followed by Elian Ueltschi (CH) and Louise Crandal (DK).
For the nations, Switzerland leads, followed by France and Austria. Gin Gliders leads the constructor ranking.
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Thursday, May 31st, 2001
A long wait...
After setting a first task, the wind starts to blow just before the window opening.
As the waether report for the next day is expecting the same strong wind, the task comittee decides to try to make a late task in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the wind is not decreasing as it did the previous days.
After a long 6 hours wait, the task is finally canceled.
Wednesday, May the 30th, 2001
Greek record broken by more than 40 pilots
Race to goal : 103.6 km.
The north wind is still there. Pilots are starting to take off at 13:30. The conditions are better than the previous day even if the beginning of the flight is still slow. After 10 km the pilots can enjoy the scenery of the Voidomatis canyon, a mix of the Colorado canyon and the Gorges of Verdon. The cloudbase in the mountain is almost 3000m. Further in the valley, the wind is pushing the pilots to the south. With a cloudbase of 2200 m, the pilots are enjoying a final glide of 20 km !
43 are making goal, establishing a new Greek distance record. "A great flight", says winner Stefan Stiegler. With a total of 8500 km flown, it's the greatest task of the competition and one of the greatest of the World Cup history.
Tuesday, May the 29th, 2001
The task today is a race to goal to Paramithia, 70 km to the south-west. The window is opening at 13:15. Patrick Bérod is first to take off. He will also be first to goal, 4:30 hours later ! Vincent Sprungli is second, followed by Kaspar "Kaspi" Henny.
A lot of pilots are struggling in the first kilometers to go up, making them unfortunately land at the camping site in Konitsa.
Jimmy Pacher receive a penalty for excess of ballast.
A gaggle above Konitsa village
Monday, May the 28th, 2001
Finaly a task !
The weather is still predicting north-west wind. The task committee is deciding a race to goal of 76 km first to the south west and then to the north-east, as the valley winds are expected to increase.
At 12:10, the pilots are taking off. The startpoint is a big circle around the first turnpoint which is 29 km away. The pilots must be 18 km away from the first turnpoint before entering the sector at 13:10. As the conditions are weak at the beginning of the task, most pilots need more than one hour to fly the first 11 km. Some pilots already land. The others enjoy the scenery.
A gaggle of more then 30 pilots lands around 34 km and 3 pilots manage to fly more than 50 km.
Sunday, May the 27th, 2001
Second task cancelled
The weather forecast is announcing north wind in the morning decreasing to nil wind around midday. Some rain may occur in the afternoon. The window is narrow between the north wind and the rain !
At 9:30, the 125 pilots go to the take off, get ready and wait. DJ Marc Godefroy and DJ Peter Brinkeby are playing some cool electronic music.The pilots committee (Volker Nies and Bruce Goldsmith), the meet director (Anestis Paliatsos) and the Technical Delegate (xm) decide a 52.5km race to goal to the south. The window will open when the wind drops. But north wind is not decreasing.
Some pilots are trying to fly on the northern side of the mountain. They are able to soar but don't find any thermal. Around 2 o'clock, the committee decides to cancel the day to allow the pilots to free fly before the rain. But the rain is not coming either ! 5 minutes later, the pilots start to go up. The task was perhaps possible. Bad for the comp, good for the pilots who enjoyed some good thermals in the middle ot the valley.
Tonight, the Blues Trackers are playing live at the club Mythos. Don't forget your free drink voucher.
xm
 Sandie Cochepain killing time reading |
 Stefan Stiegler's new helmet |
 Task briefing |
 Back wind on the take-off |
Saturday, May the 26th, 2001
First competition day: task cancelled because of rain
After setting a 45.3 km task, the rain came on the take-off area and the task had to be cancelled by the MD.
 Rain approaching... |
 Back to Konitsa town by bus... |
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Friday, May the 25th, 2001
Registration & Training day
Some pictures from the registration.
Pilots registering
The weather forecast is not very good, and today, some rain showers and strong wind didn't let much chance for the pilots to train themselves.
