| Overview | Pilot List | Results | Blogs |
|---|
Ager: British Nationals
The Nationals took place at Ager in July straight after the Pre-Europeans. On the first day it was a little windy from the west; the first task was to a goal to the east after a few turnpoints in the valley. This was the same goal where Manfred Ruhmer famously came down just 50 metres short of the line in 1995, handing the worlds to Tomas Suchanek. I warned pilots that arriving at goal late might find the sea breeze making a headwind.
Almost everyone took the first start despite indifferent conditions at launch. I chose to stay, expecting things to improve. They didn't. I had to start lower and struggle round the first two turnpoints wasting a load of time. Across the river to the east there were clouds and a short period of strong conditions before dropping onto the flats, and a long glide before weak thermals that went to just 5,000 rather than 8,500ft.
A few gliders littered the fields below. Pretty soon I was onto the long, low ridge towards goal and progress was steady if not quick, but the few stragglers I caught from the first start were reluctant to push on. It was strange that I was flying almost he same flight as my last flight at Ager 14 years ago. The last climb was strong, indicating the convergence, and the final glide was a bit mad in turbulent air with strong areas of lift.
As expected, goal was quite crowded. First in was Dave “Shedsy” Shields with Russian Vladimir Leuskov close behind. They had pushed on over the last 20km and the chasing group with Carl and Bruce had decided to hold back and let them go. Carl climbed out over the goal and went looking for his sweetheart Jamie Sheldon who was 20km out. They glided into goal together.
The second day had less wind and a big task was set to a point just west of Tremp, then to El Turbon and back past Tremp for a turnpoint before goal. Crossing all three of the valleys behind Montsec would mean late retrieves for some.
After a slow start the inversion lifted, some cu. formed and it all got a bit mad at the first turnpoint. My group caught everyone from 20 minutes before us, but we all struggled so hard to get over the next hill we were joined by the next gaggle too. Bruce and Carl had gained 40 minutes on some of us immediately.
There was a long way to go and the theme of the flight became getting up and gliding right back down again. With three others I spent a good 30 minutes spotting the squirrels and inspecting the village roofs in the next valley. Then it all changed and we climbed in 12-up to 10,000ft and went cruising to El Turbon and back at 11,000ft.
The finish was complicated by some high cloud shadowing the sun, but there was ridge soaring to be had getting to the last turnpoint. Persistence paid off, enabling quite a lot of us to make goal with very different speeds. Bruce won the day, Vladimir was first in off an earlier start and Shedsy took his time but got there too.
Things were poised for an exciting comp with Vladimir in the lead and Shedsy, Carl and Bruce all very close. Then it got windy.
In my many years of hang gliding I have abundant memories of Spain being the most consistently flyable of European destinations. However the weather does not always co-operate, and flyable conditions were forecast to be mañana for a while. In truth was it was hardly flyable anywhere in Europe, with a massive Mistral in France and rain in Italy. But there is lots to do in Ager - lakes to swim in, rivers to raft down, an interesting via-ferrata path cut into the side of the gorge, and Barcelona isn't far away if you want a city experience.
We were all ready to fly on the promised good final day but things didn't quite work out. The inversion started to break and climbed into a very strong wind above which caused safety concerns, and the task was cancelled after only a few of us had set off. Vladimir underlined his win by flying the entire task anyway, and the fearless Julia Kucherenko did all the turnpoints and landed just 5km short of goal.
There were fewer entries in the Nationals this time, probably because of some old stories about facilities and conditions at Ager. In fact things have changed – there is a tarmac road to the top, numerous places to stay, a good selection of restaurants and a few more a short drive away. The campsite is excellent and the HQ building serves food and drink from early morning till late at night. It's probably one of the most well-appointed places to fly in Europe. The only downside is that to get the best flying you really need to go north into the mountains, but returning from there into the Ager valley is not easy or for the faint-hearted and a retrieve from the Tremp side of the mountain is important.
Report by Gordon Rigg
