British Open – Portugal

British Open – Portugal

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Two weeks ago, myself and Idris competed in the British Championships held at Manteigas in Portugal. The location was new to almost everyone in the field, so the event was wide open. We were both competing on NOVA Factor 2’s, which still proved to be surprisingly competitive against newer EN C wings; as there were a few tasks with long (10km) glides to goal, where a tip-to-tip performance comparison is assured.
The location is centered around the Serra de Estrela, which is the highest point on Portugal’s mainland; it also has its only ski resort. The highest peak in the area stands at 1992m, but the cloudbase whilst we were there was above 3500m some days.
We had 6 tasks during the week, with one canned in the air due to a storm that developed right in front of the track to goal and another due to difficult launch conditions. The successful tasks were both varied and enjoyable, each one starting off in the mountains, then headed out to the flatlands to the east of Manteigas.
The Factor 2 was losing out slightly on climb to the later wings but on glide at full speed, there was nothing in it. I felt that the rougher the conditions became, the Factor 2 came into its own, with a reassuringly easy recovery to any deflations; some of the climbs were as strong as 10m/s averaged !
I was pleased to finish a credible 2nd place in the Sports category and 22nd overall in the Open. The next round of the British Championships is in St Andre in France at the end of August, hopefully I will be flying a Mentor 3 Light.
Cheers
Steve

Two weeks ago, myself and Idris competed in the first round of the British Championships held at Manteigas in Portugal. The location was new to almost everyone in the field, so the event was wide open. We were both competing on NOVA Factor 2’s, which still proved to be surprisingly competitive against newer EN C wings; as there were a few tasks with long (>10km) glides to goal, enabling tip-to-tip performance comparisons.

Steve on Factor 2

The location is centered around the Serra de Estrela, which is the highest point on Portugal’s mainland; it also has its only ski resort. The highest peak in the area stands at 1992m, but the cloudbase whilst we were there was above 3500m some days.

We had 6 tasks during the week, with one canned in the air due to a storm that developed right in front of the track to goal and another due to difficult launch conditions – most were more than 100km long. The successful tasks were both varied and enjoyable, each one starting off in the mountains, then headed out to the flatlands to the east of Manteigas.

The Factor 2 was losing out slightly on climb to the later wings but on glide at full speed, there was nothing in it. I felt that the rougher the conditions became, the Factor 2 came into its own, with a reassuringly easy recovery to any deflations; some of the climbs were as strong as 10m/s averaged !

Take off !

I was pleased to finish a credible 2nd place in the Sports category and 22nd overall in the Open. The next round of the British Championships is in St Andre in France at the end of August, hopefully I will be flying a Mentor 3 Light.

Cheers

Steve