Chabre Open 2018

Chabre Open 2018

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Hi All,
same as last year, I participated in the Chabre Open. It’s a great Fun Comp and always very quickly fully booked (this year in 11 minutes!). A lot of Britisch, Dutch, France pilots but also some German, Scandinavian and this year two Australian pilots attended. The pilots are a mix from rookies to very experianced pilots.

It all starts with safety briefings, and a test task on Saturday.

Sunday is the first day to race and the task usually are arround 45-80 km. This year, the first day was a race of about 80 km.  The weather was typical for that region and the race went very well. Start on Chabre ridge and finisch in Chorges. I came in 3rd – a great start for the event!

The second Task: 65 kilometers in the same direction but with the landing in “Le Batie Neuve”. It was a bit more stable and a completely different day then the first task. As my instruments gave me a “go” for the final glide, I faced a lot more sink then expected. Was the valley yesterday great, today it did nothing. I bombed out about 2 km before goal. What a disaster.

The third task was cancelled.

The fourth task was a short one: threatning over-development made us decide (I was member of the pilots task committee) to do a short fast race. And fast it was – at least for me. I came in first with almost 8 minutes lead on rank two thanks to a hudge climb above Col ‘d Ajoure.

Thursday and friday the wind was to strong. So finally I got stucked on 7th place overall and 4th in X-class.

The big question: TRITON 2 or the new SECTOR?

As you may know, I have been flying the TRITON and TRITON 2 for many years and I was doubting very much if I should keep on flying  the TRITON 2 or the new SECTOR. I decided to go for the Sector. It arrived two days before the comp and after the first day of flying (before the comp), I was still unsure about the two options.  The TRITON “looks a lot faster”. But at that time there were no other pilots arround to compare with.

During the test task I could finally see what the SECTOR can do against gliders as the Delta 3 and Sigma 10. Well to be short. It’s impressive!!

  • Speed: more ore less equal with these competitors and a lot faster than the other brands.
  • Glide: a lot bette!
  • Behavior: just great! No big colapses (even on full bar) and only very mild the tips sometimes rolled in.
  • Conclusion: A really fantastic wing with a high passive safety potential.

 

Thanks to NOVA for another great paraglider! (I am not writing this to please NOVA, it is my honest thinking)

Hans