Flight log from Arturo: 14h55 of air time !!!

I just received this from Arturo. A good document to remember good sites.

Just click on it to be able to read it in full...

I just made the sum : 14 hours and 55 minutes in the air in 10 days of flying. Where is the time when I was paragliding at an average of 5 minutes a day :-) with my ITV Vega ?

Day 15 and Final day ...

All participants spread around the world. Norway, USA, France, ...

It is sad that this trip is over but great that already new ideas for next year are already emerging.

BREAKING NEWS :

The latest news is that the adventure was not finished. I do not have all the details but Michele has been practicing free fall in a scary way. I got the story from Anatole but could but be in touch with Michele yet : After a serie of deep 360's, her competition glider with thin lines completely "Desuspended" ! All the lines broke and she started to free fall. This is extreamly unusual but can happen on this kind of very advanced gliders. She opened her reserve and is fine. More info to follow ... What a scary thing.

Day 14: Versailles

Today we are in Paris...

Early wake up to go to Varennes Jarcy.
The van is now back to its owner: Thanks a lot. That was so great to borrow it to us. It made the trip so easy and we were able to put all our stuff in it : Tents, paragliders, food. No need to plan to much when we are packing: It just fitted in it :-)

Again thanks for it. I am truly considering to buy one for next time. Anatole is ging also the advantage of the Eriba solution with a small caravan : To be studied ...

Tonight we are having a raclette on the terrasse. The weather is on the edge and few drops of rain might move us inside the house. We finnally manage to stay on the terrasse the whole evening. Luciana enjoyed the Cornichon Amora for the first time !

IT seems that arturo and Arnel are going to miss the French Cheese...

Day 13: Friday : Return to Paris

Rain Rain Rain : There were huge Cumulonimbus on the way to Paris. In the van with Erik, Arnel and Arturo with arrived in Paris around 6pm. Veronique was there a bit later. In the mean time we washed the van at the station in Clamart (Has not moved since 13 years) and tired to go the the Mc Donalds : Michele : You can relax ! we changed our mind since it was to crowdy and finally ordered Pizza's at Papa Mario Pizza close to my parents place.

Tomorrow, first hour, we will return the van to its owners.

Arnel and Arturo are doing a good job :

Day 12: Laragne

Laragne day 3 ... Mystery : No one knows where the big piece of blue cheese has disapeared ! Eaten ? Forgotten in some place ? going to be discovered with strong smell in few days ? Hopefully it is not in the van or in the caravan :-) There is strong suspicion that either Arnel or Arturo woke up in the middle of the night to secretly finnish it. It might even be a plot ! Both of them ? investigation is on going. Today Arturo documented the flight plan of the hole week. I will add it as soon as I receive it.
Today we went to Laragne for a sleder.

Key highlights :

1) ANATOLE TREE LANDED : As was said only the one who try become true champions : You are still our cross country champion, Anatole. Please note that the picture below is a reconstitution of the event as Maria is raising the wing :-) . Thanks to the GPS coordinates, it only took us 1h to find him.

2) Chloe has a new friend : I do not know the name in english but here is his picture :

We then went to Saint Geniez near Sisteron : Strong wind but still Bea, Arnel, Arturo, Erik and Patrik flew. Some videos will be added soon.

PS : Anatole was not the only one to land in the trees : a hang glider missed the landing. Like in any sport, there are noce and less nice people : This guy was rude and not even saying thanks to 3 pilots who took 20 minutes to reach him in bushes and rough path to clear the way to him. Lets put that on the account of stress after his rough experience.

Day 11: Sain Vincent Les Forts

To be Edited more ..

But until then, here is Arnel ;anding at the take off of Saint Vincent Les Forts. I do not recall if this was before or after we saw that guy making an undesired Helico landing at the same place just after his take off with all his breacks tangled around the elevators : Some people never learn that pre-flight inspection is useful ...

Day 10: Day off :Too windy to fly

To be edited more but here is the highlight of the day : LAUNDRY

Then in the evening the rain started and we fortunately got invited in the chalet of Viera and Eric to have the dinner. That was a wet evening :-)

Here is the video of everyone around the table: Veronique, Luciana, Arturo, Anatole, Stefanie, Maria, Patrick, Chloe, Eric, Viera, Erik, Arnel.

But every one slept well and the water did not make it into the tent even though we had worngly put the under cover and had lake under the tent in the morning ... Strange feeling to walk on it :-)

Bad weather activity

Rapsberry picking with a cumulo nimbus in the back.

Day 9: Arriving in Aspres

Bad weather today ... We came by car following the same route that we had few days earlier by flying. After parking the vans in La Faurie, we all went to the take off (twice that day) but with no success as the T-Storms were passing by La Longeane.

Here is a picture at the East Launch : very technical !

We finally decided to go and have lunch in "Le Chevalet" where the Sail Plane airport and the camping are.



We were sad to hear that next year, all this will have disapeared as they start ot build a Solar plant. Good for the work and good for the environment, but what will be the impact on Free Flight is still unknown.

The following picture is only the day after but since we talk about the Chevalet and that it will disapear, here is the swiming pool where Luciana was jumping: Nice goggles :-)

After a cross country

One must hitch-hike

When the road ends...

Sometimes we need to walk !

Retrieval after a fligt below expectation at Gresse en Vercors

We were super motivated for a long flight from Gresse en Vercors: a sledder for everyone .

But it was defeneatly worth it as the site is just beautiful and the short walk to the take off refreshing. This is a great site to start cross country toward Grenoble. We had great plans to link to Saint Hilaire, but the thermals just did not show up. We went to retreive the team in various locations including this field on the side of the N75, and a private alti airport with a colorful character owning it.

Day 4: Chamonix et Plaine Joux

to be edited

Day 3: Super cross in Annecy

To be edited

Poor maria

She twisted her knee at the take off. But the mood is good.

Day 2: Annecy and Marlenz

At the take off in marlenz



Thanks to Tadej who took great pictures :-)

Second day in Annecy.

The MRAT Fan Club T-shirt is becoming the most popular uniform around.

As it can be seen on the following picture and completely not intended by the designer, it fits especially well the female forms ...

We are increasing the number of fans to the support mrat club. Go nova! Go!

Today we flew in Marlenz. Only Tadej managed to extract himself from the site and go to Ugine. The rest of us flew local and landed at the official atterro next to Partick Berod's Gites.

Day 1: Travel and Annecy

The tonality of the diet for the trip is a given : it will be Cheese !

We walked up at 4am to travel fresh. At 6h30 on the highway, Arnel and arturo are enjoying a Camembert with a spoon ! Welcome to France, buds.

We are now in Annecy. Where we join Hannoteau family and Michele and Rod.

Rod at the first take off : Unsuccessful Launch :-)

Few snap shots of the day.

Day -1 : Preparing the stuff ... August 1st

Day -1
We are in the south suburb of Paris. tomorow morning, Arnel, Arturo and Erik are arriving at the different airports of Paris. We will spend the afternoon in the city. Finalizing the packing, having dinner in Paris, visiting the Eiffel Tower and going to bed early !! Sunday morning we will have a very early start ! 3.am ! .. no 4 am .. maybe :-)

Could not find the IR interface on that computer, thus no transfert of pictures for this time. I'll do that via cable during the trip ...

Arnel is making the experience of Jetlag ...

Thermal practice in Dunlap, CA

Only part of the team did it to Dunlap this weekend. This was an amazing trip. Arturo is on his way back from Chile. He will join us next time. Erik had some family visiting.

I tried to make a compilation of short clips ...here it is ... For the web, I had to post a low quality, but I might upload a better version in You Tube. Keep posted.

Personal message to the student who canceled : You should not have :-) This was an AWESOME weekend of flying !

Music by Eric Clapton (Three O'Clock Blues) ... and Bob Dylan (Subterranean Homesick Blues) and by my Vario...: Craig, this is for you since we don't need a weatherman to to know from where the wind blows ...LOL

Top pilot preparation does not come without pain

Today Arturo had a rough landing...
Here is Arturo:



Everybody is fine but ... the wing... It suffered little damages but: Nothing that cannot be fully repaired :-)






Before that, arnel was testing the new Ozone Octane FLX... All good ? All good !

Blog creation

Welcome to the MRAT fan club blog... The name might change very soon ...

Yesterday we discussed that we should have a name for the trip that we will do this summer... No decisions so far, but this is a first attempt to get something in place :-)




We also need a T-shirt ...









So far here are very early proposal .. Go contestant ...go ... Submit your ideas to us.





The Cheerleader reference is naturally linked to the fan club, but a little more than that too... we will tell you more as are trip goes on and as Nova is perfecting his IT skills. I know , this is still criptic for most of you, but be patient and you might support us in our quest.