Arrived in Lumby on Friday morning.  Flying on Friday was not great,we flew but I think Amir was the only one to make goal.  A bunch of us went climbing and I of course could be heard a mile away - as for some reason I find climbing much more scary than flying.  Jodi, Torge, Reto, and Amir showed Pierre and I how it was done.  Sat. was a bit better but still not a great day for a task.  I did manage to fly 1.5 hours and make a few low saves before catching the first turnpoint and landing with Amir, Pierre and Torge nearby.   It was great to see how well the Vancouver Island pilots did on this day as the lift was minimal, we all did very well in this lift (guess its because of what we are used to here on the island) fighting for all we can get.  :)

Sunday was the day.  Now I might get some of this wrong as I dont have my gps on me... but here it is in a nutshell.  Maybe others will write more about their own personal flights.

Elli launched first from the Victoria gang and showed everyone how it is done.  She got high very quickly and flew toward the first turnpoint.  I launched and bombed out right away... argh.... but relaunched about 45 min. later (thanks to Margit!) and had one of my most memorable flights in a long long time.  Task was about 54km I think... with two big rectangles from Coopers to Lumby Ridge to Saddle and than along to the end of Saddle and back to Coopers - paragliders had to do this twice and than fly a large triangle to Sat. Hill and to Rawlings Cliff and back to Coopers.  Amir and Claudio made goal (along with 7 others) I think I was 8th in and Torge 9th which was fantastic for his first comp event.  When I relaunched I managed to complete the task in 2 hours 40 min. (landing 1.2km short of the final turnpoint!).  Lift was strong and consistent.  My highest altitude was 2,976 meters.  At Rawlings cliff I was so tired and my hands so cold I was shaking and had enough.  I think if I had pushed a little longer in the lift I would have made it the last km.  But instead i went on glide and landed smiling!  The first 7 pilots had dhv 2 wings or high and the first three had comp wings!  So Torge and I held our own on our 1-2 wings!  Actually I was amazing that I managed to do the two rectangles on my dhv 1-2 wing the fastest of the crowd. Thats a first for me and after bombing out with a terrible headache I never thought I would be able to catch up.

Overall Amir wins the open class and picked up some money ($175 I think?) and a cool kite.  I got 3rd place in the spot landing picking up $50 and third overall in the 1-2 class for another $50 and a painting by Jimmy in Pemby.  Claudio should have been in third or so - but some guy came in out of nowhere and ended up winning the day on Sunday putting him just in front of Claudio.  Claudio definately was the highest pilot of the day as nobody flew above him on his new comp. wing.

So all in all the Vancouver Island pilots did super well.

There were lots of hang gliders there from the island too so hopefully they will put in a report.

Great flying with everyone.  So nice to fly with Pierre too who had to leave early... though I hear he had an amazing day on Thursday...

:) Cant wait for next year.

- Annelies