Cross country flights and competitions (Fifth part)
    I know would like to reply to the question of the subtitle: are competition's flights that different, from cross country flights?

    If we consider the fact, that in a competition it happens to fly with 50 pilots around you, then the situation is surely much different, than making 100 or more kilometres on your own. The answer would therefore be: the competition flight is different, than a cross country flight.

    But try to think to a task as an XC flight made with your friends, after having decided what aim to reach. Being in flight and see, or "hear" 5, 10 or more pilots who all want to reach the same target, and who all fly in the same direction in order to reach the same landing place ... this for me is one of the most enthusiastic ways to fly. With this "philosophy" the competition flight does not at all differ from the XC. The strategy to apply is the same; fly far and fast. With the advantage that often in competition you can count on the presence of another pilot, in order to identify the best "street" and you can understand better if you are making mistakes. If then, the crowd does really bother you; you can easily free yourself from the others. It is easier than you think… you only need to lose altitude!

    Seriously, there are few competitions in which you suffer from over-crowding and in any case, it happens only when the conditions are weak and irregular where everyone wants to remain in groups at every cost. Often it is enough to anticipate or delay the take off of a few minutes, with regards to the other pilots, in order to solve this problem.

Tips and Tricks
    Of course, if you do the competition because you want to win or you simply want to pass your friend, then you need without doubt a bit of tricks. With tricks I refer to competitive intelligence (astuteness), not unfair tricks or other sophistications…

Flight Altitudes
    In the days with clouds, often the values of the thermals increase with the altitude, especially when you are near the cloud base, due to the heat released from the condensation. But not always: if the cumulus has a reduced vertical development, then it can happen that the thermal slows down much before reaching the level of condensation.

    The lower you are, the more time it normally takes to enter into a thermal, because you move with major caution and also because the thermals can be less organized at a certain altitude. We can therefore say that there exists an ideal interval of flight altitude in which it is better to fly. Or that there exists a minimum and a maximum flight altitude which is it better not to fly out, if we want to be quick. In such interval, the thermals have the maximum average value of vertical speed. In different days, such a belt is disposed at different altitudes.

    During a competition it is much easier to identify such min and max altitude then if we fly alone. In fact, you can guess the trend of a thermal by seeing how other pilots around us are going up. If we are alone or if we decided to take off as first, we will have to be the ones trying to find the "borders" of such interval. We can do this by trying to reduce, thermal after thermal, the time spend in the lower sinking rate values into the better average values, which we run into during the flight.


For example:
    If during the first thermal we lift at 2.5m/s, of average sink (normally I set up my instrument at 15seconds for average sink), we try to avoid staying into thermals with a lower value. If, while we get into the second thermal, we see that our lift speed is more than in the previous thermal, it means that we can allow ourselves to hook up at lower flight altitudes. That is, we can make longer glides or leave the thermals at lower altitudes. If on the contrary, our speed is lower at the hook in altitude of the second thermal (with regards to the previous thermal), then it means that we will have to try making shorter glides or leave the thermals at a slightly higher altitude.

    Naturally, seen that the thermals are not all at the same distance one from the other and seen that their gait are always different, we need to adapt our flights at each different case. Generally speaking, it is clear that it is better to linger 5 minutes more in a weak value at 2000 metres than at 200 metres from the ground (at least it is more relaxing). Pay attention though, with the actual wings, it is always more common that in certain days it is possible to fly longer distances without stopping into thermals, by simply gliding along the lift lines (or energetic, as the flyers call it). You only stop to turn there where you found a thermal with the same values or higher to the average values of the day. Sometimes this implies that you have to fly at lower altitudes, than believed, you can say of comfort…

Some other tricks
    Year 198… I do not remember: the pilots of the Icaro team, Franco Garzia and Marco Cirla, flew identical hang gliders; also the colours were the same. The brothers Galleano were their adversaries which had to be beaten. At the last task Marco is second and wants to make up. He would like to take off without letting the possibility to his adversary to follow him. Marco assembles the hang glider of Franco close to the victim's glider, while Franco assembles Marco's hang glider taking it aside. Marco, who is near the adversary, goes away from "his hang glider" (the one of Franco), pretending with indifference and tranquillity, as if he was not thinking of taking off. Instead, secretly, he prepares himself and takes his hang glider and takes off. The trick can be effective, but if I remember well, in this occasion it led to nothing.

    Take off with start pilon with intervals 15 to 20 minutes. Always with the aim of "loosing your traces", an excellent method is that of hiding between the cumulus (between and not inside). It is essential that there are cumulus and also the will of flying a few kilometres more than necessary, maybe in the opposite direction than the task route.

    Florida 2003: Alex Ploner and I want to "get rid of" David Chaumet from the start. When we arrive at the first cloud base of the first thermal, near the take off, we go about 10km off course and wait till the French pilot starts his flight. The manoeuvre is carried out successfully, and flying together, we almost recover the 15 minutes which we "lost" at the start.

    Tricks, astuteness and strategies can be without doubt useful, but they are of irrelevant importance if compared to the ability of remaining calm, concentrated and determined. Determined to fly well, without being influenced by the comp atmosphere, fly as we know when we fly outside the comps, availing ourselves to the incredible opportunity that the pilots around us can offer. Observing the wing of your friend, you can see the invisible and understand the unknown.