Daily Reports from 2021

09.08

The first task had to be flown with a lot of westerly wind. Strong conditions demanded everything from the pilots. Despite the difficult conditions many pilots made it to the finish in Ilanz. The Swiss pilots achieved a good result and are now leading the national ranking, closely followed by France and Italy. The weather forecast looks very good, we are looking forward to some exciting runs.

 

10.08

The 84 kilometers demanded everything from the pilots. The high base at 3500 meters was helpful, but the wind again played a decisive role. In addition, the choice of line and hitting the thermal cycles was an important success factor today. The French team worked very efficiently and flew a lot at the top.
So Luc Armant deserved to win, not with the fastest time, but with the most lead points. They win the Nations Cup clearly ahead of the Swiss. The race is really launched and we are looking forward to more exciting races.

 

11.08

What a thrill! The leadership kept changing, different routes were tried and some were successful. When the lead group started the long valley traverse towards Flims, it was clear to the spectators at the live tracking that it would be very close. But it was annoying that the leaders were on the ground 20-50 metres before the goal. Those behind were able to profit from this mishap and made the task. Luc Armant solved the task best, ahead of Aaron Durogati and Adrian Hachen.

 

12.08

A brilliant task from Disentis to Davos. With 87 kilometres we expected a fast and tactically very interesting run and so it was. Shortly after the start, two groups formed, one group flew the direct but also the risky route in the south. The other group flew north, following the known cross-country route. For a long time it was not clear which route was the faster one. In the end, the direct route was about 10-20 minutes faster. The southern mountains were thermally very good and the shorter route paid off. Michi Maurer flew the route in 1 hour and 48 minutes, which results in an average speed of 43.6 kilometres per hour! Seiko Fukuoka Naville won the women's race, only two minutes behind Michi Maurer.

 

14.08

With beautiful blue skies a 97 km task was set taking the pilots west, then a long leg east, followed by a circuit round the end of the Disentis valley, then back to goal at Ilanz.
For Aaron Durogati it was the best day of the week - not too turbulent and with quite a few options.
For Christian Maurer, it was perfect, better than expected, with totally blue conditions. The air start gave everyone stunning views from 3900m.
Every time it looked as if it was going to be a procession to goal the pilots chose different route options.
For Felix Rodriguez, everywhere was working, no need to stop in weak thermals - a really good racing day.
It was a neck and neck race to end of speed between two veteran task winners Honorin Hamard and Stefan Wyss. Stefan won by 1 point bringing his task wins total to 23, inching his way nearer to Tim Bollinger’s Dad, Han’s overall lead of 28 task wins.

Just a reminder that you can follow the commentary and live tracking on our split screen: https://live.pwca.org/app/split.html
The first 98 pilots made goal, and thus all flew the same distance, and gained the same distance points. Today’s winner is therefore the one with a combination of the best speed points and lead out points.

15.08

The task goes relatively straight to Bonaduz and then to the landing in Cazis.The pilots will cover 62 kilometres. The task offers the possibility of two routes, which will be very exciting. One route is shorter but goes over thermally not so active area, the other route is longer and is on the thermally active side.
All pilots chose the southern route

16.08

Restday

17.08

Short but very exciting task. The task setters set the task in such a way that two lines would have been possible. Steff Wyss was the only pilot who decided to fly the southern line, so it was very difficult for him to fly fast. Unfortunately, his courage was not rewarded. The crowd is always right, and today was no exception. The fastest pilots completed the task with an average speed of 30.5 km/h, which is quite slow for such a short task. The conditions were quite weak and the winds came from different directions. It should also be noted that the 9 hpa pressure difference in Disentis was practically not noticeable. Congratulations to the winners.