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Swiss Peter Neuenschwander (class 1) is the winner of the first task fo 2019 Spring Meeting, ended in the early afternoon with the landings in Travesio (PN).
Due to difficult weather conditions, race direction decided to do a short task of 58km, completed by the winner in about 1h 22’.
After the heavy rain of yesterday night and the headwind of the morning from West (here the best conditions are with winds from East- South East), the take off window has been open from 1130 in the morning and the race started at 1pm from Monte Valinis, near Meduno (PN).
Just some kms after the start, the leading group was made by Alex Ploner (Icaro 2000), Filippo Oppici ( developer and tester of the USA Delta T3), Marco Laurenzi of team Flyve (flying at 1600m at 64 km/h) and Suan Selenati (team Flyve too and historical Italian hang glider, who flew also from Zoncolan to Olimpo Mountain in Greece). Many pilots preferred to follow mountains than lowland, to try to reach thermals to going up and have more speed.
After the first goals, some pilots landed due to difficult weather conditions; instead the leading group proceeded to Tagliamento River, made also by Italians Oppici, Selenati, Ploner and Ciech and the Swiss Peter Neuenschwander. Selenati tried to follow a different path to reach more altitude and speed, but the task has been won by the Swiss Peter Neuenschwander (on Aeros Combat). Italians Christian Ciech and Alessandro Ploner arrived second and third, both on Icaro Laminar.
Bernardo Gasparini of Flyve commented the first day of fly: “ I’d like to say again that for us this will be the final test before the World Championship, so we’re trying to do our best also in difficul weather condtiions. We’ve to be ready with everything and I’d want to say thanks to Giovanni Rupil, safety director, and to all the other people that are working hard. We’re so happy because we’ve a lot of pilots, tripled in comparison of the first edition”.
About the safety, we talked also with Sergio Buricelli, president of the Soccorso Alpino of Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia (mountain team rescue): “We cooperate with Flyve since a copule of years and everything is going well. It’s important to say that we work with the Italian health system, but we’re here in the race and in case we can give the first aid in short time. Live tracking is helping us, because in case we can understand immediately where a pilot is and move as soon as possible to find him”.
Tomorrow, the pilot briefing will be at 8 o’clock in the morning, to understand the weather forecast and know if the day will be flyable or not.
As noted previously, please stay tuned and keep update at the official Facebook page “Spring Meeting” and at the official website www.springmeeting.it
