Speedgliding Tolmin 2013

For the first time we did a speedgliding event in Tolmin. Friends who where organising Soča Outdoor festival where happy to invite us hang glider pilots to make something new at event.
Th eidea was to have two virtual cylinders one on castle top above Tolmin and one in center of Tolmin with goal at official landing.

The weather seemed perfect for the race, a bit strong wind on take off but September already killed most of the "lively" air, so we had quite a smooth run down.
In the end only 5 pilots showed up so we changed the mode gear from competitive to show and fun.
I made a goal line right after the festival area so we had to zoom in over people at 4pm when there where lots of spectators there.
In the morning other pilots convinced me that turnpoint in the middle of the town is too close and we wont be able to get down low enough to make it look good. Well, I listened and changed...
We made a lottery with starting numbers and I got the last one :) I never tried the course so I did not knew what to expect. Stanko went first... They where all calculating the glides and where saying we will have to be on full speed all the time.... :)
Stanko did it so fast that he in the end missed the castle, first turnpoint :D From there on it was just pure show for the people.

I took of did, the castle and then went of another one which was far far far, I had to slow down a bit to make it to the line just 3 meters above the ground. Seems like I should not listen to our smart guys as my turnpoint would work out great. It was nice to hear people cheering for the pilots when they came low over their heads and speaker who was explaining to the people what we are actually doing.
In the end best time was from Franc but he never looked at the gps so we have him on suspicious line :D Second was me and then Alan.

I got a nice feedback from people that it looked nice. They only see us from far away but having a chance to listen to the glider at top speeds was something new for everyone.
Next year I will make it bigger, but pilots will have to pay in advance as I had to pay big portion of transport for many pilots that did not showed up ... :)

Here is a raw video from a friend who was filming at the castle with his GoPro