Friday (05 aug), Day 5, Task 4
Despite the bad weather forecast, there was a blue sky in the morning and juicy cumuluses growing over the mountains. It's better to be 2 hours earlier on the take off than 10 minutes later, so it was decided to go up and set a task: 56 km Sopot-Vasil Levski-Pevtzite-Sushitza-Sopot. The logic was to fly along the mountain range and avoid the possible thunderstorm generators of Bogdan and Botev. The flats were also expected to work bad because of the rain in the night.
The reality was low cloudbase and very weak climbs in the begining but later everything improved. There were even good cumuluses with strong climbs in the flats. Unfortunately a cloud mass started dying and produced rain at the furthers turnpoints and the task had to be stopped. The low cloudbase in the begining made it impossible for a safe start with many gliders so it was elapsed time task. This meaned that the stopped task was cancelled because it was not fair for those who took off later. Still good flying and satisfied pilots.
Overal results after T3


Thursday (04 aug), Day 4, Task 3
The sky was hazy but the forcast predicted no thunderstorms with good thermals and light winds.
82 km triangle was set: Sopot-Skobelevo-Domlyan-Sopot. The extra humidity made the conditions start early but the low cloudbase (2100 m) made the first part more difficult. Later the cloudbase lifted to 2400 but still there were pilots flying in clouds. Because there were no official reports about cloud flying, the Meet Director decided to penalize with 100 points the top 20 pilots who flew above 2500 meters. The task setters made a mistake by setting two overlapping cylinders of the last turnpoint and the goal but it was not big problem for the results. Apart from the cloud flying the task was safe with big smooth thermals.
Around 30 pilots in goal! Task 3 provisional results


Wednesday (03 aug), Day 3, No Task
The forecasted north wind day decided there to be no task. The pilots went to the mineral water pools of Banya and Hisar, sightseeing in Kazanlak and Plovdiv. Some went to Brestovitza and made nice flights.


Tuesday (02 aug), Day 2, Task 2
The day puzzles were wether it will be unstable again and wether the north wind will make problems for take off. A conservative 72 km task was set: Sopot-Vasil Levski-Sopot-Domlyan-Voiniagovo-Marino pole. Around the first turnpoint near Botev there was a congestus clouds but the blue holes in it suggested that it won't make problems - especially so early in the day. The first two legs of the task were set along the mountain to give some time for the flatlands to start working. It turned out to be a beautiful day with strong and smooth climbes and many convergence lines along the course. 37 happy pilots in goal!
Task 2 provisional results


Monday (01 aug), Day 1, Task 1
The forecast was about coming unstable area from SW and the task comette (Johannes Damisch, Gurpreet Dhindsa and Ivelin Kalushkov) gave the only logical task - open distance to East. The waiting for the opening of take off window was a nerve testing experience - especially after the thunders of the local Bogdan Cb. Fortunately the Cb didn't move but stayed and died, creating considerable westerly ground winds (it was calm or light southerlt at the take off). The ground west winds from the dying Bogdan Cb helped feeding the next generator - Botev and between it and Sredna Gora there was forming of two big congestus clouds. The fastest pilot escaped the cloud suck and east head winds in front of these clouds but the slowest had to work for descending and coping with the turbulence. At 14:45 the task was stopped! Elena Dmitrievska has to throw her rescue after messing a spiral exit. Task 1 official results


  The world championship in Piedrahita, Spain was closed due to two fatalities with pilots flying 2 liner prototypes. CIVL Bureau temporary forbid the participation of Competition class paragliders in Category 1 events and strongly advices the organizers of Category 2 events (as Skynomad Open) to consider wether the Competition Class paragliders will be allowed to fly.
  After advising with the president of Bulgarian NAC, the event organizer - Skynomad Club and the meet director - Nikolay Yotov have decided to allow the participation of competition class paragliders in Skynomad Open:
There were no problems with the 2 liners competing in Bulgaria Open which we organized in May 2011. There will be extra care of task setting and competition safety. We also believe that pilot is a pilot when he decides himself how much risk he can take. There are no cash or vanity prices to make pilots push their limits.

REGISTERED PILOTS