Today's weather : Very cloudy in the morning, the weather improved rapidly and the Opening Ceremony took place between 11:00 and 02:30 under a bright sunshine only disturbed by fine-looking cumuluses ! Let's hope that it is a good outlook of what will prevail during the whole period of the championships...

Alvaro de Orleans-Borbon (right) , spanish pilot but acting as FAI representative, put accent on efforts to promote Soaring on media, saying that if God had wanted Man to fly, He would have provided him... more money. He his seen here together with André Monet (left), president of  FFVV (french soaring association).

Mayor of Château-Arnoux-St-Auban, José Escanez, officially welcomed all the competitors ; on his side, Angela Sheard traducing his speech as other's into english as WGC interpreter.

On the afternoon will take place the Airshow
 

Tomorrow's weather : still unstable with some thunderstorms expected in the afternoon on mountaneous areas.
 

Visit Philippe de Péchy's "Vol à Voile" (Soaring) server : infos, ad's, glider pictures, GPS turnpoints coordinates, competitions results and an unofficial ranking of all glider pilots in the world.

Other sites of soaring interest :  World Gliding Championships 1997, Saint-Auban, France (championnats du monde de vol à voile)  L'aéro-club du Bas-Armagnac, Nogaro (Gers, France) Aeroclub of Bas-Armagnac  Classement Vuillemot - French Soaring Pilots Permanent Ranking  Classement International - Results and Ranking  Fédération française de vol à voile - French Soaring Association  Les cumulus vus par satellite (Université de Strasbourg) - See cumuluses via satellite

Web page by Denis Flament (from Nogaro aeroclub)  consulted  times   updated : Jun-97