Signing off

 Sorry for the delay with this final report, it was a bit of a rush to pack up after the ceremony before heading to Frankfurt.

I’m now in Scotland (Dunkeld), where it is 18C and raining. Pete is still in Frankfurt waitlisted on a flight to Paris as his original flight to Hong Kong was overbooked.

It seems that the Saturday’s task was set based on the weather of the previous day. It turned out to be one of the best days of the comp and they only set a 2 hour AAT, hence the fast speeds J

Still at least it meant that everyone was home early to derig and pack up.

CX who had a flat tyre on the grid, also had a flat tyre on landing. They derigged it in the middle of the strip as gliders landed all around them. They were very fast.

On the final night we had a great light show from a near by thunderstorm, as we drank free beer and wine with Goulash.

Sunday morning we awoke to steady rain. Everyone in the campground will be taking a wet tent home with them.

It has been a difficult comp. for the Australians, particularly on the slow days in conditions that we are not used to. How often in Australia can you score well with an average climb of 1.6kts? 

Pete has also learned a lot about gaggle flying, something he has not done before.

I hope that people at home are not too disappointed. The guys flew really well in difficult and patently dangerous conditions (a PW5 was broken in 2 on the day of the mass outlandings). In the end they were beaten by some really skilled pilots who had a lot of local knowledge. Despite this they still scored well on some days.

For those of you who are blog addicted the Australian Team in Hungary have a blog

http://aussieglidingteam2010.blogspot.com/

And Graham Parker has a blog at

http://wgc2010grahamandmark.blogspot.com/

good luck guys and fly safe


Mandy

Thank Chad

An Ordinary Day?

The sky is full of Cus that are not overdeveloping there are light winds. I think it is still as hot as before but we are getting used to it. The dew point is still 19 so it is still sauna like here.
The guys are reporting 4kts but I haven't heard a cloudbase yet.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Pete spent most of his first tow in heavy rain. This morning at briefing they apologised for outlanding so many pilots and subjected the task setter to a public flogging. This involved a masked man, who looked a lot like a KKK member in a red hood walking in with a drummer and beating away behind him. The torture table was unveiled and he was held down and beaten.

The Poms just announced in their coded way that "it is soggy in the Nether region".
CX had a flat on the grid they pulled him off and changed the tube and launched him at the back of the grid. It looked like a Formula 1 operation, very slick

2 hour AATs set

They have set a 2 hour AAT for all. First take off at noon. Here is a photo of the 'portal' the pilots flew through to get to the first turn, the only gap between the storm cells.

Here's a photo of Ian manning the radio in Aussie base.











Ron Sanders and Brendan English have arrived to help us pack :-)

Well what can I say?

Out of 109 gliders only 7 Standard Class gliders completed the tasks.

With a measured dew point of 20 no thunderstorms were predicted by the weather man and the tasks were set on that basis. The gliders launched into a beautiful light show, with a background rumble of thunder thrown in to add to the experience.

Just before the Standard Class gate opened the chief steward called to the contest director and suggested cancelling the Standard Class task as the first leg was towards a very active thunderstorm. The CD said it looked fine to him, and the gate was opened. Pete turned back from his first sortie after a couple of near misses with bolts of lightning.

Saturday is the last possible contest day but at this stage the weather forecast is mixed. We shall see.

BTW the bus is proving very useful.

Dave and Allan’s car, which has been problematic, from the beginning, finally died last week. This leaves them with a trailer to tow back to Frankfurt and no car. The current plan is to leave here on Sunday immediately after the opening ceremony, with Alex, Dave and Allan on board the bus, and tow UX to Frankfurt airport where we can hand the car over to them to tow UX to Wolfsburg. We’ll be throwing Alex out somewhere along the way to get a train to Munich. I’m off to Scotland for some R and R (Red wine and relatives) whilst Pete is heading home to winter, weeds, and work.

Grid at Martin

If you are awake check out
http://www.gliding.sk/Webcam.html
to see the gliders in a grid waiting for aerotow retrieves from Martin airfield.
Mike just came back from there, via a trailer, he saw 40 on the grid before he left :-)

What a day - updated

Immediately after launching it looked as if we wouldn't have any relights.
However.
Once the Club Class gate opened we had a clatter of Standard Class gliders back on the ground. Not surprisingly they had trouble staying up in heavy rain with thunderstorms all around.
Pete and Allan came back at 3pm and took a relight just before the deadline expired with 2 minutes to spare.
Pete has just restarted at 15.42 so if he does the time he will be home late.
The conditions here seem somewhat better but who knows what it will be like at 6pm.
There are already a number of outlandings and also people back on the field who either cut the task short or could not stay up after 3 launches.
It's a tough day.
JT has outlanded at Martin airfield, Allan has just radioed in that he will be outlanding South of the field.
Toby seems to be blocked from heading North to the last turn.
Pete is still flying but is making big detours to get around the storms.

Update
6pm. Toby has outlanded, and Pete came back to the field as he could not get enough height to clear the ridge on the way to the next turn.
There were no finishers in Club Class and only 7 in Standard Class.
There is a rumour that the Club Class day will be cancelled. You will probably know before I do.

They just Finished Launching

To the sound of thunder with lightening bolts all around, there is a storm on the first leg.

AATs and storms - updated

They have set 3 hour AATs for all classes with big circles, basically fly somewhere in Slovakia but not in airspace, first launch at noon. I just noticed Francois Pin's glider surrounded by workmen trying to fix his square tyre.
The weatherman at briefing says he is not really sure what will happen today. One forecast is optimistic one is pessimistic so he has been looking out of the window. Now we are waiting for cumulus, but not too many.
There is some blue sky, some cirrus, some alto Cu, and a few Cus locally and some towering Cus in the Tatras.
Tonight the Argentinean are making a presentation about the competition in 2012.
They also announced today that tomorrows party will be free.

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

We didn’t see the results were until just now as the power went down and there was no internet when we left last night. Do you think that our pilots peaked too late J

Another week and I reckon we could peg them back.

Pete has finally admitted defeat with the pesky bug wipers and removed them after they tangled and jammed 3 days in a row.

We had some rain yesterday evening as we were derigging and a little more overnight. There is a trough over us today.

The sky is white with humidity and there are already some storms forming.

The dew point is 19. There is noticeable lethargy today with the continuing heat and humidity.

G Dale from the UK distinguished himself early in the comp by missing his presentation for his day win (It was the first day the briefing changed from 10.15 to 10am). He subsequently won another day and managed make himself available the second time.

The jury decision has been been published and included;

"The thermal of 8K and TA was located 2.7km from the Standard class start line in the direction of the first turnpoint. The location of the thermal was a possible reason for multiple pilots passing close to the thermal"

They've started

All of our pilots have started into a really odd looking sky.
Cloudbases are all over the place with blue holes and rain in places, another difficult day.

I learned on the grid today that Thomas had lent his elevator (from GX) to the Swede after the mid air so that he could continue to fly in the competition.
Once he learned of the protest he asked for it back, but since the damaged elevator is now repaired the Swede has not been inconvenienced.
Sorry there haven't been any photos for a while, it's too hot...............................

Set Tasks and Thunderstorms

Tasks are set with first launch at 11.30. We have some Cus already. The weatherman said today that the Dew point yesterday was 11 and today it will be 17 which is not good for the human organism.

Yesterday evening Pete was called to testify at a protest.
The Swedish pilot who had a midair on Day 1, and a warning for dangerous flying on Day 7 has accused 8 other pilots of dangerous flying and asked for them to be disqualified. Pete was one of the pilots accused of dangerous flying.
The circumstances were that the Swede was thermaling about 3 km in front of the start line, and as gliders started they flew towards him and pulled up or joined the thermal.  Pete joined with good speed and separation and then left without completing a 360 turn.
If that is dangerous flying then we should probably all go home.
The outcome of the protest was announced at briefing today. It was rejected.
The protest is seen as retaliation and/or sour grapes as Thomas from Czech Republic was one of the accused pilots (he was the other pilot involved in the mid air).

The Heatwave Continues

Wednesday was another hot and sticky day on the ground. Mike didn’t get any sympathy at all when he radioed that it was only 11C at cloudbase, which was around 8600’.

It was fun to watch the start games today. We listened to a few frequencies and with the start line overhead it was possible to work out what various pilots were doing.

It was really the first day when pilots had any discretion for starting. Previously it has been let's start now before it rains, or the day shuts down.

It seems that the day was harder than it looked. Although we saw nice Cus at the airfield there were large blue holes to cross on task, with the best Cus in airspace. Pete again went around with the gaggle and got good points (870).  Although I think he’s left his dash a bit late this time J

The Pommie team captain is again vertical having escaped from the local hospital.

The forecast for the next few days is for more of the same hot and humid weather, with a forecast max of 36C for today.

All launched

Launching has just finished, with no relights yet.
It is 33C on the ground and forecast to be hotter. Mike just called that at 7000' cloudbase it is 11C.
Club class gate is open, Standard will open at 13.49. The guys were talking about a later start today. A luxury they don't usually have, usually it's gate open, start immediately to beat the storms.

A Normal Day

Yesterday we had a (delayed) briefing, the pilots launched, flew a task and all landed back at the airfield. Not something we have come to take for granted here. In fact there were a quite a few outlandings, particularly in Standard Class (10, and 6 in Club Class).

Pete had a grumpy PDA today because he restarted and it wouldn’t give him any sensible information. Pete and Tobi also both had bug wiper failures. Just a quick ’20 minute job’ to fix after landing :-)

This morning Ian has organised a flight in a Dynamic at a cost of 1Euro per minute, hopefully he can get some nice photos.

The weather looks good (with blue skies so far, a forecast max of 32C, and the same high humidity), and there are rumours of big tasks.

AATs Again - updated

AATs have been set because of the uncertainty with the storms. 3 hours for all classes.

Mike has a flat mainwheel and Graham and Alex are working on it now.
There was a rumour that they were going to breathalyse all of the pilots this morning, but they didn't.

They are all flying to the sound of thunder. There are a lot of cells on track, hopefully they will be lucky with the timing and all get around safely.
We had 5 PW5 relights today.
Mike and Alan have already started, the Standard Class gate has just opened

Poms Succumb to the Heat

Yesterday was another hot humid day on the ground, with thunderstorms and rain.

The tasking was either brilliant or lucky, but either way the tasks in all classes were achievable, at quite high speeds.

Pilots reported variable climbs from 8kts to 2kts depending on the conditions, with all pilots reporting rain 4 to 5 times on task. Maximum heights were around 8000’, producing some of the fastest speeds so far during the competition.

Pete managed to stick with a winning gaggle for ¾ of the task and got a good speed, Alan also had a good day. In case you were wondering Pete did indeed get a “Welcome to Poland” text on his phone during the flight.

One poor American outlanded about as far away as possible causing an International retrieve, since he landed in the Czech Republic (around 5 hours return).

In the evening we had the International night where each country has a table with traditional fares. On the Australian table we had some Australian wines from Tescos with bread olive oil and balsamic vinegar which went down well.

We learned that the British Team Captain Pete Masson (who won the first Club Class Worlds at Gawler) has been taken to hospital with heat stroke and severe dehydration. He also has some sort of stomach bug and will be in hospital for 2 days.

Today is hot and humid again. The briefing has been delayed until 10.30am due to uncertainty over the weather.

Storms - updated

We can see lightning and hear thunder.
The radar is showing storms along both tasks. Hopefully they can all get around safely.

They are calling 4-5 kts (with the odd 8kts). Some rain on track but the storms do not seem to be directly on track so far.

Tasks are Set

370km for Standard Class, 302 for Club Class, first launch 11.15am.
Today the dew point is 17 and there will be storms over the mountains. Pete's task takes him in a lap around the Zilina airspace and in and out of Slovakia to Poland and the Czech Republic.
He will get a lot of SMSs if he has his phone on :-)
They have organised an international night at 8pm tonight. Each team has a table to present themselves. We have some Australian wine from Tescos.

They all Came Home

For the first time since Day 1 all of the Australian pilots made it home yesterday. It was a good day initially but became tricky around the last couple of legs causing low slow spots for everyone.

Sebastian had a relight due to some PDA problem and then almost did a wheels up when he came home.

It was hot and humid on the ground, with temperatures reaching 34C, even the Queenslanders were complaining that it was humid.

Pete flew with Alex’s HD camera and we have 3 and a half hours of footage of his task. 

He took this photo with our hand held camera.

All Airborne

A few relights from the PW5s and a couple of Standard Class (including Sebastian who had instrument problems).
They are reporting 4 to 5 kts to 1800m. Tobi, Mike and Alan have just started.
Pete too.

Tasks are set - updated

First launch is scheduled for 11.15, there are Cus popping already. Task lengths are similar to yesterday.
It is interesting to see that yesterday several pilots in Standard Class used the rule allowing you to take a 50 point penalty if you round a point within 1 km (since the point was too high to reach).

Launch is delayed until 11.30 am.
At briefing they gave more details of yesterday's accident. The pilot of NX (who had previously landed back and overran the runway, and taken a relight). The pilot then outlanded he saw a fence at the last minute pulled up stalled/span and crashed. The impact was severe enough to set off his EPIRB. Emergency services were called and he is now in hospital. He needs an operation which they may do here or transfer him home to Hungary. Apparently he was to have been a part of the Hungarian organising committee for the World Comps there .

Another Day Another Accident

Yesterday the launching was delayed due to relights, broken ropes and general chaos. This meant that whilst launching started at 12.30pm the Standard Class gate did not open until almost 2.30pm. The B task had turnpoints on the tops of high mountains, so coupled with a late start and convection lower than the turnpoints very few Standard Class gliders were able to complete the task.

They seem to think that the gliders are Open Class, they launch after Club Class with a gate opening 30 or so minutes later but they are expected to fly up to 20% further. They have outlanded a significant proportion of the Standard Class fleet on 3 out of 4 days.

Alan had a really good day, whilst the other 3 all outlanded.

I have put a photo of Pete’s paddock on the Team Dingo blogsite.

Yesterday several gliders were damaged in outlandings and one pilot is in hospital. All of the Australian outlandings were without incident.

Another Difficult Day

Launching was delayed, and B tasks were set. 263km for Club and 310km for Standard Class. Unusually no PW5s relighted, but a couple of Club Class and several Standard Class gliders came back, including Jay Rebbeck and NX. (he landed too fast, down wind full of water and oveshot the runway over the road into the next paddock. After a quick inspection he relaunched.
All of the relights slowed down the launching so Pete's gate won't open until around 2.15pm. The club class gate is already open.

There is a very clear inversion at around 5000' with a few scattered Cus. They are reporting 2kt climbs.
None of our pilots have started yet.

Tobi is flying with a tracker today.

Tasks are set

Racing tasks are set for all classes. 311km for Club, 370km for Standard. First launch is set for 11.30pm. It is forecast to be mainly blue.

Dynamic Factory Tour

Yesterday afternoon we were invited on a tour of the Dynamic factory. It is an interesting story. After the revolution (when Slovakia was formed), a group of glider pilot friends formed a company to build aircraft. They started by building trailers to raise funds, then they got some contract work with Schemp Hirth painting Discus gliders and building winglets and stabilizers. Finally they had enough money to start building Dynamics around 1993.

The Dynamic wings each weigh 20kg (with control surfaces), the fuselage is 40kg. The finished aircraft is between 260 and 340kg, with a maximum payload of 600kg.

They can tow gliders up to 750kg using 18.5 litres of fuel per hour (23 l/hr on the way up and 5 to 6 on the way down).

So far they have built over 700 Dynamics. 95% of them have an emergency parachute system built in. The most popular engine and the one used for tow planes is 100hp. The cost of the base model is 75,000Euros but if you want one with bells and whistles it will cost you over 200,000Euros.

We finished the day with a BBQ at our pension.

Alexander Martynov

Yesterday morning the organisers held a memorial service for the Russian pilot Alexander Martynov who died tragically on Thursday.

It was nicely done with a minutes silence and then a tribute video which they had put together with footage from the opening ceremony and Alexander launching and on the grid. The Russian team captain (we first met him when he came to Gawler as Team Captain for the Grand Prix) said a few words about Alexander. Afterwards everyone stood in line to sign the book of condolences.

Our deepest sympathy to Alexander’s family, friends and team mates.

Tragic News

This is from the Official Competition Web site.

“We are sad to have to announce, that we had a fatal accident this afternoon. A pilot of the Standard Class crashed in his glider about one hour after the opening the start line about 20km North East from Prievidza. The Accident and Incident Investigation Department of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication of the Slovak Republic is currently investigating this accident.
The task of the Standard Class has been cancelled.” (all Standard Class gliders were recalled).

Peter was the closest glider to the accident and witnessed the crash. He phoned in to Aussie base and we reported his Spot position to the organisers. He then landed at Martin Airfield where he found a Dynamic tug (and pilot) to return to the exact site of the crash to help locate the wreckage. He spent 45 minutes circling over the crash site (in company with a second Dynamic from Prievidza, and two rescue helicopters that had joined the search). This allowed the emergency services to drop people from the helicopter in the correct location to quickly access the accident site which was heavily forested, obscuring all traces of the glider from the air.
Before the crash there was a second midair before the start. An Austrian glider landed and a second glider suspected of involvement in the collision was called down, inspected, given the all clear and relaunched. He then outlanded. A bizarre sequence of events.

Today is a non flying day and we will have a safety briefing at 10am.

Day 4

Day 4 is over and all of the Australian pilots are home safely.

There are flying

The guys are reporting 4kts to 5000' and the Cus are disappearing as predicted.

Set tasks

The first launch is at 11.15 with set tasks for all classes. 387km for Standard Class, and 305km for Club Class. This will give a Standard Class gate opening of 13.15. So unless conditions are better than forecast it could be a late night. It is forecast to be blue, with 15kts Northerly winds and Theremals to 5 or 6000'. Hopefully it will be higher over the mountains where they are sending them. It sounds like it could be a typical Gawler day.

It’s a cruel sport

 Before they started launching yesterday I think most people expected the day to be cancelled. With strong winds, low cloudbases and rain, it seemed that the day was incompatible with soaring.

For many pilots that indeed turned out to be the case. During the afternoon a steady stream of trailers headed North up the Martin valley to retrieve outlanding gliders. We had a convoy of 3 trailers behind us and we passed 4 gliders in paddocks on the way to the Martin airfield where there were 4 more.

There were only 26 finishers in Standard Class (out of 46), Tobi was one, Pete was not. Sebastian also outlanded, but he was just within the 3km finish ring, although his glider is now in the workshop.

In Club Class 34 (out of 45) finished Mike was one, unfortunately Alan was not. 

They are promising better weather in the next few days, we hope so, 2 hour AATs in the rain are not a lot of fun.

They are Flying - updated

Amazingly the organisers timed it perfectly and launched the grid into a blue hole. There were only 2 relights.
I think it will be a very difficult day. Club Class gate opens at 3pm, Standard at 3.37pm.
Alan, Mike and Pete have started.

Briefing is over

They have set a 2 hour AAT for all classes. The task is up the Martin valley and then back South to Nitra and home. So basically an out and return along the ridges. At the moment the cloudbase is too low to fly, but they have set first launch at 12.15.
The issued QNH is 1014 with an actual QNH of 1019 (rising). There has to be a better way....
There is a lot of talk about a short window later in the day. With PW5s at the front and Club Class behind the window may soon close for Standard Class.

Groundhog Day?

The decision to call the day off yesterday was clearly correct. It started raining as we were derigging and although there was the odd patch of sun during the afternoon it was not soarable with cloud bases well below the ridge tops.

The forecast for today is not very promising. There may be a small flyable window later this afternoon.
We spent some of yesterday looking at the traces from previous days. On day 2 Pete got about 100pts less than the winner with an average climb of 1.6kts. Somewhat different from Australia.

It's not raining yet

Yesterday was another difficult day.
There were a lot of outlandings, and several gliders were damaged. There is a steady stream of repaired fuselages and wings emerging from the workshop. Both of the Poms in Standard Class outlanded.
Pete's placing improved overnight as 4 Standard Class pilots broke airspace, including Thomas in his new glider.

It is raining to the West associated with an approaching cold front. They have set another 2 hour AAT for everyone. Today they have gridded Club Class in front with PW5s second, and Standard at the back.

That's Gliding

Yesterday Pete and Tobi both struggled to get height before the start. They were launched at the back of the grid into Cirrus. As a consequence they started late and then struggled to get home. The scores reflect that.
All gliders had the same length of task, yet Pete's gate opened 2 hours after the first glider launched. Today they have set a 2 hour AAT for all classes. Pete is hoping the wheel of fortune will spin his way.

The gliders involved in the mid air both suffered serious damage. The organisers have issued a statement with the following information.
Thomas outlanded at an airfield with a broken canopy and damage to his right wing. The Swede flew back here with damage to his tail. The Swede was found responsible (he was joining Thomas who was thermalling) and he has been disqualified for the day and banned from flying for 2 competition days. Magically a new LS8 has appeared for Thomas to fly today, FX.
What a terrible start to the competition - but of course it could have been worse, and it does give perspective.
On a brighter note Mike and Allan had a good day, so the team Hemlock bottle is not completely empty. Only joking, Pete and Tobi have both been doing this long enough to know that that is how it is.
It's just such a shame when we only get to go to a comp once every 2 years at best.

Day 1

The opening ceremony and airshow yesterday was great, more on that later.
This morning woke to thick Cirrus and Alto Cu over the airfield. It is forecast to come and go all day.
They have set an A and a B task with first launch at 11.30. The A tasks are all set tasks and the B tasks are all AATs.
I suspect we will be busy on the radio today sending information about the cloud cover.
At the moment there is the daily Team Captain's briefing, with the full briefing at 10.15.
Today was the first day that we had to weigh the gliders and build a formal grid. The weighing was straightforward the gridding was not. We only had to move twice, I think Dave and Alan had to move 3 times. Tomorrow will be better :-)

Final Preparation

Report by Pete

We are now into the day of the opening ceremony and the competition starts for real tomorrow. Months of preparation now comes down to the final day. It’s been an interesting rollercoaster of weather and emotions.

I was the first competitor to arrive here four weeks ago and had the skies to myself for most of the first two weeks. Unfortunately unfavourable weather meant that I could not fly a lot of tasks but it was still useful to get into a routine and acquaint myself with the terrain. The rest of the Australian team then arrived (again before any of the other competitors) and after a week of bad weather we finally got in some good soaring.

The last three days were the official practice days but the task setting only allowed a sensible task yesterday – the first two days everyone either turned short or outlanded due to severe thunderstorms. I’m sure I won’t forget the image of thermalling on the edge of the thunderstorm while gliders one by one head off into the gloom towards the lightning (myself included), only to return to the same thermal when encountering heavy rain – it looked like the gliders were frightened of getting wet. I spent three and a half hours to trying to get to the turnpoint before finally giving up and flying home.

But the thermals yesterday were fantastic – in the good parts there were 7 knot climbs to cloudbase above 8000 feet. But take a look at the visibility in the photo! I remember one large gaggle of maybe 20 gliders thermalling in the gloom and going up like a rocket. Like everyone else I was approaching at 100 knots (a bit under 200 km/hr) and then had the interesting geometric challenge of how to find a slot in the circle with 10 gliders at my height while I slowed to 60 knots. After surviving this I then paid close attention to the gliders behind me doing the same thing!

It’s great to finish the practice period on a high with a respectable 5^th place for the final practice day. We’ve had some problems with the glider but that’s all sorted now and I’m happy with her performance. With 16 flights and around 60 hours I’m feeling pretty comfortable with flying here too.

So now it’s time to enjoy the opening ceremony and airshow (it looks like it will be big), and the reception in the Bojnice castle. But it’ll be early to bed before the big day tomorrow.

Opening Ceremony Today

The task yesterday produced mixed results for our pilots. It was an international flight with the first leg taking them in to the Czech Republic for the first time. Alan had a rest day and studied the rules and relaxed. Pete had a fast run, reporting 7 kt climbs to the airspace limit of FL090. Mike had a reasonable flight too with a low spot on the way home. He was so happy to get final glide that he forgot to deviate through the final control point. However under the rules since he (luckily) only missed it by 482m he should be able to be rescored with a 50pt penalty rather than an outlanding. Tobi was unlucky and got low in the valley and landed at Martin airfield. This gave our new team member Ian an opportunity to go for a drive in the country with Andrew and Jessica.

In Aussie base we are now set up with computers and maps so that when the pilots call for information we can look at the Spot trackers to see where they are, and then use radar and satellite info to advise the pilots of where the storms are located and if they are growing or dissipating.

We are not quite as insecure as the Poms and use correct place names. The Poms have codes for everything so you might hear “G over Disneyland (the castle) climbing in 4.0 heading for a start at T minus 15 from Green 3”. Very James Bond…

Last night over dinner we thought we might try Monty Python codes to add to the effect. “Manuel over the Towers climbing in 8.0 heading for a start at Puce 7”

There was a big Team Captain’s meeting last night and we were allocated gridding positions, Pete is to be at the back tomorrow, so a good thing that we practiced yesterday.

Last night Charlie shouted the team dinner at a restaurant which was very pleasant. There was live music playing and after an hour or so they burst into a Slovakian version of Waltzing Matilda. It was a little bizarre to be sitting with the team listening to the music, we had to remind ourselves that we were in Slovakia.

Today we have a compulsory Safety Briefing at 9.30pm and then the Opening Ceremony starting at 4pm, followed by a banquet in the Castle at 8pm.

They've all gone

Today we have had relights for the first time. The release point for Standard Class was in a blue hole.
So far I have seen 4, I'm just waiting to check Pete's OK.
Launch was delayed until 11.45.

AATs set!

Based on yesterday's weather they have set 3 hour AATs for all classes!!
At briefing today a pilot asked "according to the forecast there will be thunderstorms where we must fly, it was the same yesterday, and also the day before, is there a reason for this?" The answer was that during the competition they will arrange for the storms to be elsewhere.
First launch is at 11.30.

Robert the Bruce

Yesterday we renamed Pete “Robert the Bruce”, as he vainly tried to beat the storms into the first turn. We watched on Spot as Pete went North and then South 4 or 5 times, (over a 3 hour period) before he finally turned for home.

Looking at the results only the 2 Swedes and a Slovak made it into the first turn successfully, but even they didn’t have enough day to finish the task.

The Club Class task was an AAT which was achievable with most of the pilots getting a score.

We spent the day tracking the storms on the radar and satellite and relaying the information to Pete as he made his multiple attempts to find a way through the storm to the first turn. It was an interesting exercise, and luckily when it mattered we had an up to date Spot fix so we knew his position.

It’s really hard to know why the task setters set a fixed task for Standard Class towards predicted storms.

Yesterday evening Alex and Pete spent some time creating a spread sheet to calculate altitude errors if the issued QNH is incorrect.

Today is the last official practice day, with the Opening Ceremony on Saturday.

We have gridded at the back today for practise.

More Storms

Pete, Alan and Tobi all seemed to have fun yesterday playing with the storm. Although even Pete said that he was a little uncomfortable flying into the dark sky ahead particularly at the first turn. They all had reports of heavy rain and hail, bolts of lightening, and plagues of locusts……

A lot of gliders returned at the around the same time, and under time, as the storm built but with long landings and good piloting it was not a problem.

The results seemed to appear a little more quickly on the Soaring Spot website than the official site.

Incidently when I paid for Pete’s training flights the cost was 160Euros for 13 aerotows. Just a bit cheaper than Italy where they were 60Euro each!!

The forecast for today is similar to yesterday, and we have some serious vertical development in the task area. They have set an ambitious 401km for Standard Class, and 3.5 hours for Club Class. The Club Class guys have already started.

A few chores to do today, more later…

Pete's a Lucky Pilot

Pete sat in the briefing today whilst I stood in line to register him and Alex gridded the glider. Registration was relatively painless and I told them a good story about the licence. They took my money and gave my an umbrella and 2 T-shirts with Pete's name on it so I guess they believed me. If you look carefully you can see it in the photo.
They have set a 2.45 hour AAT for all classes with slightly different turn points.
Launching went smoothly, launching started at noon and finished at 13.20. Alan has started, and the Standard Class gate has just opened.
The first turn is over the high mountains. At the moment there is a huge storm with showers in that area.
Today the team frequency is very busy with every second transmission being overtransmitted. There are not as many frequencies as usual and there are 15 pilots on most frequencies.
Pete gave the impression he would be conservative today after his long day yesterday.
Our new skid arrived today and someone is coming to fix the bug wipers tomorrow so we should be good to go by Sunday.

Tobi just started, and now Peter.

Wednesday

Pete had his longest flight here yesterday, over 5 and a half hours. He didn’t quite finish the task, just turning short of the last turn, for a distance of 320km. Pete felt he would have outlanded if he had continued, as it was he only just made it home after spending almost an hour thermalling in 0.3kts to get final glide. The others made the same decision a little earlier.

Conditions were mixed and the pilots talked a lot about changing gears as conditions were very variable. The second turn was a challenge as it was 6709 feet up on the top of a cliff. (maximum heights were around 7000’ for the day). They flew mainly in the blue with a few Cu over the mountains. Best climbs were 5 or so knots but average climbs were closer to 2kts.

I missed a few things yesterday, can we blame it on the temperature? (It was 31C on the ground and I am only rated to 30C).

What I forgot to say is that Alex Wallis arrived from Adelaide on Monday via a flight to Munich, a push bike, a few trains and a handful of buses (but no boat).

He has already figured out the routine and has helped Pete and I rig and derig, helped with the scrutineering, helped fixing Dave’s car’s radiator/overheating problem, etc. He will not be bored whilst he is here.

We successfully got through scrutineering yesterday morning with our 14.99m LS8 (according to the official measurement). Pete needs to register today and then he is ready for the competition. I had planned to register for him yesterday whilst he flew, but he has to fly with all of the documents that are needed for registration, and yesterday he landed after registration had closed.

Someone overheard the Americans complaining that their team cabin was very hot and the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working. The Aussie cabin only has a heater, so Dave went off to investigate - they had turned on the heater thinking it was an A/C unit J

Today is the first official practice day. The forecast is for no thermals and thunderstorms.

Briefing is in 45 mins, we shall see.

I asked about gridding for today to see if each glider would have an allocated position, “no today gridding will be random”. OK would you like us to grid before or after briefing “yes”.

I lied, Today is the last day of Unofficial Practice

The guys had a reasonable, but tricky day yesterday, and they all got home.
Today we had the gliders weighed and checked and are in the process of registering. It's always fun filling out a form when you can't answer any of the questions, what is your licence number, when does it expire, what is your radio licence number etc... So the usual haggling will be required.
Today the forecast is good, with Cus forecast at 2000m. They have set a task of 348km for Club and Standard Class. Tomorrow is Official Practice so we will be able to grid for the first time. At the moment if you tow out a tug immediately appears ready to launch.
Today we are launching on runway 22 with a Northerly wind so that will be interesting.

Last day of Unofficial Practice

Today we had a briefing in the main hangar, with a proper weatherman.
The forecast wasn't too promising with a lot of Alto Cu over the area and a warm front to the NE that can't decide if it wants to go East or West.
Pete and Tobi launched about an hour ago and were reporting 6kts tho' I didn't hear a cloudbase.
The plan was to do the set task of 206km a triangle to the North then South along the airspace boundry towards Nitra and home. The max is forecast to be 27C with 10-15kt N winds.
Mike and Allan are planning a later launch.
Pete is flying with a pencil cam today from the organisers, but I think they are just practicing and I don't think it is available on the website.
His Spot is not working properly again, we'll have to have a look at it tonight.

Monday

Launching late seemed to work OK for Pete in the end yesterday. He did 200km or so to the North. It was a typical Gawler day, blue to 5000’. There were a few other outlandings and I heard a couple of reports of ground loops with possible damage.

We now have a base on field and when the guys got back yesterday we erected the aerial for the base radio. It is just slightly taller than the UK one next door J

Until yesterday the campsite had developed a Berlin theme with German and British flags flying, walls erected (well fences anyway). We were all looking for a US flag to complete the effect. Now there are also Belgian and French flags flying so the illusion is gone.

The forecast today is good, but there is a lot of Alto-Cu. They have set a modest 206km task for all classes.

We secured pole position for the scrutineering tomorrow at 9am.

The forecast for tomorrow is for better weather

We're having a few Scenarios Today

Pete gridded at 11.30, but unfortunately the skid fell off. Fortunately we found someone with a key to the workshop and at 1pm Pete launched.
Since then the other 3 have outlanded so he is the last man standing. The forecast was 3kts to 5000' in the blue which is about what they are getting but the thermals are very broken. Pete has promised to be careful.

Sorry I'm late

Friday proved to be unflyable so we busied ourselves with the usual 20 minute jobs. More people arrived and we now have pilots from the UK, Germany, USA, and Italy. I think I just saw a random French man drive by too.
Today's forecast was mixed but all of the Australians rigged. Tobi took an early launch to check out some issues he had been having with his Cambridge. Reports are that all is well. Mike and Allan headed North (once Mike scratched away from the field with several low saves in the strong winds). We had some water ballast issues to sort which took a little longer than expected so Pete took the last launch of the day at 3pm. (hence no report from me) The Standard Class guys are now both back, whilst Allan and Mike have headed North.

Oops I just heard that Mike is down - safely at Zilina.
Allan is airbourne but only just ......

Piatok (Friday)

The tasks yesterday was well set and everyone managed a task with good speeds, and low saves, and home before the forecast cloud came in and killed everything. I'll hassle the pilots to put their flights on the OLC.
We had a few showers overnight and today we have solid overcast and low cloud. One of the forecasts is predicting 7 mins of sun at 2pm, but that is probably not going to be enough :-(
Today we have a new job for the glider. Twice Pete has had the hotelier coupling pop off when he tried to dump water, which is a bit distracting when low, so some investigation is called for.
The power to the campsite was disrupted when the ride on mower shredded the power cable yesterday in dramatic fashion with pieces of cable flying in all directions. It is now restored.

Two flags are now flying at the airfield. We are not sure if they can't spell, or if the spelling is different in Slovak, or if it is just chronological. Either way it is rather nice. It gives a feeling of ownership and calls out to others "The Aussies are here", very nice.

The Argentinian's are Here

No these are not the Argentinians!!

Above left is a photo of Petes's Paddock. It was very scenic, on top of a hill.

The photo above and to the right shows why he couldn't land in the valley - Slovakian style haystacks, everywhere.

Yesterday the 3 new guys had shakedown flights. Tobi discovered that his parachute didn't fit, Mike blew a fuse on his Flarm, and Allan got his PDA talking eventually. The Club Class pilots did a 2.5hr AAT. Pete did a reasonable distance slowly into wind and made it into Poland before turning for home, and landing.

The retrieve was uneventful and quite scenic, with many tractors, a stork sitting on a chimney, and a couple of deer.

The guys are all flying today, they launched at 11.30am. It looks like a very nice day but there is high cloud and strong winds predicted for 3pm so they aren't going too far away. The Argentinian team have arrived and are busy rigging and fettling their gliders.

They're Flying

The whole Australian Team is currently flying, together for the first time.
Mike and Allan both had scenarios on the grid. Allan's borrowed PDA will talk to him in Simulator mode, but when he selected WinPilot it asked for a password. So frantic calls to Germany, we are waiting for a reply...
Mike had a loose wire that was quickly reattached with tape.
Pete has just called 4kts to 2000m, which matches the forecast.
The wind though is very strong (from the North) with one forecast predicting 40kts at 3000'.
However because of the strong  wind we do have lovely looking streets of cloud to the North in the direction of the task.
All of the pilots are flying with Spot Trackers and there is going to be a link to each of them on the Team Dingo website.
Pete's Spot link is at;
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0zplSHdUNx4fszPCASyrqH45qQeZ36zx5
There are also some photos on the website in Gallery.
http://www.teamdingo.com.au/TeamDingo2010/index.html

Aerorest

The team enjoying coffee while waiting for the rain to stop.

Groundhog Day

Tobi and Andrew arrived last night and have set up camp - on high ground.
We woke to grey skies again this morning, with strong Northerly winds, but it isn't actually raining.
As I type Mike and Charlie are working on rearranging the instrument panel in JT, before the forecast showers move in from the East.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is forecast to be sunny and 21C.
Yesterday the contest director Joseph Snrc told us he thought the weather would be OK by Friday....
Unofficial practice starts on Saturday so we are expecting a lot of people to travel here over next weekend. At the moment we still have the place to ourselves.

4th Day of Bad Weather

It's now the 4th day in a row with bad weather. We are optimistically looking at every small break in the clouds for a possibility of flying but the airfield is too soggy to drive on anyway. Most of the Aussie team has now arrived - before any of the other teams. Meanwhile we are starting to suffer from cabin fever. On the bright side I did manage to get through last night's dinner without the waitress pouring a litre of beer over me.

Here's a photo I took while thermalling over Bojnice Castle in sunnier times. This castle is on a hill 1 km from the aerodrome and is one of Slovakia's biggest tourist attractions. The main street of Bojnice is lined with lots of great restaurants.

Sunday

We spent yesterday doing a couple of jobs on the glider. First we replaced the perished elastic on the doors with new springs. We then removed the tape from the tail skid, intending to replace it, and the skid fell off!! Off to the hardware store to buy glue. It turned out that the glue we bought was 3 years old and off.... Luckily Allan had also bought glue, so we were able to reattach the skid.

The forecast proved to be accurate with a 3 hour window that was soarable in the afternoon. Unfortunately the runway was too soggy to use in any case.

Mike's glider JT arrived yesterday and is ready to go.

Captain Charlie and Mike are heading for Nitra on a bus and should arrive here later today along with the rain.

Rain Stopped Play

Dave and Allan arrived safely at lunchtime yesterday and are installed in their pension.
We had another violent thunderstorm overnight with more rain and everything is wet and soggy this morning. We woke to fog in the valley and low cloud bases. There is a possible short window of sunshine forecast for this afternoon, but we are not rushing to rig. We still have a couple of "20 minute" jobs to do to our glider and Allan and Dave have a few things to sort out with their cockpit, so we will do that between the showers.
Based on the forecast today will be the best day - until Wednesday of next week. Still forecasts can be wrong, so we'll see what happens.
Captain Charlie and Mike are due to arrive tomorrow via "Lake Nitra" where they are stopping off to collect some items left behind last year.

The fair has arrived

We aren't sure why, but there is a hive of activity here (in the rain) with a fairground being set up on the aerodrome. It will probably rain most of today and the next few days so flying is on hold for a while. Most of the Australian team will arrive over the next 4 days with Allan and Dave arriving today -they just sent an SMS saying they have just crossed the border into Slovakia.

Yesterday yielded a brief window of good flying conditions. Visibility was greater than 60km and the clouds worked as they should - a great day to be in the air. I headed northeast along the ridges to the west of Martin, dodging airspace and para-gliders. The thermals were the strongest I've found so far with up to 5 knots so after the first turn I headed into the Tatra mountains. There was a convergence line over the main ridge with cloudbase 2000 feet lower on the northern side - of course I was approaching from the northern side so this made getting onto the ridge a challenge. But is was worth it and I was rewarded with a 6 knot climb up to the airspace limit of 8000 feet. Travelling back towards Prievidza along the convergence line was a heap of fun. Once back in the vicinity of Prievidza I headed southwest towards Nitra but was once again stopped by low cloudbase and lack of thermals - so I decided to abandon that goal and return to Prievidza while I still had the height. Overall a fun day in the sky.

It's not raining - updated

We have been here long enough now to know that if it isn't raining you rig and take a launch and see what happens, regardless of the forecast.

So we are rigged and ready to go.

At the moment we have 8/8th Alto Cu overhead. We are hoping it will clear, and allow the sun to heat the ground. It is clearing to the North East but still looks pretty solid over the airfield.
The forecast maximum is 23C.

Pete's just taken a launch at 12.30pm.
It doesn't look too promising, but it is forecast to start raining again tomorrow, and sunshine isn't mentioned anywhere in the forecast again until Tuesday,
Hopefully that's wrong, but today it isn't raining and he's flying.

Geography and Weather

 To help out those who are wondering, here’s a description of where Slovakia is. In the Eastern part of Central Europe, it has a Northern border with Poland, a North West border with the Czech Republic, a South West border with Austria, a Southern border with Hungary, and an Eastern border with the Ukraine.

Most of these countries have experienced heavier than usual rainfall in recent weeks.

On the TV news we’ve seen footage of people being rescued by helicopters, and roads bridges and rail lines washed away.

We have heard that in Poland in the month of May they only had one rain free day, and also that in one 2 day period they had their usual monthly May rainfall. The Slovak/Hungarian border was closed for several days when we first arrived with all of the road and rail links closed. At Nitra, which is 65km to the Southwest, the airfield is closed as the runway is partially under water. Pete flew over the area on Tuesday and saw how wet it is (just like Narromine during the squad week training).

Yesterday a German pilot (who is in Prievidza for a repair on his glider) showed us photos of gliders in a hangar at a club in Austria. The hangar was flooded on 13^th June and gliders were left with water to their wing roots, their cockpits full of mud.

More than one person has told us that they believe the extra rain is due to dust in the atmosphere from the Icelandic volcanic eruption last month. Whatever the cause there is a lot of water around.  

Rain and trailer adapters

The forecast rain and cold has arrived and we are sitting in the Aerorest (the onfield resaurant) enjoying soup and traditional eastern European food. There may be a small window to fly in weak conditions tomorrow, otherwise Sunday looks like the next possibility to fly.

This morning's exercise was to buy an adapter to convert between the 7 pin electrical plug on the trailer and the 12 pin socket on our Mercedes bus (we discovered the problem during the retrieve yesterday). We knew the auto parts store from earlier and had the foresight to take photos of the two connectors, since trying to explain what we needed in Slovak would be a tad difficult. The plan went well and we showed our camera with a photo of the 7 pin plug. The helpful shopkeeper immediately disappeared to fetch a connector. "Nie, nie", we called him back to show him the other connector photo. "Ah, Praha" (Prague) said the helpful shopkeeper with a quizzical look, probably wondering why we were showing him our holiday snaps. After showing the correct photo he disappeared out the back and came back with the right adaptér. So now we should be legal towing the trailer.

First outlanding

Well, as Mandy's blog suggested, the day was poorer than forecast. I attempted to head to the west but it was pointless since it was not possible to clear the mountains in to the next valley, so I trickled back to Prievidza and spent 45 minutes thermalling at 500 feet. Eventually I got a 'good' climb of 2.5 knots to 4000 feet (3200 AGL) and set off in the direction of Nitra to the south. But conditions deteriorated and at best I found 0.5 knots to 1800 feet AGL on track before alto cu killed the day. I thermalled at 400 feet over an aerodrome 24 km south of Prievidza for a time and was surprised to find a Grob 103 (from the aerodrome) join under me! Eventually we both succumbed to the inevitable and landed. They were a friendly bunch of people and spoke some English - they were actually from the Nitra club but hadn't been able to fly for several weeks due to the floods so they'd moved their operation north. The retrieve was uneventful and we were back in time to enjoy a beer by 6pm.

Rain is forecast for tomorrow and the forecast for the next few days is poor - so we may have some time to do some touristing.

Cus in the sky - updated

Pete is flying again today. The forecast was for 3kts to 4500' and Pete had set a 3 hour AAT task to the West and South over the (relatively) lower ground. However the ground to the West is around 2000' high and Pete reports climbs to only 3700' above sea level (we're at 853' here). The day is gradually improving and the dew point today is only 13 or 14 so hopefully the conditions will be better later.

There is a lot of work going on around the airfield this week, ready for the comp. The access road is being resurfaced and all of the tables and chairs (wooden) are getting a fresh coat of varnish. So if only the weather improves......

Pete has just called a start at 2200'AGL He's going to try to do his original task and see how far he gets before the ground comes up to meet him.
I'm off now for my daily run to Tesco's to buy essentials such as bread and beer.

Pete just called (2.30 local) to say that he has had to change his task due to low cloud and is now heading for Nitra in the valley to the south.

The Puddles are Back

We hung around until 2pm yesterday but the conditions turned blue - with no thermals. Even the club members were not tempted to fly.  A ražeň in the garden of our apartment topped off the day in fine style.

A big thunderstorm drenched the area as a warm front passed over here this morning; at the moment the temperature is 18C with a dew point of 17C. There are still showers around in the local hills so the chances of flying today are pretty low. The forecast for tomorrow is better, before more rain comes in on Wednesday.

BTW, I just noticed that this image is a live feed from the webcam (so the puddles will hopefully disappear)

Poland

Yesterday we rigged under blue conditions but I was not confident about the potential of the day. Taking a launch at 1300 I found reasonable lift under the few cu's in the sky. The first leg was to the mountains in the east (see the photo below) but arriving half way up it was a long struggle to climb. This was the character of the day - occasional good climbs (3 knots) under cu, followed by huge blue holes to cross. I persisted and headed north on the 2nd leg into Poland. No passport checks at the border, in fact the only difference seemed to be that the potential outlanding fields turned from a reasonable size in Slovakia to postage stamps. The run home was challenging with weak climbs in deteriorating conditions but I eventually made it back.

The flight can be viewed in various formats on the OLC athttp://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=819441983

You'll find my future flights using the link below.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightbook.html?sp=2010&st=olc&rt=olc&pi=22665

Last night we were treated to a double fireworks display - first the usual Saturday night fireworks at the Bojnice Zamok (castle), followed by a spectacular thunderstorm. This has left us with low cloud, high cloud, mid-level cloud; basically unsoarable conditions. So I'll take today off and hope that the weather improves.

A Better Day?

Yesterday was another day of low convection, Pete managed to get 25km away in all directions to check out the area but it was not good enough for a task.

Pete has just launched, the first single seater today, although there is now a grid of 5 other gliders ready to go.
Conditions were initially blue, but there are a few scattered Cus around, so fingers crossed that the conditions will be better today.

It was 31C yesterday and is forecast to be 34C today, (there are lots of heat warnings in the forecasts).

Another Blue Day

Yesterday was not a great day and Pete only managed to get a little way into the mountains as the conditions deteriorated. He was also concerned by the poor visibility, only 15 - 20 km at best. Talking to the locals it seems that this is normal when there is a high pressure over the area.

Today Pete has company in the sky, a Discus 2T. The pilot flew at Corowa (in Australia) earlier this year.

Earlier today we needed a small electrical component for the glider, the sort of thing you would normally pick up at Dick Smiths. In the first Auto place we tried they shook their heads no, no when I showed them what I wanted. "Kde?" I asked in my best Slovakian (where), after a long discussion between the shopkeeper and a customer the customer told me he would drive me to the correct shop (shades of the lead saga in Rieti). The driver spoke German and I have a Bissen (little), so we 'chatted' about floods and his son whilst Pete followed us in the bus. He took us to an unlikely looking shop which had exactly what we needed. Nice people the Slovakians.

Better weather?

Pete launched at 12.15 and had a struggle to stay up. He is now at 5000' but reporting rough conditions.
Since Pete is the only glider pilot flying here it makes it difficult each day to assess the conditions and decide when to launch, or even if to launch.
The local club is only active on weekends so Pete has to work out for himself what the conditions are going to be from the forecasts and then decide when to launch. I think today we were probably a little bit early, but who knows.
It is windy today for the first time, and the weather forecast warns of 'blasts' of wind up to 30kts.
The original plan for today was to head North towards and maybe into Poland, but given the blasts and blue conditions that may be modified.

Another local soaring day

Yesterday's conditions were again weak with a high point of 2100 feet above the ground - I only managed to stay in the air for another short flight. Thermalling at 300 feet over the Bojnice castle (the castle is in the background of the photo), in company with a stork, was the highlight of the flight. The tourists watching from the ground appreciated it too.

Today looks to be much the same but with more over-development so I will probably not fly. It is forecast to be hotter in the next few days and the ground should dry out giving higher cloud base.

Thunderstorms

He's flying again. We woke to 8/8th cloud cover but the satellite image showed that it would clear and it did.
The dew point is 16 and there are some storms brewing, with the occasional rumble of thunder,although of course at the airfield it is blue.
Today's exercise was to fill the glider with water. We worked it out after a few false starts and Pete is flying full today. The photo shows us filling up with Bojnice castle in the background.

Our apartment is about half way between the airfield and the castle.

Yesterday before he launched Pete asked the tug pilot "Will you turn left or right after I release", he replied "I will go down". And they do.
We did more fettling of the glider today and it's looking more like our glider LG every day.

First flight

After many hours of preparation of the glider (mostly installing my own instruments) I finally made it into the air today. Conditions were variable with a lot of cloud blocking most of the sun. I spent the time exploring the Prievidza valley but did not feel inclined to go anywhere - just as well since the conditions deteriorated and I found myself back on the ground in less than two hours. It is a picturesque place to fly with green everywhere and wide valleys. There's nowhere to outland at the moment apart from in crops, so hopefully with some warmer weather the farmers will oblige and clear the land for us. The hills are flatter than I was expecting and don't look to be much use as ridges anywhere near Prievidza.

I have a few minor things to rearrange in the cockpit but everything worked today and the glider flew well. We should have some time tomorrow to post some photos here.

(Mandy is quite excited after she saw a stork strutting about in the tie-down area)

Pete's flying

The conditions are not great but the forecast for the rest of the week is worse so Pete has taken a launch.

He was the only glider to launch today.

At the moment he's floating around about 2000' up under a mix of 8/8th cloud cirrus, alto cu and cu.

The tugs here are the locally manufactured Dynamics which have retractable tow ropes.

Once the glider is hooked on the tug pulls forward spooling out the tow rope like a spider spinning silk.

Prišli Sme

We have finally arrived in Prievidza, and it is a hive of activity - they say it is the first warm day of the season and we brought the weather with us!

Our apartment is great -we have the top floor of a house in a quiet area just below the Bojnice castle with panoramic views of the Prievidza valley (and the airfield in the foreground - see the photo). It's nice to have lots of space. The owners are very friendly and gave us a tour of the area - they are obviously very proud of their town.

This morning we received an operations briefing from the local airfield officials - and a sneak preview of the 2nd bulletin for the competition - the opening ceremony dinner will be in the Bojnice castle! BS, "our" LS8 is en-route now from Prague and we'll spend the evening installing our instruments before flying tomorrow. There is not normally an operation here during the week so we'll probably have the whole aerodrome to ourselves.

Last night we were entertained by two locally build aircraft, the Dynamic, "dancing" with choreographed music. Quite a sight while we enjoyed a meal at the Aerorest onfield restaurant.

Sunshine Finally

Pleasant weather today for walking around Brno. The weather forecast looks good for the next few days with temperatures up to 30 so I am looking forward to finally getting into the air - all going well I should be able to fly on Monday.

By popular request here is a photo of our "bus".

Povodne!

Our Slovak vocabulary is improving, yesterday we learned the word for Detour (roads closed due to flooding), today Povodne - the Slovak word for floods.

Most of Slovakia and a large part of Poland and Hungary are flooded.

The nearest serious floods are at Nitra, just 70km from the Prievidza competition site.

During squad training we experienced similar conditions, maybe it was too realistic.

Today we'll check out the sights of Brno before heading to Prievidza tomorrow (if we can get there).

Goulash in Prague, Floods in Slovakia

Bronek was a little late for breakfast today. His wife and children are visiting family in Slovakia and have lost all power due to the floods. He was arranging to rescue them if he needed to. Depending on what happens with the floods we may need to pick up the glider ourselves (from near Prague) on Saturday.

Bronek explained that there is a theory that the continuous rain is due to all of the dust in the atmosphere from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano (don't ask me to pronounce that) working a bit like the old cloud seeding experiments.

"Our" glider is currently in Plasy at the Czech nationals. They haven't flown there since 29th May, only three days in total. This news sent us off to check the rules for a World Comps, the minimum number of days is four.

We went on a walking tour of Prague today, in the rain. Our first stop was to buy an umbrella a must have here. Then we had Goulash for lunch, well you have to don't you?

Tomorrow we're heading East again in the bus, no set plans yet. Maybe Brno or maybe somewhere smaller where the traffic is not so crazy.

Tuesday in Prague

We both had a reasonable sleep on our second flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt.

Then we had the repeat experience of trying to get the car that we had booked from Europcar.

We had booked a compact car with a "trailer hitch". Such a thing apparently doesn't exist so we are eligible for an upgrade, but the upgraded car cannot be driven in Slovakia.....

Sometime later we left with a 9 seater bus (stop laughing Terry - Terry had the team bus in Rieti).

When we left Frankfurt it was 10 degrees, this dropped to 8C as we approached the Czech border and peaked at 12C as we approached Prague. We had light rain for most of the trip and cloud base was generally around 500'.

It reminds me of why I emigrated :-)

We have a breakfast meeting tomorrow with Bronek who owns the LS8 glider BS that we are hiring.

Mandy

From Hong Kong

I'm updating this blog from the Cathy lounge in Hong Kong.

So far so good. I've just had a shower and am sitting here with a nice glass of Merlot.

If all goes according to plan we should be in Frankfurt early Tuesday morning.

Then we have the familiar Europcar experience of "Oh you booked a car with a trailer hitch, how very interesting. Please have a coffee and come back later".

We'll see, maybe it will be different this year.

As we were sitting in the Qantas lounge in Adelaide (after checking in), Pete got a phone call asking if he was on his way to the airport, as check-in was about to close!!

The taxi ride to the airport was another story..........

Luggage on our knees, fuel light flashing, lots of red lights, and rarely less than 10 kph above the speed limit.

Mandy

Only eight more sleeps

Yesterday we had a "Green and Gold" Party at the Adelaide Soaring club to say goodbye and good luck to club members Peter Temple and Graham Parker who will be flying overseas for Australia in the coming months.

Peter will be supported by Club members Mandy Temple, Andrew Wright and Alex Wallis. Whilst Graham will have Mark Morgan from Waikerie to help him.

We had a good turn out and were entertained by Tom Leech and Dave Lawley with their guitars.

A big thank you to Terry Cubley who organised the evening and to Titch who catered for everyone.