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