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…