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.