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.