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Latest news
June 9, 2006
No warm coats necessary anymore!
9.00 It is just the right temperature outside. But ...as yet no gridding! Glider pilots are busy with their gliders and crews need some more time, specially for those gliders which outlanded, as some need extra cleaning after landing on more or less difficult places. As far as I heard no damage, which is great.
Pilot Steven Raimond flying glider 1R ,had to make an outlanding too yesterday and had the choise out of 2 goodlooking fields, nice green and without obstacles, though in one of them were cows. The decision was made quickly to avoid the cows, so the nice green looking field it was.
He landed nicely but was amazed to see a lot of water splash up high over his canopy and also amazed that he needed only about 12 m. to stop. When he jumped out, he felt what was wrong. He had landed in some kind of swamp and saw the cows in the other field up to their knees in water. With 7 they went for the retrieve and partner Marion, was in the worst case to her knees in the water. They had to carry the glider out, but no damage, "only" a 3 hour job after the retrieve to clean the glider and to undo the mud from the undercarriage. And ....perhaps some after-mosquito-bite-stuff, as they were active and really attacked.
For all who came back after 8 PM yesterday, when the restaurant was closed , "the Twins", absolutely identical, cooked hotdogs and hamburgers in their Swedish tent and will do so every night , if necessary. Great job guy's!!
According to the meteorologist the weather like we had yesterday, was very unusual and very uncommon. The wave even double wave , he only saw during the World comps in Borlange a few years ago. Interesting, very interesting! After briefing we will know more about today's weather. We had rain last night and it was still raining during the very early morning. But with the sun now, everything will dry up quickly.
I was very pleased to see that glider V8 with Gyorgy Gulyas was on the results list today. As said yesterday, we saw him land here, after a struggle to make it. Lots of people having dinner saw on vPos , which they organized to be only 5 minutes less then the actual time, as nobody was in the air anymore/could be affected!
Would he make it??? No ,... or perhaps yes ...tension ... food nearly stuck in some troaths and when we looked outside .......he was there at 19.17 with a speed of 54.9 km/h , but who cares!!! Welldone Gyorgy!! So in the end 2 pilots made it back in 15 m. class. And the good daily result made Gyorgy number 1 on the overall results list with more then 200 points in the lead!! Quickly to briefing now, 8 minutes to go!
10.20 Briefing for competition day 4 is over. When we fly, vPos will be in St . class gliders. There is a new briefing at 12.00. Later changed to 13.00. Grid opens at 10.30 for open class and then the other classes each 15 min. later and we use runway 05. Later changed in 23. That is te most important news.
The rest;
---Today the World championships SOCCER start in Germany and we saw a "funny " video from the Italian team. As it is "Leo's night" this evening , more Italian influence today and with the daily price for ETA pilot Georgio Ballarati, an Italian girl " hopped around " through the hangar ,on the shoulders of a friend waving the Italian flag. So a real Italian day today.
---The other daily price for Erik Dossing was celebrated with the Danish flag waving high up and he flies with a standard class glider [Discus 2 T ]in 15 m. class , which is worth mentioning.
---Nearly all 15 m. classes landed out. There was a complaint that open class dumped all their water over them and that this was the reason for the outlandings. Just joking! But as Robert said; Do not dump water over others!!!
---Talking about outlandings; At least 5 pilots landing in ONE field made a farmer very angry. Not so much because the land was damaged, but more because none of them thought of seeing the farmer, telling him they landed there and apologize. So the message was; PLEASE BE CIVILIZED.
---Yesterday we had to change rather late, the height of the airspace over Eskilstuna from 2100 to 1350 m.. This was due to a total breakdown of of the ATC system at Stockholm's main airport[ATS] .So it does n't only happen here. 60 % of all flights had to be cancelled and the director of the next World Comps in Germany in Lusse, was for that reason delayed. So was a new Zander , for Michael Sommer.
Then the weather: In very short; "It will be possible to fly between 13.00 and 17.00. Temperature will be up to 25 dgr."
The meteorologist looked back on the special wave clouds without mountains here. A phenomena that only occurs once in 10 years." So don't expect to see this every day"!, was his message.
At 13.00 we should have a cloudbase of 1000 m. with a max. in the competition area of 2000 m. but also with a risk of spread out. Weather might change very rapidly [YES we have seen that already a few times ! ], but today he said it is even more difficult to predict what's happening.
So new briefing at 12.00 Stand by!!!!
NO, just heard ;Briefing is delayed till 13.00.And grid has changed due to the more S. now to ;23.
After briefing I had the great pleasure , after a long time, to catch up with Bernald Smith again , TC for the USA during several world comps we both attended. Also long time member and president of OSTIV and an honorable member now. Nearly 80 years old , he still looks ,fit and very interesting with his long grey beard. Still his caracteristic hat on ,like in the past. An amzing fine person with great dedication to our sport. Go ,go go Bernald!
12.00 Tasks for today!
St. class; pol. with 3 points and 222.4 km.
15 m. class; pol. with 4 points and 228.8 km.
18 m. class; pol. with 3 points and 225.8 km.
open class; pol. with 3 points and 222.7 km.
Will be back soon with a new article Ritz
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