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Latest news
June 2, 2006
''A different world''
Friday June 2
9.00 We all woke up with a "sunny" feeling, how different does the world look ,when you have bright bleu skies and lots of sun shine!!!!Not only the world looks different but also the people in bright coloured cloth and with smiles on their faces. Though pilots and crews have an early morning, as the grid is open from 8.30 for open class and for standard at 9.00.Briefing at 10.00 and nobody here in the chatroom as everybody is too busy!!
9.30 Just had breakfast with the UK open class team.They had a good laugh already this morning. This airfield is huge and from a little bus ,about 5 men hopped out with little grass mowers and started to mow the grass !!!!!!, to astonishment of all.Most probably they are mowing some kind of name in it. Will keep you informed!
Yesterday evening we had a full house ,better said hangar. The outlanding- briefing was VERY good and from vital importance for pilots. Items as "leave your mobile on" when alone and far away so SAR can trace you and how to land on water in the very worst case as it is still better not to do so . Anyway it is good to know when the situation unexpectedly would occur.You better know too much, then not enough in special occasions!Thank you to Saka the deputy competition director who organized the evening.
10.30 Briefing was short and to the point. It is the last official practise day. The weather is good enough for nice long flights and tasks have been set for all classes to the East.
Standard class is supposed to be launched at 11 as first ,[ depending on the thermal activity ], with a task of 308 km.
Open class will be flying 430 km and after those 2 classes have been launched the grid will be open for 15 m and 18 m gliders ,due to the condition of the field, which NOBODY wants to have damaged.
15m. will fly 286 km. and 18 m. 325.
Runway 23 is in use!
The weather is good. We will only have rain tonight, according to the nice new meteo lady and the temperature will be 18/20 dgr. with a pretty strong wind ;20/30 km/h gusting to 40 km/h. Dry thermals up to 2500 m. are expected during the day. Tomorrow will be even BETTER. Is n't that always the case during the opening ceremony!!!???To the field now!
12.15 All st.class gliders and open class gliders are up in the air. First launch was at 11.30 sharp. Only ONE word for the tuggies and the tug master efficient-fast-good!!!While 15m. and 18 m. gliders are towed to the grid I have time to keep you reading. One open class glider had a problem, 73 with Finnish pilot Antti Lehto. He was pulled out of the grid but started last ,all problems solved.
Norwegian glider pilot Erlend Sorbye in open class flies his Nimbus 4DM with a polar bear as co-pilot. " Never a problem like this " , seems to be his attitude. I saw however that the bear had no parachute!!!???
Hope the stewards picked that up!?
A nice story;" Airfield dog ", is written on the badge hanging on his collar. This tiny little doggie is lovely and does n't know, according to his boss that he is just small, standing up to all BIG dogs. He walks around on 3 legs ,as one was damaged due to an accident when he was only 6 weeks old.The vet wanted to inject him, but the GERMAN TC Rainer Wienzek felt pity for him and took him home and NITRA is his dog now. This happened all during the Junior World Comps in Nitra.
Back to the field , as the rest should be launched soon too. Nice clouds have popped up to the W. ,where we are not allowed to go , but the E does n't look bad either and pilots stay nicely up till now.
14.15 At 13.00 the other 2 classes were launched and within 45 minutes they were all up in the air. I saw for the first time in my life an Antares 18S S, flown by Swiss pilot, Werner Danz. It is a good looking glider , nice high on its wheel.Also the ASG 29, flown by Swedish pilot Ake Petterson was new to me!Another good looking glider, but all gliders look good, is n't it, including the ETA.Though it has "bloody" long wings!!!
We split up the day in 3 parts so go on for the next one!
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