9.30 ;Quite a breeze here today in the clean tent. Breeze???…pretty tough wind as the wind sock is horizontal and the wind —and dust from the crop duster—goes straight through the tent.
About to start day 10 out of the possible 13 and yesterday we had “new” daily winners. NOT in open class as Michael Sommer, won another day! This time with 157 km./h.
Laurent Aboulin is still 74 points ahead of him in the total scores after 9 days. Tassilo Bode is new in the totals behind Michael.
In 18 m. it was Canadian Pilot Jerzy Szemplinski who flew himself to a nice first place. Heard he was not too happy with his first week and seems to be on the right track now with a nice 153.5 km./h. over the 581.7 km. Up to spot 22 , pilots were still in the 900 points range, so another fast day.
In 15 m. class UK pilot Ed Johnston was on full steam and starting as the last pilot with his mate Matt Cook, [14.19] he must have thought—- hurry up, “get “them , pass them —and ….Ed won the day while Matt was on spot 5. Only 8 pilots in the 900 points range here. Sebastian was 2d and Austrian pilot Peter Hartmann was on a 3d place and he is new and 3 now overall.
So today is another day. A windy one , blue at this stage , sunny and some clouds to the E. See what Dan will tell us about the weather and chances for today.
Back after briefing.
Tasks for today ; AAT’s from 3.15 for 15 m. class and 3.30 for open class and 18 m.
Grid time 12.30 earliest launch 13.00.
So a bit more about the tasks!
The nominal lenght of the 15 m. task is 473.9 km. [ min. 373 km and max 578 km.]
For 18 m. the nominal length is 496 km
For open class it is 489.3 km [min. 377 and max. 612k]
What was said more this morning?
Ken welcomed everybody and looked back on another good day with as he had seen BIG smiles on the faces when pilots came back. That’s what it is all about, fly fast safe and enjoy!
Even more smiles after and during the party. What a great night it was. Loved every minute.THANKS to all the friends from the different nations who made such a night possible. Poor Roberto , TC from Italy, was still cooking macaroni when I left.
The teams were introduced and this time it was TEAM Russia, so Dmitry introduced himself under loud cheering as TC, pilot and crew!
Also team Serbia had it’s turn today but the pilots were not yet there so we do that tomorrow.
The TC from Slovenia introduced his team and Carol from South Africa hers with a special mention for Laurens who , as I said before is flying his 16th WGC. They also have 2 brother-teams!!!Uys and Attie Jonker and Oscar and Laurens Goudriaan!
Carol reminded pilots to fly well to if possible win, as those champions , will be invited via the Helli Lasch Foundation for a free holiday , all expenses paid for, between March 4 and 16 in 2013. If I understood well standard class is part of it as well.
Loek Boermans from OSTIV announced that their week has been succesful and that tonight the closing dinner will take place. 30 Papers have been presented and you can find all the news on www.ostiv.org They said thank you to the UVALDE hospitality and were happy with the many guests visiting the lectures.
The TEAM CUP is topped by Germany with 8243 points,followed by Poland with 8202 points and France with 8194 points.
Linda and Kerry had some domestic items one the closing ceremony on Saturday. On the table today a tiger-tail, …from the longtime popular Exxon gas PR slogan “Tiger in the tank” Kerry wished everybody “a tiger in the glider”.
Dick Bradley announced that there will be a safety award presented during the closure ceremony by OSTIV for the safest pilot.Other pilots should nominate the winners and they make their choice.
The WEATHER:
—WIND UP TO 20 k from the SSE. The “sock” is still very much horizontal!!!!
—big inversion today , so trigger temp will be at 32.5 dgr.C at 4500 ft. AGL
—temperature up to 38.5 dgr.
—max. altitude 7800 up to 9000 in the later evening
—less cirrus then yesterday but also less clouds, dry thermals, mainly a BLUE day
— lift a bit better then yesterday and more consistant
—lift between 4 and 6 during the afternoon
The outlook for the last 2 days on Friday and Saturday looks interesting , with increased instability .
GAGGLE TALK;
—just caught up with Rick Walters who has been so GOOD for us[ Dutch team] during the WGC in 1991. Baer got his Discus 3R and that was at that stage the best glider. With a great pilot as Baer the combination was “deadly” for the rest , he won!!!
Lovely to see him back and looking SO well. He will stay for a few days and drove in for 24 hours from Minden in Nevada where they had the best weather this season.
Picture made by me from Rick and Andreea and made my Andreea from Rick and me!
The sniffer is UP, is at 4200 ft MSL and wind is 16 k.
Off to the next blog now!
