First launch at 13.50! Updated!

It is really nice to see how relaxed all pilots are under  these “hot” conditions. Buying drinks ,laughing or having lunch while waiting for the first launch which is not expected before 13.10. It is 12.45 now and no action yet from the tuggies.One of the tuggies by the way is female , Sarah Arnold and she will fly in the Club Class WGC in Chaves in Argentina.
From  USA friend , Frauke, I got a while ago the message :
 “ Sarah is flying in Argentina. She is the first American woman flying in a Worlds other than the Juniors. Last year we started a fund for her to help her with the expenses. As of this date we have collected over $11000. When I started the fund last June I thought, maybe we can get about $2000. I am overhelmed by the support for Sarah.Who says there is no support for women glider pilots?!”
Is n’t that fantastic!?
Somebody told me her tug has the name “Sweet Pea” after a long time member of the club who recently died. Touched by that!

 

On the above pictures you see Ronald Termaat from Holland and Frederic Hoyeau from France both former European Champions …….AND…..  both likely to be successful here in Uvalde.
On the other picture you see Arnaud and Remy, their crew. Remy arrived yesterday from Holland  flew in into San Antonio but had no problem with the closure/evacuation  of the San Antonio Airport due to a bomb-alert yesterday.
On the picture below you see part of the Danish team enjoying their lunch; pilot Peter Eriksen and the TC from Denmark, who flew here as pilot representing the Danish team in 1991.


TC Kristian Hansen  to the l. and Peter to the r. flying in the ASG 29 in 18 m. class with call sign 7 T.

At the moment 13.10, they are pushing gliders again , like yesterday. A big dust-devil just passed behind the last glider! Ph….!!! The sniffer is up but the tugs are still here.
Time  to introduce you to Peter Ryder , the President of the Jury and Dick Bradley the Chief Steward.

Peter Ryder and Dick Bradley . 

Due to the heat there is an inversion. The sniffer first announced 3500 above sealevel , later 4500 and 3 kts lift. The new launch time was announced ; 13.50.
So 7 tow pilots marched out [behind each other in a nice row], of the air conditioned building from Mark H., at 13.45 and started their engines!
First launch indeed at 13.50 SHARP!3 Self launchers  on their way now too.
Practise day 6 is a fact!

It is very difficult to be AT the grid and when you are allowed , you are accompanied by staff when you want to cross the runway during launching, so nothing can go wrong and they want as less people on the grid as possible. It’s all about rules , as they want safety first! Understand that!
On every WGC field in the past,  you normally walked with the line of gliders to the last row, ALWAYS behind the launched gliders, but that’s not happening here as they operate from 2 parralel runways, a different situation. On top of that this is a public airfield.
I admire the tuggies working under pretty demanding circumstances and even more the ground crew working SO hard. TOP!

They also introduced a start line limit of 170 km./h. rather then a 2 minute time below the start height. So pilots can practise that today and tomorrow as well.

Not too many pilots go up today but at 14.15 they are still towing. Very blue here and sometimes the wind /thermals  blow me over in my “corner”.
In the end still 50 % went up and nearly all open class gliders. Unfortunately the pictures from the CONCORDIA in the air turned out not good enough to publish,but I got 2 nice ones !Courtesy Richard. Will publish them tomorrow.
Party time tonight, will take the camera .

CU tomorrow.

 

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