Ready for the last day of soaring at the 32 WGC here in Uvalde. The sun is shining and I hope the thunderstorms which I saw on the radar on TV will pass N. from us as they predicted!!!.
Hope Dan tells us later at briefing that there is a nice window to fly in, at this stage it looks like it!

Yesterday was a good day for 18 m and open class, not so much for the pilots in 15 m.Will come back on that after briefing.

In 18 m. 2 of the 3 Polish pilots Lucasz and Zbigniew were on FULL steam/speed and they won the day in their ASG 29.Wolfgang in the Ventus 2cx , WO ,was right behind them;1000 –999—982 points. Also in the total scores the Polish pilots are firmly on top;11.430[LM]..11.114 [PL]followed by Mike [57] with 11.084. His UK mate Russell is 46 points behind him.I guess these are the men dividing the prizes .We ‘ll know tonight!!

In open class another glorious day for DB, winning the 1000 points for himself and his CONCORDIA! A pity he had the outlanding on day 1 , but…that’s soaring as well!!!Good also from Ron Tabery to be on spot 2 ,with 998 points,followed by the “THE brothers” who else then  Oscar and Laurens.Overall Laurent is for the 12th day on spot 1 overall [great job!!!!]will he be there tomorrow as well????
So it looks like this on the last day; Laurent on spot 1 with 11.345…Michael on 2 with 11.273…Oscar on 3 with 11.185…Tassilo at 4 with 11.083 and Pete Harvey has the same amount of points!

Really looking forward to this last day. Will keep you updated!!!!Off to the field now!

TASKS today are AAT’s ;
15 m.; 3 hours  456.1 km [ min.344/max. 578]
18 m. ;3 hours  469.1 km [min. 366 / max. 580]
open ; 3 hours  436 3 km [min. 330/ max. 548 km]

grid time 12.10   earliest launch 12.40
no max start altitude, no max speed due to the expected isolated storms later ….the finish ring will be 15 km instead of 3 km. and the height is set.Finish line closes at 8.

What was said at briefing:
The word concern was used frequently today.
 The CD mentioned that the pilots involved in yesterday’s accident were Peter Hartmann from Austria who bailed out and landed safely in a remote area and Louis Bouderlique from France who could bring his glider back “home”.
Both pilots attended the briefing and we were all happy they were amongst us! The 2 pilots witnessing the accident David Bauder and Susanne Schoedel from Germany , got a hug applause DESERVED, as they aborted / sacrifisied their day,  stayed above the crash site where  the pilot and broken glider were and give all co-ordinates of where to find him. Even escorted the pilot home!!!!
Hearing that the CD took the decision to cancel the day for 15 m.

Louis to the left and Peter to the right.

When Ken  heard it could take a bit longer for the SAR helicopter to go to the spot, Mark Hufstuttler jumped in his helicopter and went straight to the spot, bringing Peter back and it was he who carried the live-safing-chute out of his helicopter. He  got a huge applause as well.DESERVED!
Peter was as said yesterday checked at the ground at the site of the  helicopter by Hartley our med dr. and send to a local hospital later,  as a precaution. It seems he has micro little lines in his back, nothing to worry about but a bit of rest would do him good.After briefing a lot of friends surrounded him to tell him they were pleased to see him [I was one of them knowing him from Rieti] at the briefing and he told in short his story as I heard the glider broke in two pieces.Peter on the pictures below.

 

Chief steward Dick mentioned more “near cases” and prompted everybody to fly safe. He or we can’t do it it is up to the pilots up in the air!!!! “Yesterday ” he said “we crossed the line of an incident and an accident . Luckily the consequences were not tragic but in the end of the day YOU pilots are the “guy’s ” responsable so FLY SAFE!!!”

The winners from yesterday were mentioned , as well as the overall scores,  as well as the TEAM CUP, very close between France and Poland. Germany still on TOP!
Domestic items as the party tonight and the closing ceremony tomorrow and than [ OK OLE ???]  the weather:
Dan and Walt got a long standing ovation for the weather prognoses. SO WELL DESERVED!!!!!They found it a privilige to work for and with the pilots!
Same was said by the CD  Ken also on behalf of his deputy John.

The weather today is a concern. 
The mid level clouds are a concern specially for today’s trigger temperature which is 90 F. 30 dgr. C
The isolated thunder storms later in the day are a concern as they come with wind up to 40 kts. of wind, so the message was tie down EVERYTHING tonight!
So let’s meet again at launch time.

 

GAGGLE TALK;

—Had the most unexpected surprise -send-off-party yesterday. The “boys” from SoaringCafe AND Carol knew this is my last writing job AT location. It was my wish to finish in Uvalde!
Time for the young ones now. Better to stop at a HIGH and a HIGH it surely is/was here, then when they say “is that old chook still hanging around?”
Continue of course with my blog www.soaring.eu  my Sunday contribution to www.soaringcafe.com  and my 2 monthly column in the Kiwi Maghazine Gliding International  www.glidinginternational.com
So look what they did??? And all those kind friends trying to stop me from finishing the writing. Laurens even said I could only stop when he finishes HIS gliding…”When would that then be Laurens ? ” When I am not in the top 10 anymore Ritz!” Maybe in a special occasion when they really “break my wrist” I might consider, I never say never….but I have been pleased with what I achieved with my writing over the last 20 years; keeping you an inside look IN a competition , when you are sitting at home wishing you were here!

 

 

A 1 by 1 m. cake and great fruit cups ,all organized by Carol with the help of my neighbours in the tent here; John and Yvonne and their lovely girl serving out on the picture Kimberley. What great people here in the SSA tent!

Pictures made by Rand.