As Frank said, this was the first official practice day.  It started with the all pilots safety meeting at 0930 as scheduled.   This meeting is to get every pilot on the same page as the contest organizers.  We were given the basic launch and recovery procedures, as well as weather, general plan for the contest, and updates on the usable airports.  At the close of the meeting, the sky was still very gray.  As the clock approached noon, the cloud began to show some blue between them.  I decided to rig and with Wolf’s help, ready for the grid. Contest aircraft began to launch about 1300 and YHS took off at 1319 for what was to be a two-hour flight.  What if they called a practice day and nobody came?  That is close to what happened today.  There were only a dozen or so contest gliders that launched.

The “sniffer”, he is the guy that launches early and reports to the CD the flying conditions, described the conditions as weak and the cloud base at 2500 ft.  John Goode the contest director called the gate open at 1300 and anyone who wanted to attempt the task was cleared to go.  The max altitude for the start gate was set at 4000 Ft AGL.  I am not sure if anyone even got close to that altitude all day.  I chose not to fly the task because the weather conditions did not meet the minimums I had set for myself on the practice day.

Even though I did not fly the CD’s task, I did gain something helpful from the day.  I practiced finding and centering thermals.  Once I got to cloud base in one thermal, I would sprint to the next one, using about 500-1000 feet.  I repeated that task about 20 times over the two-hour flight.

While I was flying, my crew, Frauke and Wolf Elber, took some pictures of what was happing around the glider port.  Frauke captured photos of pilots and airplanes being readied for launch.   She also got a picture of one of the contest’s slower participants.  Hopefully, he won’t beat me to the finish gate.

BZ Waiting to Launch

photo by Frauke Elber

Wolf clicked his shutter at some airborne gliders and got a great shot of a hawk, the real master of the sky.

photo by Wolf Elber

After 4 days of practicing, I have had a chance to shake out the flying cobwebs that collected over the winter.  I think I have regained my personal “balance” and am mentally ready for the first task.  Perhaps it is just my thinking, but flying in a new place and with a very different purpose, that is contest flying vs recreational flying takes a bit of getting use to and one really should take very seriously that adjustment period.

BZ