It’s a bit of a struggle in Chaves, with the weather, the long and sometimes difficult retrieves, but I guess you all follow it on the different FB sites and the home pages of the different countries. Graham from the UK team keeps me very much updated and here is a short story from him, showing the difficulties they face but ,…they are still in good mood.I do like his way of writing!!!!
| Graham Garnett |
—“Welcome to day 5 The pilots are all nicely rested after a difficult and frustrating day yesterday which involved 2 close easy retrieves and 2 long ones. The standard class landed only about 60k from the airfield in a straight line but the first retrieve took 6 hours for Jez using the open trailer and the second one took 5 hours using a borrowed cobra trailer. Fortunatly Jez and Howard were in the same field so they both came home and Rich and i went back for Howards glider returning at 6.30 this morning. The main issue is that there are very few tarmaced roads, when the tarmac runs out you are on rough dirt tracks for miles driving very slowly, when they run out you are on farm tracks which are rutted and often boggy in places (you have gotta be real carefull even with the Toyota Hilux’s) and when they run out you are in huge fields in the middle of nowhere The terrain is compleatly flat, think East Anglia but 10 times bigger with 5000 acre fields being common with one access gate, oh and it is a federal offence to cut a fence down (but you have to get caught…). last night the darkness was complete apart from very faint glows from distant towns on the horizon and the sky with an amazing, breathtaking view of the stars, Orion upside down and the Milky way like you only see in the southern hemisphere. An adventure! So today is another day. The standard class have an AAT 154k/357k (254k) and the clubbies AAT 127k/365k (243k) the weather is same again, tricky blue thermals. Bring it on. We are about to go to the grid, first launch of the sacrificial PW5’s is at 12.30 local. Graham—“
On day 6 a short comment from Graham as well:
—“The clubbies are 24k and 30k out returning into a strong headwind the Ci is over
the airfield dampening down the thermals, fingers crossed—”
—“All four have landed out, Howard and Jez are airborne behind an aerotow retrieve
I can hear them both on the radio.
Ken and Ian are in fields quitec lose, I am coordinating the retrieves.—“
—“The clubbies are 24k and 30k out returning into a strong headwind the Ci is over
the airfield dampening down the thermals, fingers crossed—”
—“All four have landed out, Howard and Jez are airborne behind an aerotow retrieve
I can hear them both on the radio.
Ken and Ian are in fields quitec lose, I am coordinating the retrieves.—“
Very busy job it seems, to be a TC in Chaves!!!!
Our Dutch pilots are doing extremely well under the circumstances and I am pleased to see young top pilot Tim Kuijpers on spot 1 after 5 days of soaring in the club class, though he outlanded on day 5, loosing only 38 points on the winner. But also the Aussies are doing a great job, Tobias [Geiger] is on spot 3 in this class.
Tim ready to go as seen by Frans Guise.
Felt VERY sorry for Sarah, who was situated on such a nice spot on the overall scores, that she had a bad day 4. Only 9.6 km. and 15 points, not having been able to dug herself out of a “hole” .But that’s soaring too.
In standard class day 6 was a difficult one due to the wind, blue conditions and cirrus . No worries however for Sebastian Kawa winning the day and being on spot 3 on a preliminary overall score.
In PW 5 class only one pilot flew over 100 km. during the 2 hour AAT. That looks to me as an unvalid day.
In PW 5 class only one pilot flew over 100 km. during the 2 hour AAT. That looks to me as an unvalid day.
The INTERNATIONAL NIGHT seems to have been a great event , with the Polish people showing a movie from the WGC 50 years ago, further on it seems a bit “difficult” in Standard class;
—“There is a lot of discussion about the standard of the thermaling, some pilots
seem to not take any notice of the normal rules.—“
—“There is a lot of discussion about the standard of the thermaling, some pilots
seem to not take any notice of the normal rules.—“
Only hope they learn from what has happened and stick to the rules of soaring.You only live ones!
Due to a cyclone in WA I just read, the soaring will be cancelled today and tomorrow in Benalla. A pity they were going well. It’s much cooler here too , with overcast and a weak wind but great for walking.
The 3.30 AAT yesterday turned out to be a prey for Catherine Conway in the Nimbus 4 with 397 km in 3 .24.
The 4 hour AAT in 18 m. class was won by Ben Loxton in a Ventus 2 CT with 436 km in 4 hours 2.
The 4 hour AAT in 18 m. class was won by Ben Loxton in a Ventus 2 CT with 436 km in 4 hours 2.
My UK friends flying at Bitterwasser had the times of their lives. Each of the 4 , flew 3 or 4 1000 k. flights. 2 Of them Roy and Patrick, spend their overseas summers with us in the past. Their Namibia time is over now and they were in the lucky circumstances to be part of this extremely great summer over there!
