December 29 to 31, 2012

Saturday, December 29th, the day after Luis and Kilo-Yankee arrived was spent assembling and inspecting the glider, tying it down in our assigned portion of the glider tie-down area (Box No. 16, which we share with Sorin Lingureanu, the Romanian pilot), replacing the variometers (really important instruments for gliding, which help locate the updrafts) with the ones I brought with me from Canada, changing some of the old instrument tubing, getting the glider (and the pilot) officially weighed by Art Grant, and having the parachute repacked, just in case. A lot was accomplished, but the instrument electrical wiring had to be left for the next day.


Sunday morning I started the wiring project and was able to finish everything by about 2 PM. Luis helped with cleaning and polishing the glider, adding tapes and doing everything else that had to be done. We make a great team.

Getting Kilo-Yankee ready for the race

Since Sunday was the first official training day, the organizers handed out task sheets for all three classes. However, since the weather didin’t appear to be very good, I decided to fly locally for a couple of hours and check out if everything is working, plus get some stick and rudder time on the KY under my belt before taking it cross country. As it turned out, this was the right decision. About an hour into the flight, the big 17 AH battery, which I borrowed from Gugui, quit and all my fancy electronic gadgets went blank, including the radio. Since I was just hanging around the airport, this wasn’t much of a problem and I used my cell phone to call Luis and tell him that I was about to land. It’s still not totally clear why the battery quit, but there are several spare ones that I can use, so it should not be a problem in the long run.

Once I got airborne, I was shocked to discover how much standing water there was on the airfield and everywhere around it. The scenery looked a lot like Finland with its 10,000 lakes. Just take a look at the “before and now” photos below. The big puddles on the runways are going to pose some problems for the organizers, trying to safely launch and land 90-odd gliders. Hopefully, the drying trend, that has been forecast, will help alleviate the situation.

Otto Balod airfield in January 2012 (before)

Otto Balod airfield in December 2012 (now)

Sunday night brought another storm, hopefully the last one. I was awaken by the wind and got up at 4 to check on the glider, turn out that Luis did the same an hour earlier. Anyway, everything was okay.


The flying activities for the day were called off by 2 PM because of the strong wind and very soggy runways – a good call. Tonight is a New Year’s Eve party, so getting some added rest before is welcome. There will be an official party in the big tent, but Luis and I will be partying with the Brazilians who will be making their own assado (barbecue) and who knows what else. Have I mentioned that the food in the camp is fantastic, home cocked meals three times a day!!! I can only imagine what the tonight’s supper will be like.

Happy New Year to all the followers of this blog!