Just a quick recap of Day 1 for now, as I'm getting ready to go to the pilot's briefing on January 7. Day 1 was not a valid competition day for the Club and World classes because not enough competitors made the minimum qualifying distance of 100 km. I landed in a big stubble field with 23 or 24 other gliders from my class, field having covered some 96 km in very difficult conditions, much worse than forecast. The Cu's with 3000 meter cloud base never materialized, an we had to scratch around at between 500 and 1500 meters in broke up dry thermals, big gaggles and 57 km/h wind! Anyhow, everyone managed to safely land out, although several teams had problems retrieving the gliders. Luis and I had no problems and were back at the airfield around 8:45 PM, having stopped for gas and refreshments along the way. We left the Kilo-Yankee in the trailer overnight and rigged it this morning.
Off to the briefing now, today's another windy day...
As I promised earlier, here are several photos from the cancelled Day 1.
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| De Lorean - the official car of the Serbian Gliding Team |
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| Flags of the participant countries (24) in a nice setting with a restored Horten IV glider |
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| Yours truly ready for take-off on the first day of the competition |
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| Luis - the other half of the Serbian Team |
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| Blue, windy and low - not the weather we'd all been hoping for |
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| Kilo-Yankee after out landing in the same field with 23 others |
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| From left to right: Wayne Schmidt (RSA), Henrique Navarro (BRA), Simon Ruopp (GER) and Jeroen Verkuijl (NED) |
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| Sean Franke and Sarah Arnold (USA) |
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| The retrieval crews hard at work |
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| A caravan of trailers driving out of the field |
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| Argentinian sunset over a lake created by the rainiest summer in the last 50 years. |
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