the last day

So here we are again. The very last day of the comp. Weather looks totally unpredictable. It's been the case every single day in here though so nobody is surprised. We had the usual briefing at 10 and will have one more in 30 minutes. Rumors say we will have a task today.

Ziggy hugging Agnete the best flying girl - he wants to get some of her talent :-)

group shot this morning

day cancelled in the air

The initial task was a 220 km RT and got modified into a 125 km RT. We went up at 2:30 pm and the day got cancelled in the air. People are questioning the decision but looking in the direction of the task ... I don't know. Recalling my day before yesterday's flight everything can be manageable. Since part of the task was set in an unlandable area the decision was probably right. 

Anyways we'll be going out for a nice seafood dinner with white wine tonight.

the weather window on the grid

weather in task direction

alternate program for the day

girls on the grid dancing to Abba

Task B

Ziggy came up with the planking idea this morning ...

wing stand planking

fuselage planking

turtle wax made him slide down

thinking of another planking idea

coffee and cakes day

We used yesterday's free day and went to an old fashioned cosy coffee shop in Arboga for a good coffee and tasty cakes. A power nap in the afternoon and Danish beer in the evening closed up the nice rest day.

We will be flying today!

Zig already needs a visit

Ogonki on the way to the cake shop

yummy

I won the day!

This was the hardest one ever and I have never been more certain before that I'm gonna land out. The question was only where. After the initial struggle over the field between 300m and 700m I decided it was time to go and off I went together with two other gliders. We kept flying together to the first area, got somehow low and everyone started developing their own ideas. I picked a field which luckily was the only little sunny spot in the area and saved my butt over it. From there on there was only me by myself and the hardly soarable air mass with  climbs around 0.5 m/s, cloud bases at 800 m, winds of some 24 km/h and some unlandable area underneath. I kept picking my outlanding fields and managed to climb out ("climb out" means 800m ;-) over them and continued to the next one. This was basically it. I kept doing glides of some 5 km or so to the next so called thermal. Every single time when I found a nice field with one or more gliders already on it I managed to climb and thought: "shit, I have to keep working and get moving". And so I did. I called base 40 km out from 600 m  to tell them to hook up the trailer and promised that I will try to get as close as I can. I kept working and it was getting harder and harder. I had to fly the final leg with headwind which was blowing me farther away every time I stopped for some altitude. This time "circling was flying backwards" indeed. I had to try to make the best out of it and started to follow the rule "fly the lift" trying to use every single centimeter of a climb or reduced sink. I turned the last TP 10 km out and looked at the airfield. It looked soooo far away from 400 m with headwind but I had to keep going. "It's bloody far away" - I said to myself. Luckily there are very good fields all the way to the airfield coming in from north. I was able to switch to the CTAF just 5km out where I was sure I'm gonna make the runway. I landed ... and completed the task on a day where everybody else landed out. The people on the ground were jumping, clapping their hand and giving me hugs. This was just amazing and even a bitter event that I experienced later on can't take this feeling away from me. I did it and I did it by myself. This was one of the best flights in my life.

hopping in

ready to go

Ziggy was so nervous that he tried to bite in the water hose

back at the empty field

warm welcome

I'm back!

Shortly after my landing the stewards informed me about a complaint that has just been filed by one of the teams. I had no idea what this was about and then I read this on the official board:

The Complaint

Remarkably the complaint has been filed right after my landing at the airfield at 6:25 pm with completed task although it apparently has been written at 3:20 pm (more than 3 hours earlier). Maybe this is just a coincidence. I just feel a bit disappointed that anyone could suspect other competitors could even think about acting as described in the complaint. Anyway, any comments are pointless since the decision has been made:

The Decision

The day ended with the famous Baba Yaga night. The girls were singing and dancing round the fire. Some were hard to recognize.

witches from the back

fire burning down

The met man got rid of his pants and was carried away on a ladder. His forecasts are not always accurate ...

let's get rid of the met man

he managed to escape and returned to the airfield

proud Ziggy

usual thing ... Zig and the girls

We are after the morning briefing. It's raining like crazy and there will be no task today. Here are some impressions from the briefing:

Today's prize for the daily winner was the traditional Swedish cheesecake (in Swedish "Ostkaka" for Ost - cheese and Kaka - cake). we're supposed to eat it warm with blueberries and cream. Since I'm a cheesecake lover this is the perfect prize for me.

daily winner prize

Here are the results:

http://www.soaringspot.com/wwgc_2011/results/club/daily/day5.html

And I also managed to climb one position up and reduce the points difference to the leading girls:

http://www.soaringspot.com/wwgc_2011/results/club/total/day5.html

I just got these yesterdays pics from the Danish Team with a comment: "Mr. and Mrs. Cool". If I only was as cool as I looked before that flight ...

an extremely tough one

Yesterdays day was the hardest one so far. It started up low - I was at the cloud base at 700 m after release. The bases went up to 1100 m in the vicinity of the field and some showers started to develop here and there. The very strong winds (35 kph) were messing up the thermals all the way up. Although I wasn't really high I figured it was the time to go. 3 hours run and there were more and more showers. I was doing well until the last area. The way back home turned out to be longer than expected and I was trying to stay as high as possible dodging the showers that covered the whole area. I actually already had my final glide with a nice safety margin some 50 km out when I managed to use a developing Cb and climbed up to almost 2000m. Big showers on the way washed me back down and I called that I'll be landing out 15km short ... I tried to get up over and over again moving 1 or 2 km at the time and getting blown away by the wind. During my 5th try, where the vario showed +3 m/s on one half of the circle and - 3 m/s on the other one I managed to climb high enough to complete the task and reach the field. I have never been that tired during this comp before. I came back right on time. A huge thunderstorm wall effectively cut the way back for the remaining gliders and we had very many outlandings. This was a 1000 points day and gave me the chance to climb up to position 5 in the total score.

Asia was just lacking luck yesterday. After the launch of my class they stopped launching for another hour or so. She was in the last row of her class and the showers were already over the field when she was up. She tried to go on the task and move to the better air up north but it just wasn't possible. She landed out. Everyone was sad and pissed at the same time. She was leading from the day one and such a silly thing can mess it all up. She was not the only one though. Swaantje, who is flying in my class and was 2nd after 3 days also dropped all the way down in a very similar situation yesterday.

Today is another day but the weather looks veeeery complicated. We are on the grid, waiting for the morning briefing and the decisions. If we're gonna go flying it will be tough again.

They cancelled the Baba Yaga night yesteray due to that many outlandings and extremely strong winds. It's supposed to be tonight instead.

Ziggy is full of s.... We all know that. We got to the tie downs this morning to get everything ready and he goes: "O kurwa!", which means "Oh shit!" in a very bad way. What the hell has happened now I thought. And then he added: "I forgot to bring the beer!". I have to say that he brings 2 beers every morning and puts them in a bucket full of washing water. This is the beer for later and we drink it after I land. Does it mean I won't be landing back here today? Hopefully not ...

Leading the Team Cup!

We're giving it another try today. Gris is set and briefing as usual at 10. The air mass visually looks dryer than yesterday. All predictions are showing thunderstorms in the afternoon though. We'll see what the met man is gonna say.

Yesterdays secret Polish-Danish meeting went well and we all had a very good time. The tactics didn't quite work out - no one got drunk ;-).

We will have the traditional Baba Yaga night with a huge fire and broom dances around it tonight. Hopefully the wooden hangars won't get burned down since the fire is planned pretty close to them.

there is gonna be a big fire

There is one more good news. The organizers published the Team Cup scores yesterday. Without even knowing it we've been leading since day one. Hopefully we can keep it up:

http://wwgc2011.se/seeyou/TeamCup.pdf

yesterdays evening Cb

day cancelled

We ended up practicing maneuvers on the grid and back on the tie downs in the rain. After 2 different AAT task versions the OD's from the north came closer and closer and it became clear that we won't escape the rain. The day has been cancelled and we're working on developing an alternate program for the day. Ziggy just invited the whole Danish Team for the polish beer evening in out hotel room tonight warning them that the recovery process might take up to two days. Agnete suspects this could be a tactical move.

the morning sky

on the grid

airworthiness test - if it's gonna break under his weight you better not fly it

trying to figure out which one is the valid task version

another day, another try

The cloud cover is starting to break up and we're waiting for the morning briefing with MN all ready to go on the grid. I'm in the very last row of my class today. Hopefully we can get some good flying in. We'll see ...

No Task Today

Sunday morning - 8/8. We just had the morning briefing and heard the sacramental No Task Today. Therefore we're thinking about visiting Eskilstuna ZOO :-)

Yesterday was a good day again and I managed to climb up a bit in the list. I was flying all by myself, never met anyone and started to think that I have to be flying a wrong task. Since this one has been changed couple of times and we ended up with the version C it was an option. Luckily this wasn't the case and I came back with a pretty good speed. Considering the mistakes I am aware of ... still pretty good.
Asia was daily third and keeps her red leader's vest increasing the points difference.

We also had a visit from Stockholm yesterday and finished the day with a nice dinner at the river.

our guests

dinner at the river

downtown Arboga

Zig made an experiment and left two cans of Polish beer at the tie downs over night wondering if they are still gonna be there in the morning. What a surprise - they were there! This wouldn't be the case during a male competition though. I guess girls just drink less beer.