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.
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| hopping in |
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| ready to go |
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| Ziggy was so nervous that he tried to bite in the water hose |
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| back at the empty field |
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| warm welcome |
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| 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:
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| witches from the back |
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| fire burning down |
The met man got rid of his pants and was carried away on a ladder. His forecasts are not always accurate ...
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| let's get rid of the met man |
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| he managed to escape and returned to the airfield |
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| proud Ziggy |
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| 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.
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| daily winner prize |
Here are the results:
And I also managed to climb one position up and reduce the points difference to the leading girls:
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 ...
Marta, this was a fantastic flight of yours. My congratulations! I was stunned when in the late evening your call sign jumped to the top of the list after sitting at the bottom all day long, and I strongly disapprove the complaint filed by my compatriots.
ReplyDeleteGood luck for the remaining days,
Christof Maul
Respect & Congrats.
ReplyDeleteBobik
Thank you Guys! Keep your fingers crossed for the last day :-)
ReplyDelete