flying day, no time for photos

We did fly today although it didn't look like this in the morning. The sky was covered with thick layers of clouds and it was even raining. As the day progressed, the wind picked up and cleared the white and grey stuff off the sky.

Both classes flew AAT's. It wasn't easy with winds aloft showing over 30 kts but most of us managed. I'm very proud of Ziggy who did have to fight against this wind in a dry SZD-55. Great effort Zig!

I learned hips today managing to stay behind one of the best pilots for almost the whole run. It was very interesting to watch what and why he was doing. Very valuable experience in my first flight with 18-m tips. It will take a while to re-set my mind to this incredible performance. Handling of this glider is magnificent even at 600 kg. You just gotta love it!

Here are the results in Sports Class:

http://soaringspot.com/cscn2013/results/mixed/daily/day1.html

and Club Class:

http://soaringspot.com/cscn2013/results/club/daily/day1.html

As well as me flight on the OLC:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=3451751

I has some issues with the build in logger and ended up handing in a Flarm back-up trace. A big thank you to John Orton for letting me use his spare NANO for the rest of the comp since we haven't figured out the problem with the main logger. The trace just stopped half way through although there was no power or other issues. Very strange.

We will be flying again tomorrow so it's an early exit for us today. Good night.

day 1 - cancelled

No flying today. The sky is still grey and there is some weird stuff dripping down - something unusual here. It should turn good tomorrow and we will be flying all the remaining days.

In the meanwhile John made an aerial for us to take to Poland as a base antenna. It's great in its simplicity and should give us around 150 km range out of a handheld Icom. Another organisational thing sorted.

Since today was probably the last non-flying day we used it for Banrock Station lunch to keep the tradition alive and support the competition sponsors. It was worth going and we've met these two little gorgeous and not really shy creatures:

Food was good too and we really enjoyed it.

We will see what tomorrow brings.

The scoring will be available here:

http://soaringspot.com/cscn2013/pilots/

the eagle has landed

We all have arrived safely in Waikerie for the Nationals. Griffo, Michael and the Wilga came by air, followed by Ziggy and Kane with a barrel of fuel on the road and myself going via Adelaide to hook up TF and meet them in Waikerie. It was a long but very successfull day.

ground crew ready to go (with 120 liters of AVGAS)

Griffo and Michael in Pinnaroo

professional refuelling

Our room was waiting for us in Waikerie and it was good to see all the friends. It's hot like hell in here. Even today with 8/8 cover we're getting 38 degrees.

Wilga did tow yesterday getting practicing pilots in the air and she did very well even in 35 degrees heat. The performance wasn't booming of course but she wasn't that much weaker than the Pawnee and that was a very positive surprise. No other problems either so let's touch wood it stays this way.

getting serious at the airfield

the winch pawnee

Craig testing instruments

if this is not the most beautiful glider than I don't know

It looks like the bad weather is going to stay here for one more day and then we can get going. All is ready and set for lots of fun. We are all registered and weighed.

I will be flying the 29 in 18 m configuration for the first time. I'm bit scared knowing that it's gonna be even better than 15 m tips. It also turned out that I can fill the glider all the way up and I'm still 10 kg under the reference weight of 600 kg - so I don't have to bother with water flow meters etc.

Just Soaring competitor no. 1

TF with long wings - can't wait

Gon'ski is going to Leszno for the Worlds with us!