Saturday, August 2, 2014

Day cancelled

The day was called off this morning. There was no chance to fly and it was good to know it early enough to be able to do something with the day. Three cars hit the road to Poznan for a "little" polish lunch and a walk around the square.

ready to try everything

and they did try everything

time to burn some of these calories

beautiful buildings as far as the eye can see



well, yes I do know the guy in the background ... Gonski!

It's going to be an early exit to bed tonight with lots of hopes for a flying day. Tomorrow we're having the Polish Night. The organisers are throwing a real polish party with lots of food and national drinks ... Gonski already knows that it can be painful - it took him a while today to report "system back to normal" after last night.

Friday, August 1, 2014

International Night

The International Night was very successful with lots of great food and drinks. Some will be suffering badly today ... The weather looks 50/50 to me but we have grid time already set so we're getting ready. We are right at the edge of the front that was overhead yesterday so when it moves a bit more to the east it will clear up here and become soarable to the west.

Aussie table

how is it going Zig?

Craig, Gonski, Zig, Stefan and Peter

go up Diana!

posing for a huge group photo taken from a crane

people thought I had a real tattoo on my arm

Ziggy with Sebastian and Asia, the Polish team sports psychologist

We were serving Vegemite sandwiches, Australian wine, Foster's beer and Bundy with Coke. As expected, Vegemite wasn't the European's favorite but there was one huge surprise. Sebastian kept adding more and more of it to his sandwiches ... who would expect that?

It was a great party with people talking, eating, drinking and dancing together. I was looking at the hangar full of flags and people from all over the world and had this simple reflection: why would anyone want to have wars? We are all here on this planet for just a very short period of time ... why not have fun instead? Well, we had great fun and we continue doing it for as long as we can.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

day cancelled for 15 and 18 meters

Open class will have a go and we have enough time to prepare for the international night tonight.

Have a look at today's paper - we are on the cover!



And two more photos for dirty Simon:



Tomorrow we will still be in a frontal zone but with significantly more chances of flying. It is definitely going to improve after tomorrow. There will still be plenty of time to work on the scores.

it's not easy ... this team captain job

It is quite challenging indeed. We end up sleeping like a rock every night ... It's fun though.
It all started with a little trick that we played on our container neighbors - Team USA:

Yanks in their car parking in front of the containers

five minutes later

This is their payback this morning (note our flag!):

our team container door


And this is not all ... our official flag disappeared from the pole but so did theirs. We suspect South Africans because they started behaving a bit dodgy. The FAI flag is still where it belongs as we were told to familiarize ourselves with Annex Z to the FAI sporting code that contains strict rules on stealing flags:


Oh, and I almost forgot about the reason we're here for. Tom had a great run yesterday and got a daily win:


Mac and Matt did awesome today:


They are warming up these boys!

And here is what I do when I get a second:





Tom landing


Few more photos from today's grid:

Zig with his note board for all the important information


hmmmm ... not sure about this tuggie

Just Soaring is doing great on the OLC since Matt changed his club settings

the Italians

Tomorrow evening we are having the international night. We brought Vegemite and managed to buy Australian wine here. We also got a slab of Foster's beer. Most of the team said that this is the worst Australian beer. Well, yes it is, but since we'll be serving something as (hmmmm ...) "specific" as Vegemite we might as well match it with bad beer :)

The weather for tomorrow looks 50/50. There might be rain in the morning but should clear up and become soarable towards lunch. We are ready for any option.

Monday, July 28, 2014

First day, good day

As we said this morning: you don't necessarily want to win the first day, you don't want to land out either. This is exactly what happened. All our boys did great today but even more importantly they all had good fun. This will be a very long 2 weeks of flying and it's essential to just have fun. So keep it up guys and we'll keep climbing that ladder.

Full results are available here:

Here are few photos that I managed to take today. I can tell that it's definitely time to clean the lens ...

pretty proud of this one

Tom landing



Craig landing




It is very hot and humid here and we have to make sure everyone keeps their fluid intake up. We are sweating like crazy and loosing heaps of water from our systems. It looks like the weather will stay like this for the whole week.
Now it's time to get some sleep before exciting day 2!
Good night.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

last practice day

Today was the last practice day and the championships start tomorrow. All pilots and crews are ready and in good spirits, especially after Ziggy fed them with the polish poppy seed cake ... and he got it from here:




The opening ceremony took place in the town's central square in the evening and we then went for the last team dinner before Day 1.





The boys did fly today and double-checked everything. Are you ready? Yes, we are!



another one for dirty Simon




happy Zig

"We are ready" dance with Mr. Gonski

And of course Simon got in trouble ... again