Friday 5th August 2011 – first official practice day
10:15 Day starts gray and clouds are really low, if I use my imagination I can see blue sky between the clouds. I’m glad it’s warm – no gloves needed.
In the briefing Christof told to pilots that if the wing hits the grass in the beginning of the towing, it is best to release the rope immediately, as the grass “sucks” the wing and it’s really difficult to get the wing up again. So that was what we saw yesterday during launches. Berndt told that we are under cloud mass and the air is pretty moist. I would say it’s really moist since I need my umbrella as I don’t want to get wet, also rubber boots would be great to have. I can see many girls here walking here in their rubber boots (and shorts). Good packing, have to say.
12:00 In the briefing teams were asked to put their flags on the poles by themselves and UK team raised their flag with proper ceremony – with of course their national anthem. Also Christof and Bernd had an intense conversation over the forecast maps and they decided that the day is cancelled. The sky most probably won’t clear on coming hours at least not enough for us to have gliding weather, besides the air mass is still very humid.
In the afternoon I could see pictures of a beer in people’s eyes, and dark clouds were building up around Musbach. Then we got official weather warning of heavy rain and thunderstorms. We were in Shinken Stüble with Marina, Wojciech, Andrej and Brian, when really heavy rain started. Also thunder was just above us and we were thinking if the antennas on the campground are still up. It might have been interesting holding tents down in pouring rain and hoping that the thunder wouldn’t hit on the antenna.
