3.8.2013 Saturday – more blue thermals
More blue thermals
This was another hot day. Met man warned in the briefing that there is a front over Germany and heading towards Leszno. Depending on its route, we might have thunder again this evening.
Until so far we have had runway 24 in use but today that changed as we were on the runway 06. The Standard class is always on the South side and Club class on the North side on the grid.
The air mass was very dry today, so there weren’t any clouds marking the thermals. But we had something else instead, as we had yesterday as well. We have gaggles instead. We have for example seen big gaggles over the airfield, more than 25 gliders in the same thermal. It’s funny to see that the gaggle is actually like shape of a funnel, narrow on bottom and wide on top. I think – and hope – that pilots have been warned too many times that while flying in gaggle you should keep your eyes open and try not to do any solo acts.
The volleyball court is not in our use this weekend, as there is some tournament today and tomorrow. I can hear short whistles coming from there, perhaps I should go and see who are playing and is it proper beach volley = half-naked men, I hope ;-)
Hmm…talking about being half-naked…it would be great to try one of those pools in a good company. I am too shy – or busy with work during the day – so I can’t just jump in your pool. In a hot day like this it would be great to sit in the water and hear more about you. I would be glad to write about all of you guys, but usually when we see, it’s either time for towings, or landings or time to cook dinner. And last thing I want to do is disturb you while you are concentrating on day’s task or thinking how your day went. So if you have time, come and tell me your story, it’s not too late yet. I promise to make notes, so I will remember it in the morning ;-)
Evening
This blog has been written and published throughout the day during the competiton. After writing previous paragraph, I went outside and saw P3 (Kristian from Denmark) and his crew were preparing de-rigging the glider. We laughed with Anne that my Jedi-trick must have worked, as Kristian had flown quite well. I did “Jedi-trick” in the grid to Kristian, as he seemed quite stressed because the towings started surprisingly soon, and there wasn’t any waiting time like there has been on previous days. Also he was first ones to launch. You know from Star Wars how Jedis do that mind trick, moving the hand and telling for example “you will let me go”. Same way I told to Kristian: “You feel calm, you know what you are doing, and you will see all the thermals and your glider will be slippery today”. He didn’t win, but he was 11th and his team was quite happy.
As we spoke, suddenly we heard several Club class pilots saying on radio “10 km” announcements. It’s a shame that I didn’t have a good camera with me, as this would have been good situation to get pictures of several gliders landing at the same time. What a pity.
The weather was extremely hot, and we didn’t believe those warnings of thunderstorm possibility, as the horizon looked very peaceful. Then I got my first invitation to the pool, to the Danish pool! What a pity that YM landed out, and Danish guys had to go help him to carry the glider out from the field. He had actually finished the task, but had to turn back from the finish ring and land. So we had to go to the pool by ourselves with Anne, no boys…hmmh. Anyway, it felt so good that I said that Anne can find me from the pool whenever I am not working.
Later I saw some of those Club class pilots who had landed in a group. Their task was only 172 km, but they had flown more than 3 hours, because of the dry weather. They were really exhausted (I saw Elena and Claudio) and I didn’t want to trouble them with more questions.
I had dinner with Alfred Gai and his wife Gabi and “family Levin”, and we tried to guess tomorrow’s weather. After the dinner I saw Wojtek in the corridor and asked his opinion of coming days. He told me that they will have a meeting soon, as we could have rest day either on Sunday or Monday, since the weather seems poor on both days. They just want to choose the poorer one. I tried to convince him that best would be if the decision was made in the evening, so people can let their hair down, if you know what I mean. Then I had Gin and Tonic with Team Switzerland, and tried to have a look of tomorrow’s weather from my iPad. I didn’t have to try that very long, as soon our phones were beeping. Message was “4.08. is declared a rest day. No briefing, no meetings. Come back on Monday! Soon the bar was full of people and Jakub asked would people like to go dancing. Of course I was willing to go. 15 minutes after that came other message: ”Meteo warning: possible thunderstorm with gusts up to 70km/h after 2 AM”. I went looking for Weronika, as she has been asking me to come dancing with her. I had a look around the camping area, but couldn’t find her. Then I saw the horizon, which wasn’t that calm anymore. It looked like flashing cauliflower. I mean the sky was dark, but when the lightning struck, in the horizon was an outline of cauliflower shaped clouds. Thunder was still far away, as I couldn’t hear the sound at all.
From there starts a long story of a) clubbing in Poland b) how this blog affects on people c) cultural differences.
After I came back from the club, we sat at the restaurant terrace with Belgian team (and some others). We followed the upcoming thunder. I was a bit scared of the lightning, but someone (sorry, can’t remember who that was, perhaps Niel or Rik) said that I don’t have to be scared as they are only taking pictures for the Google Earth. That was a good one! 