The day started with awards at briefing for those who had flown a two seater and outlanded it even though they weren't part of the competition. It was particularly funny that one of the pilots was a contest organiser, and the other was crew for the Australian team!
We hope that Steve's gnome looks really good in his garden at home Ð smirk.
The contest between Bloomi (tasksetter) and Uwe (weatherman) on who can get the best response is hotting up. Bloomi says "Good morning ladies". Uwe says "Good morning ladies, and husbands of the ladies, and families of the ladies and...". Uwe wins and looks smugly at Bloomi.
Things were a little less rushed today so I finally found time to find the club Pirat and take a photo. There are many people who talk about painting shark's teeth on gliders, but the included photo shows what I think is by far the best effort.
Which a forecast of possible thunderstorms and stronger winds, they changed the task on the grid to task C and handed everyone a new task sheet. The TV cameras where there and recorded the briefing on the grid. This is the third time I think during this competition that we've seen TV cameras.
Another thing we've seen a lot of over here is bugwipers. Then again, we've seen a lot of bugs over here too. I went for a bike ride with Trotts this evening and I don't recommend it without glasses and keeping your mouth closed! There are more bugs on the glider after the flights than we are used to seeing in Australia. Every serious pilot seems to use these here.
Some of you may know Steffi who was busy programming task C into her Winpilot while I photographed her bugwipers. Winpilots are something else that just about everyone uses here. I don't think I've seen a competitor without it. As Trotts learned yesterday, they are a major asset with airspace.
Another great thing about this competition is that the women fly and the men wash the gliders, and ballast them, and prepare them, and hold umbrellas over the lady pilots. How can I leave this paradise where the world works the way it should?
Task C was an Assigned Area Task. The day started well with streeting. And our girls felt at home! They flew well and finished 5th and 7th for the day. I heard Turns calling a 5.5m/s climb over the radio at one point! Swaantje won Club Class today so everyone was really happy tonight over a BBQ and some of Ralph's excellent potatoes.
Tomorrow is the last day. We feel we've all learned a lot this year, and gained an appreciation of what we need to learn. The girls are doing great, especially when you consider that they are flying LS4s against current generation D2s, LS8s and ASW28s.