At briefing this morning, Swaantje is awarded a raincoat for winning the club class yesterday. We were happy with the teams performance with Turns finishing in 5th place and Trotts in 7th. Bloomie and Uwe join forces for their "Good Morning call" rather than competing with each other for the loudest response today. Pilots are all given copies of the "Segelflug-Bildkalender 2004" today.
It's a bit windy today. Its not so common over here for it to be windy. We feel that we probably have more experience in these conditions than many other competitors.
Standard Class is second on the grid today. There are photos taken of the pilots in each class
Lots of people are running around the grid with cameras today. Keith has covered the probe of Turns glider with Koalas and this is attracting many of those cameras.
There is a delay launching while they wait for cloudbase to lift. There is a Nimbus 3 (the father of one of the competitors) flying as a sniffer. As time passes, the task is changed to B.
Trotts announces problems between the Winpilot and the Volkslogger again. Helge comes over and helps sort it out. We need to install Keith's Winpilot. We are told that Lisa has an older version which has some communications bugs sometimes.
Finally they launch and we go back to set up "Radio Australia", and listen for the start times.
A few minutes later, the club class gliders are towed back. It has been deemed too windy for them.
Turns starts at 14:38 but Trotts misses the start and starts 9 minutes later.
We take the times to the office and wait. The task is 2 hours. The boys go into town to buy some storage boxes for next year. We wait.
Its been just over 2 hours when we hear Turns on final glide on the radio. Crews get ready. Trotts is not too far behind her. "SP" arrives and we calculate roughly she is over 100kph. We are delighted. She is too. She's stayed with the gaggle the whole way around and learned a lot. They have only beaten her because of her lower performance in the LS4.
Shortly after Trotts also lands. The preferred approach is straight in. The gliders come in fast dumping water, then slow a little, deploy airbrakes and land straight ahead. You have to land long to allow the other gliders space behind you.
The scores go up. Akemi has won the day at 105kph, and is delighted. The organisers are also happy. They've had 10 contest days in a row. That's pretty rare over here. Turns is equal 7th at 101 kph (IGC trace) and Trotts is 12th at 95kph (IGC trace).
Tonight there is a big party. They've been roasting a dead cow wrapped in tinfoil over a huge spit most of the day.
There is a trio of singers entertaining in the hangar. The bar and the cocktail bar are open.
Its traditional here for the pilots to give the organisers presents for running the competition. No-one is forgotten. Many dozen specially labelled wine is handed out. The projector has images of the relevant people as the prizes are given. Its all well choreographed. There is a proper sound and video control box and operator. For Thomas, the scorer, who modelled the T-shirts earlier in the week, there is a pair of speedos for him to further his modelling career. A handheld screen is produced and he is a good sport and strips off and puts on the speedos.
Tomorrow is the presentation and closing ceremony.