Monday 26/7/04
The party last night included the local politician and other dignitaries, and there were speeches. We couldn't understand any of it and our translators were not interested in helping at all. They would respond with 'Its just the usual political BS speech -- you are better off not understanding it. 'There was free champagne for everyone and the politician gave every pilot a little piece of folded Hessian, pinned over with a sprig of lavender and an inspirational message printed on a slip of paper slotted inside. We never got further than working out that it was some quote from St Francis of Assisi. There were girls in traditional costume walking around with nibbles and the champagne. The locals here are a Sorbian (not Serbian) minority and all signs on the roads and in the towns are in both German and Sorbic.
Today was the first Official Practice Day and we were called to briefing by the lone bugler on the roof of one of the buildings.
It is of course a women's championship so there are childcare facilities, and the children have activities on the airfield (today there were baby goats) and bus trips to nearby places of interest.
The welcome briefing was first and included many more speeches by politicians and officials from aero clubs and all over the place. The only thing we got out of 1 hour of speeches was a translation of a comment made by one politician, who had used the word for sailboat, not sailplane.
We made a bit of an impression by draping the Australian flag over the front of the desk we sit at.
There were handouts of a sticker and a very professional colour booklet advertising two competitions run by Aeroteam Klix (ours was the second one). There were heaps of great photos in it and maybe some great words to advertise gliding -- but I can't read it. I will bring an extra copy back to Australia with me so those organising major competitions in Australia can see how others (with bigger budgets) do it.
There are also lots of sponsorship banners displayed in the briefing hangar. The photo I've included is just one example. All pilots are issued with mobile phones which we can use to call crew.
Every crew car has been issued with a flag to identify it on field. It looks wonderful to see the cars towing gliders to the grid with the flags flying. We had to sign for the flags, they are 15 Euro each if we loose them ($30!)
There was the competition briefing immediately after the speeches, and we were able to ask Lisa Trotter's crew Sonja (some may remember her from Benalla) to take notes then give us the important points in English straight after the main briefing finished.
There are 6 Wilga tugs now -- 5 are blue and yellow, and one is silver.
The day was in some doubt so they told us to stand by for a 1:30pm decision. The day was then cancelled but the organisation called for loggers from the previous day's flying so they could practice their side of things.
As soon as the day was cancelled, the sun came out and there was some lovely looking cu. We ate lunch outside the caravans and bemoaned the fact that the day was called off. 1 hour later it was raining. I guess the weatherman does understand what is going on -- just as well he does because we can't figure out the weather so far, except that it must be like Melbourne: four seasons in 1 day.
We all headed off in different directions. Swaantje, Sabine, Steve and I went to Bautzen to the post office. The architecture of the town is amazing, nothing like anything in Australia (that I've seen). Its sobering to contemplate that many structures would have been built long before settlement of Australia.
We found a shop window that was dedicated to advertising gliding to people in the town. Also many of the shops we visited had the professional Aeroteam Klix competition brochure available on the counter as a handout. The people in this country are glider-aware!