Mat, Gunnar and myself went to get 14 (Lisa's LS4) ready. But instead of going to briefing at 10:00 I decided to borrow the Rav4 and go to a chemist in Grossedubro for some hayfever stuff.
As I was driving out past the hangar, I saw Sabine and some others standing by the DG1000. I decided discretion was the better part of getting by in Germany so stopped to ask if she would interpret for me.
I had already asked Mat for some strategic phrases in German which I had written down on my hand. As I started to ask Sabine about coming to the apotheke she said “you know this is your ride don’t you, are you a bit sick?”. I told her that I would probably crawl over broken glass to get a fly of the DG.
Anyway, later in the day and feeling better now. We saw Lisa away and I went to the back of the grid. Dieter Mihelin was already there with the DG 1000, comp number AX. Dieter is an instructor at Klix and took some time out from his role in the competition organising to arrange this flight for me, since I had asked about the DG earlier. I can’t thank him enough for his time.
Also getting ready for some impromptu flying were Uwe (the weather frog) in a Jantar and there was a DG500 from somewhere other than Klix. Sabine in the LS1 UX said she would follow us around. In the event, she went around but we didn’t see her and were not able to call her on the radio.
Dieter gave me a briefing on the basic DI functions for the DG and explained some of the less obvious systems like the auto trim adjuster (a bit like Glassflugel trimmers). I asked him how long we would be up for, thinking it would be a local flight of maybe an hour or so and Dieter said he had a task planned which would take “two or three hours”. I couldn’t believe my luck.
After the last of the competitors launched, we jumped into AX and with the other non competers were all put up in the air. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the task before leaving other than I knew it was about 300km, It turned out it was almost the same task as club class but our first turn point was a few km short of theirs.
The trip was actually 370km from Klix to Oehna (south west of Berlin by 50km or so). East along the southern edge of Berlin airspace to a town called Eisenhuttenstadt on the Polish border then south down the Polish border, home to Klix.
We released from the Wilga at 600m and then headed for a nearby gaggle, leaving that for a second gaggle we saw Uwe and Sabine circling. Along with the DG 500 and other assorted aircraft. It was a little crowded but I was not really ready for what was to come. I had heard stories about flying in Germany but the reality is breathtaking.
We headed off on track working a height band, 1200 – 1700m or thereabouts, with no particular rush. I began to wake up that this was not really like home, when I realised there had always been gliders in sight since we got in the first thermal. Initially as we headed out there were other gliders on track with us, late starters from club class and other non competition gliders. As we got further from home we began to see others which were not from Klix.
About 30 km out I could see a big gaggle ahead and drawn to it as a promise of lift I pushed on. As I got there I decided that it wasn’t for me. I skirted past to get the most advantage I could but we weren’t really low so I wasn’t going in. I asked Dieter and he counted 14 gliders but I am sure there were more. It was a gaggle from a different competition.
This leg took us over some large bodies of water at Senftenberg. These are abandoned open cut coal mines. There are similar open cuts, some not yet flooded and still in use, throughout this part of the old East Germany. This patch gave us a tiny pause as we had to gain enough height to jump over it.
Pushing on we skirted the restricted area of the military airfield at Holzdorf. Easily visible on our left when we were at 1500m.
We finally reached our first turnpoint, the aerodrome at Oehna. Dieter had been pointing out prospective landing points all along the way. It had taken almost 1.5 hrs to do this leg and I thought Dieter would pull the pin on the flight for being too slow. Before we left we had talked about optionally returning home from somewhere on the second leg, if it was necessary. However, we kept going and I wasn’t going to argue.
The second leg was pretty much the same, working the same height band, until we got about a third the way along. Then problems. We passed up some mediocre thermals and pushed on to find ourselves at 600m and an outlanding imminent. Nothing had worked for some time and the little that we found this low was broken and irregular. I thought we were into the fields for sure and was fighting my Australian instincts to pick the yellow ones. However, we managed to get a scratchy thermal and stay with it, holding height for some time. It came good and we were able to work our way back up to 1300m and push out of that area. It had been a very quiet cockpit for what felt a long while as both of us concentrated on staying up and what our alternatives might be.
Strangely enough, before this thermal and for all the thermals after, if you were the first there it would be no time at all before others appeared in the distance and zipped over to you. However, we never saw anyone down amongst the weeds with us. I had thought we had blown the task by the amount of time we had spent grovelling, but as we clawed our way back up again, we saw a glider with red tips I recognised from the first leg. Just about 5 km to the east of our low point is a zeppelin hangar! It was financed recently by a consortium who wanted to restart the zeppelin industry in Germany, so I was told.
The picture included doesn't do the structure justice. It was visible from about 40km away though the misty air like a rising moon on the horizon. What appears small roads in the front are major runways. The area of the structure is bigger than some small towns in Germany. In fact there are no towns big enough in that picture to be recognisable (there are some small hamlets if you look real hard). Apparently the financiers went bust and it is used as a holiday camp now.
As we neared the second turn point Eisenhuttenstadt on the Polish border, we started to catch up with club class stragglers from Klix. We pushed on due south to steer away from the border and I could see the big power station at Cottbus ahead. I was ready to do some cooling tower soaring, but there was no need. The gaggles were getting bigger as we caught up with club class and they acted as sufficiently good thermal markers. As we were catching up to the main crowd we decided to nip over closer to the Polish border (the clouds looked better over there anyway) and we got out of the main stream of gliders. We messed about and flew past the abandoned Russian military airfield at Grosse Bademuesel, then started going for home.
Dieter had suggested we take the detour to let the club class finish before us, but even so, as we approached home we could hear that those we had been flying with this leg were not far ahead and still finishing. We had 400m above required glide so we were well in, but I decided to finally do some cooling tower flying at Boxberg (15km to the north of Klix). While we were playing around there we heard some of the standard class finishing, including our two Lisas. Still wanting to stay out of the road of the finishers, Dieter, considerate as ever, took me on a short tour toward Bautzen.
We went past Klix at about 1100m and pushed on till we were about 600m. It was then I heard Dieter say Uh Oh. He had not been paying attention to the final glide calculator and our margin back to the strip was only 100m above glide. We turned and headed for home which looked REAL shallow in the canopy, but it wasn’t moving up. However, we got to the edge of some woods which we had to cross for about 5 km to get to Klix. It was crunch time, neither of us wanted to risk it so we did some circles in a half hearted attempt to find lift and had a look at our field options. The one we chose was a bit curvy and looked quite short. Maybe it was 4-500m but Dieter did a minimum energy approach and we got in comfortably. I wanted to use the wheel brakes but it became apparent we were not going too far past the middle of the field.
The obligatory spectators turned up and Dieter had a chat to them after he used his mobile to tell Klix where we were (I could hear the laughter from the office over the phone). A retrieve crew were dispatched and we derigged in the field. The drive home took less than 15 minutes, where we rigged AX ready for the next day. By this stage Aussie base was getting so impatient they put a call on the PA for me to come and get tea.
For those who were not aware of the Klix tradition, anyone who nearly gets home at this airfield is awarded a garden gnome, to signify the pilot made it to the front yard but not into the house. I got mine this morning at the briefing in front of all the competition pilots and crews, approximately 120 people. Dieter was fortunate enough to get one as well!
Oh, and the hayfever is completely gone.
