20 August 2008

German Open Day 2

We tried to fly a 53 km task on Monday, but it was extremely difficult to get into the air and stay there. The wind was blowing hard from the south, we were starting with a crosswind into a lee side situation, thermals were light and broken, drifting was not possible because it drifted you into tiger country.
Oli landed again and got up very late, then Lukas, Hans and Elio came back even later. Hans was the only one who had a reflight at about 5pm, and he was the only one who made goal. About half of the field signed a complaint that was turned into a protest because the flying was not safe and also the ordered launch did not properly work, it was more than one and a half hours to get 23 pilots into the air because we had many lock outs and weak links broken. The chances for the pilots were not fair, depending on when they got into the air they ended up on course. After the protest, the day was neutralized.
Today the wind was even stronger than yesterday and was cancelled straight away, with the prediction of gusts up to 60 km/h on ground level. I had seen a huge line of cloud cover on the satellite, moving at about 200km/h, it arrived here just after midday.
My Mum always wanted to see castle „Sans Souci“ at Potsdam, a 45 km drive from here, so today we went there and had a look at the grand gallery of portraits. The most famous one, a Rubens, had been taken to Russia after the war and is currently in St Petersburg at the Eremitage. The castle and the beautiful gardens and fountains reminded me of Versailles close to Paris. Definitely worth a visit!
Tomorrow the frontal system is expected to be through, and I hope the wind will ease off as well. There is plenty of space for towing at Altes Lager, the runway is big enough for a 747 to land there, but it is only straight east-west, and the grassy areas around it are not prepared for towing, which makes it difficult to take off with a strong ssw wind.

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