Day 3

The high pressure behind yesterday's cold front is building. It is still very windy but the cloud base is higher than yesterday and was going up during the morning. The sky is filled with cloud streets running west to east. However, due to the instability in the airmass, there is still some cycling and large areas can be shaded.

15m Class was at the front of the grid and Dave (P8) in the front row, was one of the first to launch at around 11:20. Unfortunately he got caught in a down-cycle and had to land for a re-light while the launch of the 18m Class was in progress. Dave was launched again behind the 18m class.

The 130 gliders are being gridded in two blocks, one on the north side of the 1000 ft wide (yes, wide!) runway, the other on the south side. Within each block the gliders are lined up four abreast and 17 rows deep. The whole grid is being launched by now 11 Wilgas and one Robin Remorqueur in a little more than an hour. There are some complaints that the launch is still taking too long, so the organizers are trying to get two more tow planes.

Jerzy (XG) was one of the first to launch in 18m.

The 15m task is a 420 km speed task mainly to the south east. The 18m task is a 492 km speed task also in south easterly direction, crossing into Polish airspace. Open class was sent on a 3.5 hr area task in the same general area with a distance between 381 km and 582 km. That is pretty ambitious for the class at the back of the grid. According to Dr. Jack the conditions in the southern part of the task area should be the best. (Luesse is marked with the number 6 on the chart).

Jerzy started at 12:58 - we expect him back between 5:30 and 6p.

Dave started at 13:40 along with the majority of the 15m Class. It looks like a good start to me - I don't think the delay due to the relight was a disadvantage, except for the extra 50 Euros (80 dollars!) he had to spend on the tow. We expect Dave back around the same time as Jerzy.

Stay tuned for the next post!