The strong SW winds did not cause significant problems at altitude since there was good streeting. Dave told me, he was running cloud streets on the into wind leg and only needed two thermals. However, when the competitors returned to Luesse, the surface wind was gusting to 30 kts. We saw some hairy landings.
Jerzy did very well, finishing 8th for the day with a speed of 115.03 kph and achieving 765 points out of 832 possible. Overall Jerzy is now tied for 8th place in the 18m Class. There are great opportunities to advance, since the point spread to 5th place is only 10 points! However, he could just as easily slip back since 11th place is only 45 points behind Jerzy.
Dave's speed of almost 100 kph would have put him in 18th place for the day. Unfortunately, as it turns out, he hit airspace on the first leg. The penalty for airspace violation is outlanding at the point where he entered the airspace. So for the time being, Dave ended up with 13 points for the day - ouch! He had turned off the airspace warning because he was climbing close to the bird sanctuary north of Luesse. Dave didn't turn it back on right away when he went on course and bumped into the FL35 ceiling of the Berlin airspace. I will be scrutinizing his file and discussing this with the scorer tomorrow to ensure Dave's altitude has been properly corrected for the actual pressure of the day and the calibration of the logger.
The weather tomorrow is forecast to be similar to today but a bit drier and less wind. In other words, conditions could be strong. Looking ahead to Friday, it is likely that tomorrow will be the last contest day of the 30th Worlds. A lot of pilots will be pulling out all stops.
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