Canadian Team Manager - WGC 2008

Closing Ceremony

2008-08-18T02:10:00.008-04:00

Saturday morning we needed to get up early again to pack and be ready for the official closing ceremony at 10 am. Maria had brought along a book with wonderful photographs of Canadian landscapes. Virginia added a dedication, signed by us all, naming every staff member and thanking them for making our stay so memorable. I believe our hosts truly appreciated this memento of our stay when we presented it to them.

The awards and closing ceremony was very impressive. Once more, we were all decked out in our team uniforms. The top ten pilots in every class were named individually and called up on stage with third, second and first on the podium while their national flags were raised behind them and the national anthem of the winner's nation was played by a live orchestra. I kept thinking how close Jerzy had come to be in the top ten in the 18m Class. In the overall score Jerzy had placed in the top ten on five out of 8 contest days, getting as high as 5th on day 5. Even slipping to 11th on the last contest day, Jerzy made Canada the highest placing non-European nation in the 18m Class. Congratulations, Jerzy!

Some of the point results were very close. In the 18m class the point spread between 10th and 8th was 6 points and there was a tie for 6th place.

Besides having a World Champion in the 18m Class, France also won the Team Cup which is based on a team score of all classes, combining the results of Rieti and Luesse.

There was a big cheer in the German camp when Michael Sommer, the defending world champion took the center podium again in open class and second place also went to a German pilot.

Hungary, as the host of the next World Championships, was very happy with the decisive win of György Gulyas in the 15m Class.

The Russian aeroclub gave a special award to the three female competitors.

The FAI flag gets handed over to Hungary, the host of the next World Gliding Championships.

After the ceremony we said our good-byes to some old friends and many new ones, in particular the Serbian team from Vancouver, Branko, Nicola and Dimitri. I had a flight to catch, so I was the fist to depart. After having spent almost every waking minute with the Team for the past three weeks it felt strange and sad to leave the rest of the Team behind.

This was my third Worlds and my first as team manager.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you, the readers of this blog, for following along and for your messages of support. They helped a lot to motivate and encourage our competitors. Also, again a heartfelt thank-you to all our sponsor who supported the team and helped making it happen. I truly hope, one day we will see two Canadian pilots each in at least two classes, so we can effectively team fly.

End of Blog - 2008 Luesse

Farewell Party

2008-08-18T02:02:00.003-04:00

It was raining pretty much all day Friday. We spent the day sorting out and settling outstanding accounts with the organizers as well as preparing the gliders for shipping and to go back to the owners.

At 7p we joined the other teams for a big farewell party. It was a nice surprise to meet our old friend Darek and his daughters at the party. Darek was a very active SOSA member in the ninties before he moved to the Carribean with his family. He and his daughters, who were a riot at SOSA then and are young ladies now, are touring Europe and decided to drop in for the closing ceremony of the Worlds. It turned out to be a great party, great food, great entertainment and great company. After two intense weeks, everybody enjoyed the opportunity to relax and have fun. The contest organizers put on fabulous fireworks before the party got pretty wild in the events hangar.

It's over!

2008-08-15T05:03:00.007-04:00

Good Morning Canada!

The forecast today said no usable thermals! The day is officially canceled which means that yesterday or day 8 was the last contest day of the 30th World Championships.

The scores are still preliminary but I am not aware of any pending protests, so in all likelihood there won't be any significant changes in the final scores.

Jerzy finished an excellent 11th in the 18m Class. For many days he maintained a position in the first 10 which gave us hopes he would finish there. Placing within the first 10 or near it, means placing among current and former world champions! Jerzy placed just ahead of Doug Jacobs, 15m world champion in 1985 who was also on the podium in '87 and 91. Please join me all in congratulating Jerzy!

The 15m Class was dominated early on by the Hungarian pilot György Gulyas. He took the lead early on and managed to increase it steadily. Although he finished in 9th place yesterday, he still widened his lead to 335 points! Typically the margins between first and second are less than 100 points.

Janusz Centka from Poland, a three times world champion, had an excellent flight yesterday and managed to zoom up from 5th to 2nd place overall. I guess, for him it was really pedal to the metal.

Mark Leeuwenburgh, the young pilot from Holland who Dave had shared a field with on his best day of the contest, is ecstatic that he will be on the podium in third place. These are his first world championships.

Dave had great days and terrible days. He had a costly landout early on, he finished second, only one point behind the winner on day 4, but in the end his hopes of placing well were sunk when he ran into airspace on day 7 and ended up with only 13 points on a 840 point day. An earlier error in setting a turnpoint zone correctly was not as serious but still took 50 points out of his score. It made the difference between placing in the low twenties and 37th.

The 15m Class Competitors

The 18m Class Competitors

As unwieldy they are on the ground, once in the air, Open Class ships are incredibly graceful and their finishes are a treat to watch.

Everyone here knows Art Grant, the contest volunteer from Manitoba. He is always in a good mood and always quick to lend a hand.

Day 8 wrap-up

2008-08-14T17:39:00.005-04:00

Jerzy came in at 16:28 after spending 3:54 hrs on task. The resulting speed was 116.46 kph which was good for 888 points and place 23. Doug Jacobs (USA) won the day in 18m Class with a speed of 123.68 kph.

The conditions which had looked so good in the morning and early afternoon started to deteriorate later as thick cirrus pushed in from the south. The photo above was taken around 5:15p, 45 minutes after Jerzy had landed. This was a problem for the 15m Class since their turnpoint far to the SE was under the cirrus early in the game.

It turned into a long wait for Dave. I kept looking up while I helped Jerzy de-rig XG, as the sky got worse and worse . Finally, around 6p, Dave overflew the finish line after having been on task for nearly 5 hrs. We were all relieved he had made it home. Dave told me later that the last 170 km were just a struggle into the wind with weak thermals. He teamed up with some prominent British and French pilots but this time they happened to be slow. His speed of 84.87 kph was good for 675 points out of 1000 which landed Dave in 37th place for the day. The winner, Graham Parker of Australia had clocked 103.72 kph.

In the overall 18m scores, Jerzy dropped from 8th to 11th, just ahead of Doug Jacobs (US). Although we had all hoped he would manage to get back to 5th place, this is still an excellent result. Jerzy is the highest placed pilot from a non-European nation in the 18m Class.

The forecast for tomorrow is calling for solid stratus clouds and rain. It is quite possible that the overall results as of today will be the final results for the 30th World Gliding Championships. However the French team is not taking any chances and they sent their pilots to bed early. Stay tuned...

Day 8

2008-08-14T07:46:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Canada!

Discussed yesterday's airspace penalty with Dave this morning. Unfortunately, it is a clear cut case and there is no point trying to do something about it - he was scored as landed out after 9.3 km. Getting 13 points on a 840 point day is of course a killer.

The weather today is great. Still the same airmass as yesterday but less wind and less moisture. This translates into plenty of cu but with higher bases and less tendency to spread out. The cu are lining up to form nice SW/NE cloud streets. Cloud base is forecast to go up to 6400 ft with up to 6 kts thermals. The only fly in this are some cirrus fields that might affect the task area.

18m has an interesting task today, taking them clockwise around the greater Berlin area. It's a 455.4 km assigned speed task. They will have the benefit of a long downwind leg north of Berlin where the WSW winds are forecast to be stronger than here south of Berlin. However, the area of the southbound leg east of Berlin, along the river Oder which forms the border to Poland, is known to be weak.

Jerzy (XG) went on task at 12:34. Assuming a speed of 130 kph, we expect him to be back around 16:00 (10 am eastern daylight). Keep checking the daily and overall score sheets.

Today is likely to be the last contest day, so many pilots will go on the all out attack. It's now or never!

Jerzy is currently in 8th place with 5221 points. Everything up to 5th place is within easy reach and less than 10 points ahead of Jerzy. On the other hand, current 12th place is only 84 points behind Jerzy. A lot can happen today!

15m is flying a 422.3 km assigned speed task to the east and south east. There have been many tasks in this part of the task area, so the pilots are quite familiar with it. Dave started at 13:06. Assuming a speed of 125 kph, he should be back around 16:30 (10:30 am eastern daylight).

Oh no! - day 7 wrap-up

2008-08-13T17:29:00.003-04:00

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.

How many trailers do you count?

2008-08-13T17:17:00.004-04:00

This is what we see every morning when we arrive at the south side of the runway with our bikes - trailers lined up almost the entire length of the 8000 ft runway!

Day 7 Update

2008-08-13T11:08:00.003-04:00

Both Dave (P8) and Jerzy made it home with good speeds. In 15m the winning speed was 112.9, registered by two British pilots, Timothy Scott and Leigh Wells. Dave did 99.93 kph which puts him currently in 18th place with 695 points. So far, maximum points for the day are 840 but this may change since not all scores are in. The results of six pilots are still missing but I don't see any big names there. There were 5 outlandings in the 15m Class.

With 145 points behind the winner of the day, I expect Dave's overall score to improve but it is too early to tell. However, we know for sure that Dave finished ahead of the US pilots Gary Ittner and Karl Stiedieck.

In 18m the winner Olivier Darroze (France) achieved a speed of 121.15 kph. Jerzy's speed was an excellent 115.03 kph which currently puts him in 9th place and only 43 (!!!) points behind the winner. This may change as scores are still coming in and at least one big name (Wolfgang Janowitsch) has not been scored yet. So keep watching the score board as things are unfolding. I expect Jerzy to improve in the overall results for 18m.

Day 7

2008-08-13T07:24:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Canada!

Wx: A cold front passed through the task area over night. A moist and unstable airmass is flowing into the task area behind the front. This morning, when we biked to the airfield, the sky was clear. However, it didn't take long for big cu to fill the sky around the time of the pilots' briefing (10:00). Just as our met-man announced the possibility of rain showers, the prattle of rain on the roof of the briefing hangar could be heard. The met man carried on, saying any showers should be short lived and the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. That earned him a major round of applause.

In the meantime (13:40) it has dried up a bit but there is still rapid cycling with large areas turning dark and temporarily going dead after overdevelopment. Strong and gusty winds (SW 20 kts, gusting 25 on the surface) are making matters even more difficult. Winds at altitude will be SW 30kts. Click here for the soaring forecast.

The tasks for both classes are to the SE, which should be the area with the best weather according to the forecast. 15m is on task A, a 294 km assigned speed task. The 18m task is also A, a 313 km assigned speed task. The grid order was Open, 15m, 18m. Both Dave and Jerzy were in the last row of their respective classes.

The launch started at 11:30. Today it took less than 70 minutes to launch the entire grid.

There were a few re-lights in the 15m and 18m classes but fortunately none of our guys was affected.

Dave started at 12:53, Jerzy started at 13:32. The sky is still changing from minute to minute and the wind is whistling in the guy wires of the to antenna masts. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned...

Day canceled

2008-08-12T07:45:00.002-04:00

I woke up this morning to a light but steady rain. It improved a bit during breakfast but in the end the sky stayed gray. The weather presented at the 10:00 briefing didn't promise much chance to fly. The day was canceled at the second briefing at 12:30.

Unfortunately, Dave slipped a few places in the overall score as some late scores came in. The Hungarian pilot György Gulyas has been flying very consistently and is leading in 15m class by a large margin of 300 points. Quite remarkable for world championships!

Dave and Virginia are off to Berlin for sightseeing.

Day 6 wrap-up

2008-08-11T13:27:00.003-04:00

Both Jerzy and Dave hit some slow spots on task that cost them speed. When he landed, Jerzy's comment was, I am ready to give up flying!

In 15m the winning speed was 114.24 kph. Dave came in at 95.28 kph which got him 30th place with 728 points, according to the preliminary scoring.

In 18m the winning speed was 123.97 kph. Jerzy's speed of 110.92 was only good for 28th place and 811 points, according to the preliminary scoring for the day.

Overall, Dave moved up from 31st into 24th place in 15m, on the heels of Katrin Senne. Unfortunately Jerzy dropped from an excellent 5th to 10th place in 18m, just ahead of Doug Jacobs and Riccardo Brigliadory.

Day 6 update

2008-08-11T09:53:00.003-04:00

The cirrus has moved out of the contest area and the sky looks pretty good now. You can check conditions on the airfield webcam. It updates every three minutes.

Jerzy has been on task for 2:45, so we expect him back in about 15 minutes.

Dave has been on task for 2:10, so it will be another 50 minutes before he will come in.

Day 6

2008-08-11T07:41:00.004-04:00

Jerzy and Maria take a break before the briefing.

Both our pilots are airborne, Jerzy went on task at 13:09. The 15m gate will open at 13:46 (now). BTW, we are 6 hrs ahead of eastern daylight time.

The weather today is somewhat unsettled behind a weak cold front that went through yesterday evening. When we towed out to the grid, there was a lot of mid-level alto cu and alto stratus but fortunately that burned off when convection started. The cu are large and watery with bases initially at 2500, going up to 4500. The start gate is height limited to 3000 ft because of the low cloud base. There is strong southwesterly flow at all levels. A particular concern is cirrus moving in from the W and SW. In the meantime, it has reached Luesse and the sky doesn't look very appealing. Fortunately, there is convection below the cirrus.

Dave doesn't like the alto cu - it burned off later but then cirrus moved in.

The grid order today is 18m, Open, 15m it takes about 80 minutes to launch the grid. Britain and Holland expressed concerns over the time it takes to launch the entire grid, in the team captains' meeting this morning.

The tasks today are relatively small:
18m: Task B - assigned area task - 3hrs - 252 km min, 520 km max
15m: Task A - assigned area task - 3hrs - 215 km min, 404 km max

This is another day where there is not much to win but a lot can be lost. Keep your fingers crossed!

Canadian Evening

2008-08-10T18:00:00.004-04:00

Our hosts here at the Landhotel Dahnsdorf are doing their best to make us feel welcome. There is a Canadian flag flying along with a French and Italian flag on one of the three flag poles in front of the hotel. When we return from the airport, we usually find a digest of the daily results for the Canadian and the French teams posted in the lobby.

A few days ago, the owner of the hotel together with the restaurant manager put on a Canadian evening. They even tried to download the Canadian anthem. The evening was good fun and the food was wonderful.

Dave, Ian, Kathleen, Virginia, myself, Jerzy and Maria (left to right) are enjoying the "Canadian Evening"

The highlight of the evening was an amazing ice cream creation, specifically prepared for us by the chef.

Day Canceled

2008-08-10T09:21:00.007-04:00

We woke up to a solid alto-stratus overcast with a few sprinkles mixed in. That's pretty much the forecast for the day as well. It was no surprise that the day was canceled. The organizer was nice enough to notify the team managers by text message not to grid before the briefing.

First thing every morning in the briefing is the announcement of the winners from the previous day. In 18m Class the speeds of the first three were within 0.65 kph. That means on a 370 km task, there is 56 seconds or two circles between first and third.

In Open Class Alena Netusilova, one of the three women in the competition came second. Alena is competing for the Czech Republic and flies an 18m ASG-29 against Open Class ships, some of them with 28m wingspan. The other two women, both in 15m, are Nina Shalneva (Russia) and Katrin Senne (Germany). Katrin, a mother of three, who is the current women's world champion, is the poster-girl of soaring in Germany. There is a lot of media coverage on her. I believe the pressure that comes with the media circus is affecting her performance.

Katrin Senne, the poster-girl of women's soaring in Germany

Fortunately, the ceiling was high enough for the airshow to proceed. There were rides with the historic Ju52, demo flights of the Me 108, power and glider aerobatics, skydivers and model airplane demos.

The organizers even put a mock 20-glider contest launch, complete with finishes on. The finishes were actually quite spectacular with entire national teams doing worm burners in formation. Every beat-up I saw would have attracted penalty points if this would have been a contest day. Fortunately there were no accidents.

The half-way party yesterday was great: Great food, great entertainment. There also was a spectacular night glider aerobatic presentation with pyrotechnics and fire pots on the wingtips.

Photo by Maria Szemplinska

We are now half way through the contest and we have one pilot in 5th place. This is the best result I can remember, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

After having watched the airshow, the team is resting or shopping for the rest of the day. We will probably fly again tomorrow.

Day 5 Update 3

2008-08-09T12:10:00.002-04:00

Both of our pilots completed the task and did quite well.

Dave (P8) got 858 points with a speed of 107.41 kph (winner 116.5). This was good for place 17.

Jerzy (XG) finished also 17th for the day with a speed of 117.14 kph (winner 124.91) and 874 points out of a possible 984.

The exciting news is that Jerzy moved up to 5th place overall and Dave moved up to 30th place from 33, ahead of Gary Ittner (US) and Katrin Senne (Germany)

These are just preliminary scores, so things may still change a bit.

We are off to the half-way party tonight.

Day 5 Update 2

2008-08-09T10:32:00.003-04:00

Just heard from Dave (P8). He expects to finish in 10 minutes. That would make his time on task about 3:30, resulting in a speed of 107 kph.

Day 5 Update

2008-08-09T08:50:00.005-04:00

We had some anxious moments during the 18m launch. Jerzy launched right into the down cycle and all the clouds in the area were falling apart. There were some relights but both Dave and Jerzy stayed up. They have gone on task now. Dave (P8) started at 13:16 - we expect him back between 16:15 and 17:00. Jerzy (XG) started at 13:54 - we expect him back between 17:00 and 17:45. Looking at the start times, I suspect that Dave may have started a bit too early.
You can see the start times and later the speeds here: 15m; 18m; Open

There is also a webcam on the clubhouse.

How many PDAs do you see? Our Japanese competitors rely heavily on technology - that's what we are up against.

The Junkers Ju52 is getting ready to take off. The big radial engines make a beautiful sound - the sound of an era gone by. The Ju52 is based on single engine Junkers designs of the twenties which were the first all metal airplanes. A single engine Junkers was the first to cross the Atlantic E to W.

This is one of the very few still flying Me 108. Willy Messerschmitt oversaw the design and production of this 4 seater in 1932. With retractable gear and constant speed prop, the Me108 was way ahead of its time. Powered by an air cooled 240 hp Argus V8 engine, the performance and size of the Me 108 are similar to that of the Piper Arrow or some Mooney models.

Day 5

2008-08-09T05:46:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Canada!

It is a coolish day with lots of instability. Winds are from the WNW 10kts, gusting 20. Cloud streets are already forming but bases are still low and there is a bit too much moisture. The forecast for the afternoon is 2/8 to 4/8 scattered to broken cu at 4500, rising to 5500. Thermal strength is forecast to be 4-6 kts. Maximum temperature is 22 degrees.

Our pilots are out on the grid - grid time was 11:45 with launch starting at 12:00. The grid order is 15m, 18m, Open Class.

The task in 15m is a 372 km assigned speed task. 18m has a 370 km assigned speed task. There are shorter B options for both tasks.
The organizers clearly want to minimize land-out today because it is open house here and they don't want to disappoint the spectators who came out to see finishes. Tonight is also the "half way party".

The airfield has been prepared for a strong turn-out of the public, along with visits by high level dignitaries. A number of ambassadors of participating nations are expected.

They are also offering rides in a historic three engine Junkers Ju52.

The launch just started - so I better run!

Yes, Dave still has hair!

2008-08-09T05:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, when Dave was up on the podium to receive the day prize for placing 2nd, his forehead was lit up by the power point projector just as I took the photo. Based on the photo I received the following comment from Marco:

Joerg, Your pictures have me confused about Dave`s hair..... where did it go on the last picture (receiving the kiss)???? Was this to celebrate, or does he wants to be more aerodynamic for future performance..... Anyway, so far great results for Team Canada!!! Keep it up!

We all had a good laugh over that one. The official answer is - yes, Dave still has hair!

People of the Day

2008-08-08T18:48:00.004-04:00

Maria has been on the prowl with her camera:

999 points yesterday! - the P8 camp is all smiles

Dimitri from Vancouver is on the Serbian team with his father. He helped us retrieve Jerzy yesterday evening. Thanks, Dimitri!

Virginia and I rented bicycles for the duration of our stay. The daily ride to the airport goes through sleepy little towns, along fields and through a pine forest. Quite often we see deer in th morning or a few storks.
My bike has become the official Team Manager's vehicle. It's decked out with a Canadian flag and gives me great mobility around the airport. It's all about reducing the carbon footprint!

Day Canceled!

2008-08-08T08:26:00.005-04:00

Initially, the weather looked pretty good this morning but what were small cu at 11:00 turned into CBs by 13:00 and soon thereafter there was rain and lightning.

I received inofficial word early on that the day would be canceled which was confirmed during the 10:00 briefing. After yesterday's mass land-out everyone is happy to have the day off.

When towing to the grid, every glider has to pass over scales to make sure no one is above max gross weight. There are three scales with their associated crews to handle the 130 gliders. The Canadian Art Grant is one of the scale crew volunteers. Today, at the briefing, the scale crews were introduced and honoured. Art wasn't shy to take the microphone and say a few words on behalf of the crews.

Art Grant, a member of the Winnipeg Gliding Club is giving an impromptu speech on behalf of the weigh scale crews.

Wrap-up day 4 - a kiss for Dave

2008-08-08T07:58:00.002-04:00

Good Morning Canada! Apologies for keeping you in suspense. Just after I had posted the last update yesterday, I got word that Dave and Jerzy had landed out. Jerzy was further away than Dave, so I went with Maria to find him (GPS is a wonderful invention!). Dimitri, a young Canadian from the Serbian team offered to come along. It was already dark when we arrived in the little town were Jerzy had landed. The GPS coordinates were dead-on and we had no trouble locating the plane, just figuring out the access to the field was a little tricky.

Everyone in 15m Class landed out. In 18m Class two pilots made it back out of 50. In the Open Class which was launched early, 20 out of 36 made it back.

The problem was a combination of late starting, particularly in 15m and the fact that the conditions didn't develop as expected.

As the results started ot come in we were overjoyed to learn that Dave (P8) had come second for the day with 999 points. In fact he had landed in the same field as the winner K1.

Dave Springford (P8) is up on stage to receive his day prize along with a kiss from Silke for coming second for the day.

In the overall 15m score Dave moved up to 33rd, ahead of Gary Ittner, US, Karl Striedieck, US and Katrin Senne, Germany.

Jerzy had landed on the third leg and had to give up 365 points against the winner in the 18m Class. Fortunately, it only dropped him from 6th to 7th place in the overall score, so he is still in good shape.

Getting tense

2008-08-07T12:03:00.005-04:00

At 6p the first Open Class ships are on final glide. The Open Class task a 490 km assigned speed task. Open Class left fairly early, about one to one and a half hours before 15m and 18m.

The cirrus coming in from the west is getting thicker and it doesn't look like the blue thermals will last much longer. The wind is now fairly strong (about 15 kts from the south) which will be a cross wind for the competitors on final glide.

Just got word that Martin Theisinger (Germany), one of the top 15m pilots landed out. So far, there have been six land-outs in 15m, the US pilots Karl Striedieck and Gary Ittner among them. In 18m there have been 3 land-outs.

The open ships coming in have speeds in the range of 90 kph. I haven't seen anybody dropping water yet. This is not good news for the other classes. It is starting to look more and more like a mass land-out at least in 15m. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here another view of a blue thermal gaggle

On task

2008-08-07T09:18:00.002-04:00

Both our pilots are on task now.

Dave (P8) started at 14:27
Jerzy (XG) started at 14:39

Both had good starts with the majority of their respective classes. In the blue one has no choice but to fly with the gaggle. The gaggles are huge though, with 20 - 30 gliders. No signs of the promised cu yet. However, there is thin cirrus approaching from the west now. We expect both our pilots back around 6p local. Stay tuned...

Day 4

2008-08-07T06:56:00.006-04:00

Good Morning Canada! It is contest day 4 again, since only actual contest days count and yesterday was canceled for all classes.

We woke up to blue skies and a southerly breeze. The forecast for today is good thermals in the blue, initially up to 3000 ft AGL. At 3p thermal tops are forecast to be at 4500 and later in the afternoon we should see 6kts to 6000. There is a possibility of cu with bases at 6500 later in the afternoon but there is also a risk that an advancing system will spread cirrus in the task area.

The forecast high for the day is 32 degrees. The combination of the dry airmass and the breeze make for comfortable conditions in the shade.

The tasks for all classes are going to the NW first, second leg to the south of Luesse, 3rd leg to the east and return.

The grid order is Open Class, 15m, 18m

The 18m task is a 412 km assigned speed task. 15m is flying a 406 km assigned speed task.

The impressive Wilgas are firing up in preparation for the launch begin. The Wilga is a Polish STOL design, powered by a big Russian radial engine turning at 1800 rpm max.

The launch for Open Class started at 12:15. I guess the conditions in the blue weren't all that great because it didn't take long for the entire class to form a low gaggle right over the airport between 1500 ft and 2500 ft. There were a number of re-lights in Open Class.

Open Class formed an impressive gaggle low over the airfield - how many gliders do you see?

They halted the launch for the other classes for 15 minutes to give conditions a chance to improve. 15m class is currently launching.

Team XG is relaxing at the grid.

Day cancelled for all classes

2008-08-06T10:42:00.008-04:00

At 16:00 the day was cancelled for the remaining two classes. Everyone is tired from sitting around at the grid all day but relieved.

In the evening was the official opening of the OSTIV congress.
OSTIV stands for Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile or International Scientific and Technical Soaring Organisation. The OSTIV congress is always parallel to the World Gliding Championships. The organization studies areas such as glider design, soaring meteorology, flight training and safety including human factors. Met some old friends from my days in aerospace design.

Day 4?

2008-08-06T08:05:00.003-04:00

Initially the weather looked good in the morning but by mid morning a thick layer of high cloud, associated with a warm front, was covering the sun, son only the disk was visible.

The organizers are hoping that the overcast will clear out in the afternoon. We went out to the grid for a 12:00 noon grid time and an expected first launch of 12:15. Well, conditions at 12:15 were not suitable to launch gliders, so it is turning into one of those dreaded days where you wait around forever at the grid. The grid order is Open, 15m, 18m. At 13:10 they canceled the 18m task and Jerzy (XG) went back to his trailer.

Dave in P8 is still out in the 15m section of the grid. The launch for 15m and Open was just delayed again and is now set for 14:30. On the good news side, the overcast seems to be getting a bit thinner and there are some cu showing under it. There is still a chance the 15m Class will fly. Just got notified by text message that there is a Team Captains' meet at the grid in 10 minutes - better run!

Scoring update Day 3

2008-08-06T07:54:00.003-04:00

Jerzy's points got re-instated. Seems they gave us extra credit for rushing the file in last night. Jerzy is now tied for 6th place for the day yesterday with 976 points, 24 points behind the winner. Overall Jerzy has also slipped into 6th place with 2139 points (winner 2303).

In yesterday's 18m Class score, the first three places are only separated by 0.34 kph - talk about close!

Due to his 50 point penalty, Dave placed 38th for the day. Overall he is also in 38th place which still puts him ahead of Katrin Senne, the women's world champion and also the famous US pilot Karl Striedieck.

Human error - Day 3 wrap-up

2008-08-05T18:17:00.006-04:00

Even though the weather wasn't all that great and the wind was still above 20 kts and strong enough to break up thermals, good speeds were achieved in all classes:

15m Class: Best speed: 118.47 kph
18m Class: Best speed: 119.51 kph
Open Class: Best speed: 121.17 kph

Jerzy (XG) came back a little earlier than expected. Initial calculations showed Jerzy's speed to be at 117 kph which put him in 7th place and also 7th place in the overall score. Unfortunately, after a long and excellent flight, Jerzy uploaded the previous day's flight to the scoring program. Even more unfortunately, after we were back at the hotel, I left my cell phone in the room while we were in the dining room, enjoying a special dinner our host had put on for us. We were just on our way to bed, when Chief Stewart Dick Bradley told me that he had been trying to reach me by phone all evening because there was a problem with Jerzy's log. Although the scorers had quit for the day, I decided we should rectify the situation as soon as possible and drove to the airport to upload the correct file. I also apologized for the mix-up. Hopefully they will not assess any penalty. For the moment Jerzy has dropped to the bottom of the score sheet. Hopefully tomorrow we will see Jerzy back in 7th place.

There was a bit of a tense wait for Dave and we were all relieved to hear "P8 on final glide".

Unfortunately, Dave had encountered a bit of trouble on the 420 km course which reduced his speed to 97 kph. Dave had set up the task in his on-board computer by modifying yesterday's AAT. In doing so, he missed resetting the radius of the last turn point from 1 km to the standard 500 m beer can. As a result he missed the observation zone by a little which resulted in 50 penalty points.

Both incidents show that we have to put procedures in place to eliminate slip-ups like these that have really nothing to do with flying but can still bite us badly.

Day 3

2008-08-05T08:31:00.003-04:00

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!

Day 2 - results

2008-08-04T17:54:00.005-04:00

It was a tough day with a 25 kt surface wind breaking up the thermals. The lift also quit early, around 5 pm, as forecast.

According to the preliminary score, the winner in 18m Class was Makoto Ichikawa from Japan with a speed of 113.97 kph. With this flight he is also taking to overall lead in this class. Six pilots landed out.

Jerzy made it around the task with a speed of 101.97 which landed him on 18th place. Read details about his flight on his blog. Branko (DG) came 30th with a speed of 97.55 kph.

Overall Jerzy moves up from 13th to 11th place, only two points behind Doug Jacobs and Petr Krejcirik who are tied for 9th. - Bravo Jerzy!

In the 15m Class the day was won by the Hungarian pilot György Gulyas with a speed of 106.95 kph.

Unfortunately Dave's luck ran out on the last leg. He was fooled by a few clouds that didn't work and had no choice but to land on a little airport, just 38 km short. The penalty for missing the last thermal was a harsh 41st place, right behind Gary Ittner from the US. I went out with Virginia to retrieve Dave.

There were even more unlucky pilots in 15m class: Georg Theisinger from Germany who dominated the Pre-worlds, team flying with his brother Martin, lawn-darted after the start into a field. The same happened to Katrin Senne, also from Germany, the current women's world champion. To make matters worse, Martin hit a deer during his landing. In total, seven pilots landed out in the 15m Class

The weather tomorrow should be better. We will meet at 7:30 am for breakfast.

Worlds day 2

2008-08-04T09:23:00.004-04:00

A cold front went through this morning with a low overcast, wind and rain. A small high pressure area building behind the front is giving us a small window to fly. The airmass is very unstable with rapid cycling. To make matters more difficult, our pilots are battling a gusty 25 kt wind at the lower levels, which increases to 35 kts above 3000 ft.

They announced the tasks at a second pilots' meeting at noon. 18m was at the front of the grid. They are flying a 2.5 hr area task. 15m was the last class to launch their task is a 2 hr area task.

We saw some dicey launches due to the strong and gusty wind. Conditions looked reasonably good when Jerzy launched. However Dave launched into a dead looking sky at the downside of the cycle. It didn't take long for the first 15m guys and some 18m gliders to fall out. Fortunately both our pilots managed to stay airborne. Jerzy (XG) started at 14:37, Dave (P8) started at 15:20. Theoretically, Jerzy should be back around 17:10 and Dave at 17:20. According to the forecast the soarable window will close at 17:00.

This is another day where it will be important to survive rather than being fast. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Here is a photo of the Serbian-Canadian Team with Pilot Branko from Vancouver just before launch. Good luck Branko!

More Photos from Day 1

2008-08-04T05:25:00.003-04:00

We woke up to rain, wind and a low overcast this morning. However, it is clearing up now as there is a small high pressure zone building behind the front. There may be a small window this afternoon. The gliders are rigged and are being loaded with ballast in the moment.

Maria took some great photos yesterday:

Dave has landed and is retrieved from the field. Big applause from the Sunday crowd for the Canadians!

Dave and Virginia are all relaxed. For the rest of us the situation is still tense as we are waiting for word from Jerzy. The person at the right is Art Grant from Winnipeg. Art is a volunteer who is helping as a scrutineer or in other functions with the organization of the contest. He arrieved from Rieti last week. If we need anything, Art usually knows where to get it.

I jumped when the phone rang, ready to take down the information. Fortunately, the call was not from Jerzy.

Finally! Jerzy comes in!

A big Prosit on Jerzy making it back as one of 15 in a field of 50 gliders!

Contest day 1 - a tough day!

2008-08-03T17:55:00.010-04:00

It was a tough day, particularly for the 18m class with the assigned speed task. Only 15 out of a field of 50 gliders made it back. They came in long after the 15m and Open Class ships. Since we had lost communication with Jerzy we didn't know whether or not he was still flying. We were expecting the cell phone to ring any minute as we saw one trailer after another going out. Finally, he called in on a 10k final as one of the last gliders still flying.

Maria was more than relieved and happy to go out to tow XG in. I am sure Jerzy was just as happy to get out of the glider. He had been on task for 4 hours, 37 minutes.

Fortunately, it turned out that Jerzy had been able to relay his start time to the organizers on the start gate frequency. The problem was simply that our radio was too weak to reach him.

According to the preliminary scoring, which at this time should be fairly stable, Jerzy placed 13th for the day, only 45 points behind the winner. Although it was only a 550 point day, some well known 18m pilots lost significant points today. Mike Young and Phil Jones from Britain team flew to a 24 place tie, each with 128 points - 432 points is a lot to make up!

Our Serbian-Canadian friend Branko unfortunately had to start the motor of his DG-808 fairly early in the game and landed in 47th place.

In 15m things were easier because the 2 hr area task allowed competitors to avoid the bad areas. There were only three outlandings. The winner was Timothy Scott from Britain with a speed of 109.74 kph.

Dave's (P8) speed of 95.91 kph was only enough for a disappointing 30th place. However, since he lost only 139 points against the winner, he is still in good shape. Today was the day were not much could be won but a lot could be lost. Defensive flying and survival were certainly the right strategies! Read a full account of Dave's flight at his blog.

This morning we were joined by Ian Sutcliffe and his wife Kathleen who are currently touring Europe. Ian just happened to have a spare radio handy when we really needed it. Thanks, Ian!
It is always great to welcome friends here in Luesse, so if you happen to be in the area, don't hesitate to drop in!

The race is on!

2008-08-03T09:05:00.003-04:00

This is the first day of the 30th Worlds in Luesse, Germany. The weather conditions today are difficult. We have a strong westerly wind and cool very unstable air. Early in the morning the bases of ragged cu were low but rose as the day warmed up. The problem is rapid cycling with local over-development and showers. The launch order was Open, 18m, 15m. There were a lot of re-lights in Open and 18m because the sky looked pretty bleak during the launch of these classes. Fortunately they delayed the 15m launch a bit, which allowed Dave to be launched into much better skies.

The task for 15m is a 2 hr area task, for 18m it is a 318 km assigned task.

We have a major problem with Jerzy's radio. We were not able to get his start-time so I had to hand in an estimated start time. I hope I guessed reasonably close. If it is off by more than +/- 5 minutes there may be penalty points.

Dave started at 14:12. As I am writing this, the sky doesn't look good at all. From what I am hearing it is not good on task. Off-field landing reports are already coming in. Let's hope we don't have to go on a retrieve.

More later.

The 30th World Gliding Championships are open!

2008-08-02T16:46:00.007-04:00

At 2:30p the teams were bussed from the airport to the historic town of Belzig for the opening ceremony. The teams of 34 nations were organized in alphabetic order to march onto a stage at the market square. And yes, it is true, this is the Worlds with the greatest number of nations participating, ever.

Every team was introduced by a Lufthansa flight attendant. Whenever possible, the introduction was in the native language of the team. I heard English, French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Portugese.

Our flight attendant, Celine was a most charming and remarkable young lady. Daughter of a Tunesian father and an Austrian mother, she is fluent in French, German, English, Italian and Arabic - wow! Her favourite city in Canada is Vancouver with Toronto being second.

Celine led us onto the stage, carrying the Canada sign and introduced us as the crowd was applauding. The organizers had invited all former living world champions, many of whom were sitting behind us on the stage. It was one of these moments that give you goose bumps. I held the Canadian flag high with pride.

The whole ceremony was moderated by a radio host who did an excellent job in keeping it interesting. After all the teams had marched in, local and Aeroclub dignitaries welcomed everyone, followed by the FAI President declaring the 30th World Championships officially open.

We stayed on a bit to mingle with the locals who were quite curious about these strange glider pilots from exotic countries descending on their town. More photos of the opening ceremony are here.

Tomorrow morning the race will start in ernest. Ingo Renner once said: The evening before the competition, every pilot is a potential world champion. With every contest day the number gets smaller until there is only one per class left in the end.

Opening Briefing of the 30th World Championships

2008-08-02T07:34:00.003-04:00

Today at 11am was the official opening briefing for the Competition. All the teams now have their allocated seating spaces, denoted by little flags on the tables, in the briefing hangar.

The contest director welcomed all participants, crews and guests and introduced team captains and pilots of each team individually. In total there are 36 nations participating with 130 pilots. If I understood the CD correctly, there are more countries participating than ever before.
15m has 44 entries, 18m has the maximum of 50 entries and open class has 36 entries.

The Team is getting ready and dressed up for the opening ceremony at the historic market square in Belzig. We will be dressed in long sleeved white shirts with the Canadian Team crest.

This is the last party - from tomorrow the race will be on!

On a personal note, thank you all for your encouraging comments. They really help to keep the spirits up!

Meet the "Serbian" Team

2008-08-01T06:30:00.005-04:00

While we were preparing for Luesse, we learned that another Canadian was preparing for the Worlds. Branko Stojkovic's home club is Pemberton, BC. He is flying for the Serbian Team. Actually, he and two friends of his from BC are the Serbian team. Branko arrived a few days ago and parked his trailer next to us. He is flying in 18m class with a DG-808c self-launcher, contest letters DG.

From left to right: Branko, the only Serb pilot, Dimitri, Nicolai (Dimitri's father)

Eclipse and more fire

2008-08-01T06:16:00.004-04:00

The day started out sunny. We rigged P8 but after having listened to the met forecast during the pilots briefing for the day but we decided not to fly. There is a solar eclipse between 11:40 and 12:30 that will delay thermal development. A front with CBs and winds gusting to 30kts is forecast to reach the task area in the afternoon. It will be a shopping and housekeeping (laundry) day.

Tonight at 18:00 will be the first official Team Managers' meeting.

Just as we left the briefing hangar, we saw that another fire had sprung up in the field beside the airport. This time it was much closer to our trailer. Fortunately, the response from the contest organizers and the local fire department was a lot more swift and the fire was brought under control quickly.

Dropped back a bit

2008-08-01T02:13:00.003-04:00

Looks like yesterday evening's scoring was a bit too preliminary. A few pilots managed to slide in at the top in 18m class after the preliminaries were posted. So Jerzy dropped down to 5th. However, since he finished 6 minutes and 7sec under time, his actual speed was 144.5 kph.

Dave dropped one position to 9th. He told me, it took him only 7 thermals for the 325 km flight for a 15% time spent in thermaling. See Dave's blog for a detailed account of his flight.

Zero point four kph behind the winner

2008-07-31T13:28:00.002-04:00

Both Jerzy and Dave had a good day and got out of their gliders with big smiles. Jerzy did exceptionally well, attaining a speed of 138.16 kph over 345 kilometers. According to the preliminary scoring for 18m, this puts him in second place for the day, 4 points behind the winner with a speed of 138.56 kph.

At this time preliminary scores for 15m show Dave in 8th place with a speed of 128.56 over 324 km. This puts him just ahead of Karl Striedieck. The winner in 15m class was Janusz Centka with a speed of 138.4.

This is only the taining week. I hope things continue going so well for Dave and Jerzy once the real race is on.

Not sure if we are going to make it to the Italian/Brit/Dutch party tonight. Everyone seems to be tired.

Training Day # 3

2008-07-31T09:33:00.009-04:00

It's another great day here in Luesse. The weather is basically a carbon copy of Monday and Tuesday. Blue with a few cu at 6000 ft. Max temperature of over 30 degrees is moderated by a dry easterly breeze.

The task for 15m/18m is a 2.5 hr AAT to the east. With almost everyone here now, the grid was huge and it took over 1:30 to launch what looked like a sea of carbon fiber.

Our pilots have gone on task with the following start times:
Jerzy XG 14:25
Dave P8 14:51

We are expecting them back at 17:00 and 17:30.

Just got word that Virginia has arrived at the hotel - great now the team is complete.

They also finally published the results for Tuesday:
Jerzy came 14th in the 18m class,
Dave 15th in 15m.

Tonight the Italian, British and Dutch teams will jointly host an evening so we can all get to know each other.

The Worlds is a great place to meet the gliding legends you normally only read about. Yesterday I ran into Ingo Renner, the ueber-pilot and four times world champion (I think) of the eighties and nineties. Last time met was at the Worlds in Uvalde 1991. Today Janusz Centka, again four times world champion and current competitor dropped by at the flight line.

Team almost complete

2008-07-30T16:26:00.003-04:00

Maria arrived today. She was exhausted after having lugged about 30kg of luggage up a long flight of stairs to the platform of the Charlottenburg train station. We finished the rest day with a nice dinner at our hotel.

The other evening Dave plugged a surge protected power bar he had brought from Canada, into the 240 Volt outlet in the hotel. Looks like the surge protector decided 240Volts was a power surge and shorted everything out. It blew a main fuse in the hotel and Dave and Jerzy's room went dark for good. They actually had to change rooms for the night because because it took til morning to restore power. We all had a good laugh over that one.

Rest Day

2008-07-30T06:33:00.005-04:00

We woke up to a cloudy and cooler day. That's quite o.k. since we had planned to make this a rest day anyway. It is supposed to improve a bit in the afternoon, so they set a 2 hr AAT.

I attended a team managers' meeting after pilots' briefing. The main topic discussed was the requirement to put a Lufthansa sticker (major sponsor) on every glider on the left side of the cockpit just below the canopy frame. The rules say the organizers can require all competitors to put one sticker on. The British team agreed with the sticker but objected to the location, arguing that the fuselage dolly will make the edges of the stickers roll up. We will see how that gets sorted out.

My request to provide the altimeter setting also in inches mercury drew quite a laugh. Actually, it's not a laughing matter because Dave is flying with an altimeter in feet and the setting is crucial for the height limited start. We may have to do the conversion ourselves. The next team managers' meet will be on Friday.

Jerzy's crew, Maria has arrived at 11am. Virginia is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, then the team will be complete.

So far we are very happy with our accommodations at the Landhotel Dahnsdorf. It is clean, the owner and staff are very friendly and try to accommodate us in every way. They have a great restaurant with beer-garden and the prices are reasonable for Europe. We are staying there with the French Team and two Worlds Stewards. It is about 10k from the airport, so shuttling back and forth is no problem.

Posting Schedule: Our daily routine is a little different from what I originally envisioned. It usually takes till between 2p and 3p local until the pilots are launched, vehicles have been removed from the grid and start times have been reported. So expect the morning post around 9 am eastern time. The afternoon post with a synopsis of the day from the pilots' perspective and preliminary scores should be online around 3p eastern time.

That's it for today, there won't be an afternoon post because there is no flying.

Everyone's back

2008-07-29T16:25:00.007-04:00

We had some major excitement at Luesse airfield today while the competitors were on task. The wheat field beside the airport went up in flames. It happened with frightening speed. I was working on the veranda of the clubhouse when I heard somebody yell to call the fire department. When I walked around the corner of the building I looked at wall of smoke and flames. From the sound of it the fire was really close. It looked like the campground was about to be consumed by the flames. I went out to the our trailers to make sure they and the cars were safe. Fortunately, the wind component blew the flames away from the airport and they never jumped the dirt road between the wheat field and the airport. The fire was down as quickly as it had sprung up.

A fire so close to the airfield raises some interesting questions. When the gliders are on the ground, there is about 20 million dollars worth of equipment sitting there plus tow planes and cars. What if half of the fleet would get wiped out by a grass fire before the contest has even started?

Dave and Jerzy both completed the task which had a minimum time of 3.5 hrs. Jerzy achieved a speed of 117 km/hr, Dave is estimating his speed at 99 km/hr over 412 km - slow again, as he puts it. Dave and Jerzy enjoyed a great working band with usable convection being as high as 8000 ft with a maximum thermal strength of 7kts. Overall, the day was better than yesterday but cirrus ahead of an incoming front slowed Dave down at he end of the day. Daves' comment was: Almost as good as Uvalde but without the thunderstorms!

For tomorrow we decided to take a rest day because the forecast calls for a front to pass through the competition area and we don't want to tire out or pilots during training.

Begin of the official training

2008-07-29T09:53:00.009-04:00

Good morning again, Canada

It's another great day here in Luesse with over 30 degrees. A dry 10 - 15kt easterly breeze makes conditions on the ground quite comfortable. A a few cu with high bases are dotting the blue sky.

While Dave and Jerzy got the gliders ready, I wrestled with the registration bureaucracy, all documents for the gliders, calibration records for the loggers, proof of insurance and proof of health insurance for pilots and crews.

This is the first official training day with a pilots' briefing at 10:00 am. The task is an AAT with 4 turnpoints and a nominal distance of 410km:

Startpoint: SP2
Turnpoint 1: 104 - 20k radius
Turnpoint 2: 045 - 20k radius
Turnpoint 3: 048 - 30k radius
Turnpoint 4: SP4 - 1k radius - to channel approaches from the west.

Jerzy and Dave both launched mid grid. The have both since started. Jerzy (XG) 14:08; Dave (P8) 14:10.

The pilots are reporting good conditions.

There are still a lot to sorted out by the contest organization: We have other teams using our frequency, there are no Jonnies on the spot at the line and the public access wireless is still not working.

2008-07-28T15:52:00.003-04:00

Jerzy and Dave both came back with big smiles. They flew over 550 km in thermals up to 8kts and altitudes up to 7000 ft (ground elevation 200 - 400 ft). Jerzy achieved a speed of over 124.5 kph. Dave will post his flight on the OLC.
Dave and Jerzy flew the task of the Polish team. Janus Centka, four times world champion landed out.

Both Dave's ASW-27 and Jerzy's ASG-29 are now tweaked and equiped perfectly for the contest. The ballast systems are tested and work. Tomorrow will be the first official training day with the briefing at 10:00 am.

First flying day in Luesse

2008-07-28T09:31:00.007-04:00

Good Morning Canada

It's a great day here in Luesse with temperatures in the low 30s and a nice easterly breeze (easterly wind is good here).

A few cu are dotting the sky. Dr. Jack's forecast for the day is 5kt thermals to 4500 - 5000 ft. This will provide for a nice working band, snce ground elevation in the area is only 200 - 400 ft.

As most of the teams have arrived now, the place is getting very busy. In total, there will be 134 gliders which will be launched by a fleet of 8 Wilga Towplanes. The Wilgas are equipped with special mufflers which make them very quiet.

Dave and Jerzy took off around 1p local time (Central European). They are planning to go on a 500 k task with the Polish team.

Cars, busses, airplanes and trains

2008-07-27T17:13:00.003-04:00

It took a car ride, two airplane rides, a bus ride, a trian ride and another car ride to get to Luesse.

The overnight flight across the Atlantic was cramped as always. I got max. two hours of sleep and was glad to get out of the plane in Zurich. The weather in Zurich was cool and overcast and it looked as if it would start raining any minute. I spent 9 dollars on a small cup of coffee and a prezel for breakfast during the three hour lay-over in Zurich. On the flight up to Berlin the overcast gradually broke up into wonderful cu streets with high bases as the flight approached the contest area. The weather in Berlin was clear with a few high cu and 30 degrees. Dave picked me up from the Belzig train station which is just a few km from the airfield and the hotel.

Dave and Jerzy arrived very late yesterday from Poland and chose not to fly today because they were tired,despite the good looking sky. Better safe than sorry! They got their gliders weighed and inspected instead. We had a nice dinner together in the clubhouse of the local club.

Max, a German university student who had visited SOSA last year, dropped by and donated four exquisite bottles of red wine to the team. - Thanks Max!

Problem resolved - Jerzy is on his way

2008-07-23T23:33:00.003-04:00

Jerzy left this evening for Frankfurt. The good people from the Berlin gliding club arranged a loaner car for Jerzy which he can drive to Poland to pick up his glider.
Dave and Jerzy are planning to meet near the Polish border on Thursday evening. They want to fly for a few days in Poland until Luesse opens for training. They expect to arrive in Luesse Saturday evening. I will join them there Sunday afternoon.

Departures and last Minute Problems

2008-07-22T19:37:00.001-04:00

Took Dave to Toronto airport this afternoon for his flight to Frankfurt. He will pick up a car near Frankfurt then meet up with Jerzy who will arrive a day later, to fly for a few days in Poland before the training starts in Luesse.

Jerzy was informed today that the Europcar rental he had arranged through the Worlds organizers, cannot be driven across the border to Poland. This is a major problem because Jerzy has to pick up his glider in Poland, furthermore tasks will be set into Poland as well. The organizer is offering to make other cars available for trips to Poland. Strange situation!

Team Clothing

2008-07-20T13:32:00.000-04:00

Virgina and Maria have done a wonderful job in selecting great shirts, hats and pants and getting them embroidered with the Canadian Team crest. Now the Team will look equally sharp at formal events as well as informal gatherings. Thanks to Annemarie and Ed for contributing windbreakers sporting a large Maple Leaf both front and back. They came in handy at the Worlds in Leszno.

Team Dinner

2008-07-13T00:34:00.000-04:00

Willem and Diane invited the rest of the Team on Wednesday, July 9 to a Team Dinner. It was great to have the entire Team together. Virginia and Maria had done a lot of research on Team clothing and presented their findings. How do you like the hat?

Canadian Team Training Camp June 28 - July 6

2008-07-12T23:19:00.000-04:00

25 participants flew 23 gliders in two classes, advanced and novice. Thanks to Walter and Udo who generously made their ASW-27s available to Dave and Jerzy.

The first weekend was rained out, so we got a good head start with presentations. Over the course of the week we covered the following topics:

Task types and strategy
Soaring weather in southern Ontario
Effective thermaling
Optimizing XC speed
Final Glides
Scoring Program
FAI Badges

Our first flying day was Canada Day (Tue). The weather improved as the week progressed and we ended up with a total of 5 competition days. There were few landouts since all tasks were turn area tasks. The longest task was set on Saturday, July 5^th with a 3.5 hr AAT. The greatest distance achieved was a touch over 300 km. The day was entirely blue.

The last day was saved by a task change after launch.

All in all it was a great week. We had the opportunity to learn from each other, had great flying in a friendly yet competitive contest and we experienced great cameraderie at bbqs. Thanks to all who came!