17 Juni 2007

Pre-Euros in Greifenburg

Yesterday Wolfgang Sattlegger opened the pre European Championship in Greifenburg / Carinthia/ Austria. The weather looked iffy and overcast, nevertheless we set up. 146 pilots on two different launches. The biggest comp ever in Emberger Alm history!

After we started into the task, it was called before the window opened because it rained over take off, on course, and there was a serious storm above the last turnpoint that affected our landings with very turbulent air. Everybody got down safely though.
Today the weather looked better and we had a very fast 90 km run with 4 turnpoints, last one around Weissensee.
Whenever Im there, I remember Chris Mueller, a great friend and gifted pilot whom I had met in Greifenburg for the first time when he visited his relatives up at Weissensee (his fathers family originated there). I miss him heaps and raced to goal with his memory in my mind.
There were so many gliders above goal that I decided to land in our pension owner´s field on the other side of the river Drau. What an epic day we had, it took me 1 h 58 mins to fly the course, the best times were about 25 minutes faster even! An extreme ridge race, and i had not taken any ballast.
And yes, there was an incident, Lukas reported over the radio that Seppi Salvenmoser (austria) went over, released his parachute, and landed safely. Seppi called the organizer immediately and told him he was ok. Soon he will be back and we wait for his story.
I dont know the daywinner yet, no results published yet.
Since we have a team meeting now, I will write the German translation later tonight.

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