Austrian Open 1st Day: Moyes rules!

Results Day 1
Today we were not so sure about the conditions, but Wolfgang Sattlegger was positive that we will fly more than 100 km today. I am in the task committee with Tom and Raimund Kaiser, so we built a task around 4 turnpoints to Lind bridge, then Irschen, across into Gailtal to Windische Höhe and back over Gerlamoos church to goal.
Base was low, never higher than 2200 m the whole day, but the climbs were not as slow as predicted. Once we made the quite difficult crossing into the headwind to Gailtal, we could just race along the ridge. The reward of the day! But the crossing grounded the leading gaggle out in front - Friesi, Seppi, Döni and Christian had to land after having been drilled in the lee side of Reißkofel! Tom Weissenberger was first in goal (I lost him when we did the crossing back at Emberger after the 2nd turnpoint), Matjaz second and Gerolf 3rd. A good day for Moyes pilots! But also Primoz did very well. Having taken the last start time, he flew the fastest time of the day. Results are not out yet. Would have been great to watch our race online today. You find the link for live tracking here, so if we race again, you can be with us!

A launch should look like this!

I am quite exhausted, many people reported quite some turbulence on lee sides, the wind in Gailtal picked up to 30 km/h. But it is fantastic to fly a small, fast glider in these conditions! I love climbing in the RX3, it has a very small turn radius so it is easy to hook into the strongest lift! When Jörg, Stefan and I came back along launch from the first turnpoint, quite a lot of pilots were still on the ground, which seemed strange. After a while, I saw a helicopter parked at take off and they brought somebody towards it. I told Jörg and Stefan to head on so we are not in the helicopter´s way. A rigid wing pilot tried to take off with side wind and could not make enough speed for his "Phantom" to get off. He was taken to hospital, but luckily it looks good, he might get out soon and has no severe injuries.
It is great to see a full team from Turkey here! The six pilots drove up by car, 2500 km one way, two days and two nights of driving - that´s dedication!!! Of course I bug them to teach me some Turkish so I can communicate a little bit with people when I fly in Kayseri at the European Championships in September.
For tomorrow the forecast is for stronger winds from the south, but maybe we can fly another task.
A good day - Wolfgang did really well with the task setting and the weather forecast! I hope he organizes another women´s and rigid wing worlds here in Greifenburg. If you flying girls and rigid wing pilots would like to compete here again, please contact me on facebook, leave a comment here or send me an email. I will forward our wish to Wolfgang.
Results here!