Today the clouds grew much faster than yesterday, but the meteo man and the organizers were convinced that the storms would not harm our courseline of 64km. Even several thunders didn´t stop them from sending us out. Quite a stressful atmosphere on launch, as it was all shaded for a while, and when it was slightly sunny again, there was a cross wind and not much time to get into the air.
It wasn´t exactly a brilliant take off, and when I was about 10 minutes on course, somebody told Jörg, Stefan and me on our radio frequency that the task is stopped. Great, why didn´t they decide that half an hour earlier? To me it was obvious all day that there was a huge storm cloud developing towards our first turnpoint, and apparently that was the reason in the end why they stopped. A mind game. I guess there won´t be any points today, because not even all pilots could get into the air in time.
Big thanks to Jörg
for not pushing me on launch today - he was right behind me, but after
I took off, they closed the launch window! I had a significant cross
wind for most of the time I waited, and when I wanted to go because it
straightened up, they told me now it´s the turn of the guy at the other
ramp and wouldn´t let me go! Then the wind turned back to 90 degrees
cross... it wasn´t fun. And I was glad I had a good friend in my back who was more concerned about my safety than about his points in the comp!
The goal field "Gruffy" was a bit unusual too. On two sides it was surrounded by powerlines. There were thin fences all across the field, very difficult to see from above. The grass was quite high and the ground uneven, and towards the wind direction when I landed (wouthwest), it was a downhill slope. Better than most other fields in that area, that´s for sure, but for a goal at a pre-worlds a bit rustic.
I just hope we don´t have to play the same game again tomorrow.
It wasn´t exactly a brilliant take off, and when I was about 10 minutes on course, somebody told Jörg, Stefan and me on our radio frequency that the task is stopped. Great, why didn´t they decide that half an hour earlier? To me it was obvious all day that there was a huge storm cloud developing towards our first turnpoint, and apparently that was the reason in the end why they stopped. A mind game. I guess there won´t be any points today, because not even all pilots could get into the air in time.
Big thanks to Jörg
for not pushing me on launch today - he was right behind me, but after
I took off, they closed the launch window! I had a significant cross
wind for most of the time I waited, and when I wanted to go because it
straightened up, they told me now it´s the turn of the guy at the other
ramp and wouldn´t let me go! Then the wind turned back to 90 degrees
cross... it wasn´t fun. And I was glad I had a good friend in my back who was more concerned about my safety than about his points in the comp!The goal field "Gruffy" was a bit unusual too. On two sides it was surrounded by powerlines. There were thin fences all across the field, very difficult to see from above. The grass was quite high and the ground uneven, and towards the wind direction when I landed (wouthwest), it was a downhill slope. Better than most other fields in that area, that´s for sure, but for a goal at a pre-worlds a bit rustic.
I just hope we don´t have to play the same game again tomorrow.
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