I landed late and barely started packing my glider when Betinho came with bad news - Gerd had done an emergency landing at the presidential palace Alvorada - landing conditions were rough, so we were glad that he didn´t get hurt. The organizer was already there, and I called the German embassy for help.
My team packed my gear, as I had been picked up by the "emergency guy" from the embassy and went straight to the police station they had taken Gerd to. Lukas and Murilo had been allowed to pack and take Gerd´s glider, so we "just" needed to wait for the decision of the police.
We were all transfered to the federal police station on the other side of the city, where the friendly boss on duty took the report really fast - we were very happy that Gerd did not have to stay in jail!
Sure he scored a 0 for the day for the infringement. It was a short night without much sleep for me, and I was sad to get to know at briefing today that the organizer and Mitch, the CIVL steward, had decided to not let Gerd fly today, maybe even disqualify him from the whole competition.
Attila stood up at the team leaders´ briefing stating that there were no written rules in the local regulations that pointed out a disqualification. At the pilots´ meeting, Zac Majors said that he thinks a zero for the day is punishment enough and a disqualification too harsh.
After all these discussions, we encountered a blue day with stronger wind and slower thermals today. It was really difficult to find the lift around the turnpoints and make it back to Esplanada. Jonny won the day, from our team Roland, Primoz and I got back.
I really hope that from tomorrow on, they will let Gerd fly again. He is totally aware of the mistakes he made, but he got himself into a bad place with the choice of drowning in the lake or smashing into a small field with a lot of tailwind - so he chose the only safe option left, knowing that he would be punished and get into trouble.
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