Alphen aan den Rijn Tuesday July 27 2010 ritzdeluy@hotmail.com
Monday; The weather in Szeged was not good enough to fly yesterday, but they tried hard to make it a day. While gridding it was raining. They first cancelled the 18 m. class and the other pilots were supposed to leave with a B task in the pocket, but in the end they cancelled the day for all classes. The minimum height of 800 to be launched and 1000 m cloud base to open the line, was not reached!! In the morning I read on the German site already that their Meteo man gave it a 30% chance that soaring was possible, and after briefing he stuck to his opinion. The UK pilots and the Dutch would have known what to do with such weather, but it is better to not have a lottery day, certainly NOT with so many competing pilots !!
A pity the weather changed so much from ”bloody” hot to rain and cool, but …that’s the weather. Today is another day, but there seems not a lot of hope that they can fly day 1 of this competition.
The weather did not everywhere turn from hot ….to cool with rain. 2 Days ago several pilots flew in Germany for the OLC nice FAI set 500/ 600 km., triangles. On Monday young Belgium pilot Bert Schmelzer flew a very nice 788 km from Vinon, after travelling from Prievidza in the Slovak Rep. via Belgium to France. Bert jr. was 6 in Prievidza, a great achievement!!! His mum and dad and brother Tijl are in Szeged now where Tijl flies a nimbus 4 D with father in the back. I remember when my son Dennis flew the WGC in Benalla in 1987 with his dad; a once- in- your- life -time -thrill.
Yesterday Bert flew another nice flight of 632 km. The French mountains gave a lot of pleasure to many pilots over the last days.
Tuesday; The meteo from the German team predicts 20 to 25 % of a chance to fly today, so I guess he is right again and day ONE might not start today. Most of the pilots and crew , I heard ,do it easy and wait a bit till they go to the grid. I heard yesterday an Hungarian pilot took the risk to not go at all, but …he must have known what he was doing.
From several sites I hear that the difference between Priviedza and Szeged is big. Szeged has a too small camping, open showers and , for a WGC it seems all pretty “poor”, and….. still not real good working organization.
It is very pleasant to hear that several people ”miss me” over there!
ALL classes got a task and a B task if necessary. First start was supposed to be at ;13.00.
Flights were set to the West then into Serbia and home. BUT…..the day was cancelled for 15 m. and later in the air , the 18 m. class was asked to come back within half an hour and a pretty average first day to fly the B task for the open class. Lots came back on the engine, but 2 Danish pilots made it back home, earning on this devalued day 461 points. Jan Andersen who won the day is already for years a TOP pilot!!!! He and his mate decided to fly to the worst looking site with rain, all the others to the other more clear direction. After flying between 300 and 800 m., they came 250 m. higher out then the rest and came home.Well done!!!They expect better weather for tomorrow, let’s hope, wait and see!
In between a Lufthansa freight plane got fire in the air and crashed full of freight at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia. The pilot and co-pilot had only minor injuries, the plane , a McDonnell Douglas MD11 broke in 2 pieces and was totally destroyed. As the pilots warned the tower, emergency teams were waiting at the place of the landing. The plane departed on Tuesday morning from Frankfurt .
And then this morning a passenger plane [Airbus] crashed in the jungle 20 km. before Islamabad in Pakistan. The plane from Airblue a Pakistan company was on its way to Islamabad from Turkey via Karachi with 146 passengers and 6 crew. Looking at the pictures from the burning plane I guess not a lot have survived. But at this stage they have not yet reached the place of the crash and the expectation is that passengers HAVE survived!!! The weather over there; rain with bad view.
Wednesday morning; The expectation for today is on several sites around 20% of a chance to fly. But if they start in rain and let pilots fly between 300 and 800 m. then you never know. At-least in the early morning it was raining and they expect more, but…tomorrow might be finally the day they can ALL fly. The weather is and will always be the weather…you just depend on it and nobody can change it, not even for a WGC.
Now the grid is “under construction” [ open between 10.00 and 12.30]and pilots go to briefing first, they might cancel the day, if the rain continues. Pilots got 2 hour AAT ‘s and then….the day was cancelled. As the briefing was as some call it, “chaotic ” and the pilots had a noisy wake up call early in the morning from an AG plane flying LOW over the camping, it all sounds a bit let’s say it friendly “un-worlds”. In the next issue will be more news about Szeged. If you want to know NOW what ‘s going on, you can find all the news and the scores on the Hungarian site ;
www.wgc2010.hu
Here in Holland the sun is shining and my Australian friends who travelled further to Finland enjoy 32 dgr. over there! They have nowhere had bad weather, everywhere in the low thirties or high twenties, even in Switzerland, so I guess they have the wrong opinion now about European weather. They might think it is the same as in Australia, how many times we all must have said “this is not normal”.
Leave you now as next guest, Tocumwal friends for sure remember him, Dieter Dundee arrives this afternoon. As he lives 9 months a year in Australia and 3 in Germany he is more or less an Aussie now as well. Looking forward to hear all his stories! Cheers Ritz