Aug 5 – F3B Worlds Day 1

We all made a very early start arriving at breakfast shortly after 6 and making it to the field before 7:00am. The sky was very overcast with low cloud floating by from the west. We set all our equipment up and tested winches while we waited for the cloud to lift . It was 10:20 before the contest finally got underway with the announced Speed task. This was really going to be tough for the first guys as the sun hadn’t yet broken through and the air was pretty flat. Tom was up first for us as number 5 pilot and really couldn’t get a decent second launch. He flew a pretty 2 laps in 18.49. The run didn’t look quite as slow as that but the air wasn’t very good. David’s run was close to perfect as he extracted everything possible from the air he was dished up. His time was a 17:17 and at that point was the second fastest time of the day. Darrell’s first launch wasn’t good and his relaunch wasn’t any better. A third launch produced an even worse result so he had to complete the course as he was out of time. A 21 second run was the result. Dave’s time was 7th fastest in the end with Thomas Dylla (flying last of the Germans) posting a flawless15:37.
Duration was next with Tom staring off strongly with a 10:00 – 100 and then Dave made 10:01 – 95 trying to be a little long as the official timers watch was a little behind. Darrell never looked like missing and made a perfect 10:00 – 100 to give the team its second granny for Round1.
Distance was the third task today and that put Tom up first in a group against Jens Buchert of the German team. Tom went off to the north in search of air and found a friendly patch and started doing laps on his own. Meanwhile the bunch had gone to the right side of the course over the sunflowers and were doing hot laps behind him. Though Tom tried to move across to the better air it was too late and finished with 25 laps (which is pretty decent) but not when the winner Jens got 29.
David’s flight went better as he thermaled up with another pilot on the course before entering much higher than launch and started doing laps on the inside. The other pilot had slightly out thermaled David and lapped outside of him for much of the first 2 minutes leaving David three laps down to the Belgian Gerhard Flixider.
Darrell was our final pilot in distance and flying against Martin Herrig they both matched each other lap for lap, Toward the end Martin stayed out wide as he lapped while Darrell flew the base A turn behind trees on his way back to the field and was lucky to get the signal. The final result was another thousand as Darrell matched Martin’s 21 laps.
The weather had warmed up to a beautiful European summers day with puffy cumulus floating across and the slightest of breezes from East to west. The temp was in the high 80’s but it was quite bearable with little humidity.
Round 2 speed was the next task and the flights were set to be in reverse order of ranking. This allowed us to see where we were and David was in 17th place with Darrell in 22nd and Tom 30th.
Darrell’s run produced a 17.62 after he mistimed the air and went a little early. Toms flight was much more spectacular as his base A turn was a little down and he missed the deck by a few feet to level out cool as a cucumber and complete the course in an amazing 15.65. David followed a few pilots later and he also pegged the 15’s with a 15.84. The air continued to improve as the better ranked pilots flew and before long the fastest time went into the 14’s with consecutive fast times by Andreas Bohlen of Switzerland, Jurgen Polzl and then the Herrig brothers. Final run by Martin Herrig was fastest of the day at 14:53. The team certainly improved their individual positions a lot against most of the pilots with these runs. Speed Rd 2 was over by 7:00pm so Rd 2 distance was announced to began immediately after.
A full scale glider landed during Martin Herrigs final speed flight and pulled up short on the runway. It was very interesting that our model contest took precedent over a full scale landing.
Before packing up for the day the CD squeezed half of the 2nd round distance in as the sun set low on the horizon. Darrell was up first and the team made a great read to take him on the left side of the course over the corn and start making fast laps. Unfortunately confusion over signals at at base B caused Darrell to miss two whole laps. Hard to explain but it did happen. He lost by one when he should have won by one or more.
Final positions after day one saw David in 15th, Tom in 21st and Darrell in 25th.
Certainly not the start we were hoping for but not too much damage nonetheless. The level of competition is extremely high and the top guys are
flying really well.
The team is in good spirits and Glauco and Don have been doing a fabulous job as helpers. Don has been camped at Base B for most of the day (which is a lonely job) but he is the best and does it hour after hour without complaint.
We are looking forward to better results tomorrow and each pilot to move up the ladder.
CU then
Gordon