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Thu Aug 10 World Championships Day 4

Heavy thunder woke us this morning early around 5ish but by the time we had breakfast and got to the field it had cleared to the North with a stiff southerly breeze and the outlook so far looks great for flying. 

DURATION Rd 6

Mike launched first and drifted downwind  along the runway in search of lift. He hooked up into some great air and got his 10 minutes easily. His landing eas a little late but a great score of 10:01 – 100.

The wind has calmed quite a lot from the 6 – 8 ee had this morning early. Reto didn’t like his first launch but did very well with his second surfing out front over the forest to make his time and shoot a 10:01 – 100

The air hasn’t been all easy as is evidenced by tue fact that Jens Buchert of Germany didn’t make his time and landed at 8:09. (He got a “get out of jail card” though as his official timer didnt stop the watch and he was awarded a reflight. Also the group before Tom included Joe Wurts and he was unable to hook up after searching for 3 minutes and had to come back for a relight.

Tom got a great launch and worked air downwind to get his time. He returned to the LZ and shot a beauty for a much needed 10:00 – 100 Granny.

DISTANCE RD 6

Mike flew in the first group and he waited to launch late. He followed immediately after Martin Herrig and then flew further out before entering the course. Martin had 3 laps when Mike entered and we looked great at the same height but further out. It seemed that the course was much longer though as we were made to fly further at Base B than the German model in closer lap after Lap. This has been apparent on previous Rounds also. The course is long out wide.

We finished with 13 laps to Martin’s 18.

Retos group launched and headed to the downwind road side of the course. As Reto went to push for his zoom his line broke and he had to return for a relaunch.His wing came away on the landing and it did take a few moments to fix that before he could relaunch but with a safe start he joined the course with a couple of seconds to spare.Being last up can often work in your favor but Reto lapped quickly to maintain a good pace and was in goid shape with 2 minutes to go having 12 laps to the Russians 20 and lots of height in hand. As the other pilots came across to the field in the last minute Reto followed them in to finally succumb to gravity with 21 laps. The Russian pilot tallied 24.

Tom Kiesling launched immediately with a draw clearly cross course indicating lift over the orchard. He went straight to it and began circlimg up. The other pilots saw tjis and quickly launched to follow suit.  Joe wasn’t at all happy with his launch and return to urgently get a second launch. With 2 minutes into working time Tom had climbed considerably on course and he began making laps with 4:52 On the clock. He started with a height advantage and flew very smooth and tight. Meanwhile the German junior Johannes Kriske began stroking laps about 4 laps down. Joe joined the race also 5 laps down on Tom at at least 100 feet lower and in lively air over the winches as the thermal drifted east. With 3 minutes to go Johannes and Joe were lapping fast on the inside while Tom was slowing down on the outside. The lap count advantage we started with was dwindling and at the halfway point Joe and Johannes had caught us. Tom was slowing down coming across to land and used up all the clock to complete 25 laps. The other two racing each other in better air inside flew 4 more for 29. It is quite crazy to see things can change so rapidly when you fly in different air to your opponents. In hindsight with a height advantage we simply needed to be in the same corridor as our opponents to beat them provided we flew as well.

Speed Rd6. Was flown in extremely tough sultry conditions where until halfway through the 50 pilots the fastest time was 15.3. A fast time in the 14s was flown by Tim Kullack of Australia and only one other pilot got in the 14s and that was Naito Sakurai of Japan. The German pilots were tight and fast as far as the conditions would allow but that still only yielded times in the 16’s for them.

Mike was best for the USA and he made a clean pass for 16.87. Reto had the most awful launching air like many pilots and the best he could manage on his second launch with no time for a relaunch wad in the 19’s.

Tom Kiesling also had ridiculous launching air but flew such a tight first lap they signalled late but Tom didn’t flinch and continued on to score a 17.75 where many would have been 19 or worse.

Duration Round 7.

Mike Lachowski easily made time in hot balmy co ditions and approached straight in to record a 10:02 – 90.

Reto made the task look easy and landed a 10:01 – 100

Tom easily the thermalled out in air and all bar one pilot made time. He was a fraction late getting home for a 10.01 – 100.

Distance Rd 7.

We started distance with Reto in Group 1 and he launched immediately to head downwind and begin lapping in pretty good looking air.

The other pilots watched him for one lap before they realized that he had strong air and they all launched in a mild panic to get to him quickly.

4 pilots joined Reto downwind and began lapping in the  same corridor. Andreas Herrig was one of the 4 and he kept a solid pace too catch Reto. Nicklaus Huggler of Switzerland was most aggressive and was moving further away downwind as Reto began his zigzag back to the landing area. The paddock over the hill was baked yesterday so many hundreds of large gay bales are scattered across it and Reto did not want to connect with one. Reto landed safely and watched the others complete their laps. In the end Nicklaus got 18 beating Reto (17) by one lap by staying deep and finishing his time airborne and flying straight towards himself when he was done. He landed a long way out but he had run to the edge of the slope to make sure he could see his out landing. Andreas Herrig only managed 19 also and lost points to Nicklaus.
 Mike tried a similar strategy launching early to immediately go downwind and begin lapping. The air was not so good but he was keeping a good pace. Joe Wurts had launched without camber and had to return for a relaunch. Meanwhile Bernhard Flixider (who is leading the contest) launched at the same moment as Joe and they shadowed each other upwind away from Mike to begin lapping in a different county.
They stayed in a race lap for lap for the entire 4 minutes and finished together on the same count of  23 laps while Mike had succumbed earlier in tough air over the slope with 19 laps. This gives Bernhard another 1000 in distance in his quest for the world championship.