Aug 2 – Model Processing

So today promised to provide us with a touch of what we can expect weather wise for the Nardt Open Pre-contest. Hot, sultry and tough launching. It started out quite nice in the morning but by noon it was definitely hot and the trees barely moved except for the occasional flurry as a thermal went by. The officials had set up the winch assignments so we set four winches up towards the east on our assigned lane one.
Practice began with the pilots some thermal flights as we settled in to our Team accommodations which also were set up yesterday. I procured a nice wooden stick and erected the flag at the door to our section of the tent. Speed practice became the main activity as the official course was made operational and CD Armin Hortitz called the pilots through so the helpers could also be trained on the Bases. Many of the teams had arrived and some pretty tight runs were being made. Andreas Kunz hit a really nice patch of lift to launch amazingly and then storm through his run to register a 13.24
Times generally were a little slow to start with our teams runs in the high 14’s to low 15’s. Tom was best with a 14.4. After lunch we took each of the three models for the three pilots to the model processing area near the full scale glider hangar. Here the officials measure each sailplanes nose radius and hook length to comply with the rules and also mark each component of each model to ensure that ONLY those three models will be used in the world championships. They also photographed each pilot and obtained their FAI licenses to hold for the duration of the contest. The jury members for the worlds – ex world champ Ralf Decker Thomas Bartovski and Raymond Pavon were also there testing winch testers. Here they would calibrate our winch testing device with a simulator that has a known resistance to make sure our resistance measuring instrument was accurate.
The officials began distance practice after we returned and this was a great opportunity to fly the actual world champs course and practice our distance technique as a team. Except for the first round every distance task during this official practice the team won and some of them emphatically. This was excellent for the moral of the team as they made correct choices where to fly and correct adjustments through out each round. It was a fabulous practice day and we look forward to tomorrows Nardt Open contest when the weather is forecast to be in the high 90’s with very little wind. Here the entire team will fly the contest including the helpers and we look forward to a lot of fun after the hard work of the last 4 days.
Gordon