Yo!
I'll let Eric write the bulk of the blog, especially from his viewpoint. Suffice to say it'll probably be titled "Splat no. 4".
Meantime I'll tell it from my viewpoint. The rain that was supposed to stay south of us did, after a fashion, but a huge heap more developed to the west of us, and basically dumped everybody in various paddocks - those who didn't abandon the day, that is.
Shortly after Eric started, I leaded off to the nearest biggish town - Loppi - for some shopping and to raid the ATM, and a little while after doing that and driving back, the phone went off. A SPOT message, saying that he'd outlanded at such-and-such location. Damn. It would take me 20 minutes to get back to the airfield, made worse by getting stuck behind a large truck, and there are few overtaking opportunities on a lot of Finland's roads. Eventually I got home, and fortunately the team captain had informed the organisers that Eric had landed out OK, and that I'd been informed and would be on my way.
Hooked up the trailer, fired up OziExplorer, entered the co-ordinates and set off. One of the other guys came with me, and just as well, because he'd landed in a paddock with softish earth which was steadily getting muddier. There'd be no way we'd get the trailer in there, so we had to push the glider - with the farmer helping - to where I could get the trailer, and we de-rigged there. Not sure what the crop was, but from my viewpoint it consisted of tall wet grass, which got our feet all sopping wet. And then there was the dirt, turning to mud. Our car is going to need a serious clean-out before we return it!
We de-rigged OK, and departed. Took 55 minutes to get back to the airfield, with wet glider in the trailer, and all of us with wet feet and v. dirty shoes.
Which are now clean, but no less wet, and we've now got a heater playing on them, hoping they'll dry out…
Over to Eric…
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment