Eric's World Gliding Campaign, Finland 2014
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
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Latitude:-26.71436
Longitude:151.59859
GPS location Date/Time:09/23/2014 14:59:53 CST
Message:Safely outlanded in a field. Bring trailer and beer
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Saturday, 20 September 2014
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Latitude:-26.57526
Longitude:151.83746
GPS location Date/Time:09/20/2014 13:01:06 CST
Message:Racing!
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http://tinyurl.com/stausssoaringtracker
http://staussglidingwgc14.blogspot.com.au/
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Wednesday, 9 July 2014
The last flight
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Closing ceremony, and after, from the crew dude
The closing ceremony happened in glorious sunshine (why couldn't we have had this weather earlier?) at 1000, with quite a few people nursing sore heads from the previous evening's party, but everyone seemed to be present, in one form or another.
Prizes were awarded to the first ten places in Club Class, the first eleven in Standard Class and the first five in 20m 2-seat Class. The first three in each class of course had podium finishes.
Then the Team Cup was awarded, again with podium finishes, and short but effective speeches were made, all in English.
All the results may be found at www.wgc2014.fi/results which contains the complete set of results for all days.
It's been a fun competition, and I think Eric learned heaps from it.
The FAI flag was lowered, and presented to the captain of the team whose nation will host the next FAI World Gliding Competition, Lithuania.
After that there were the usual chaotic scenes of infrastructure being dismantled, and airfield operation slowly returning to normal. But Eric had arranged for me to have a ride in the Duo Discus XL (which hadn't competed), so that I could sample the local airspace and flying conditions.
Finland certainly has lots of forests everywhere, and even more lakes. But there are also quite a few landable paddocks (although there might be some areas where these are quite sparse), and obviously Eric had become adept at selecting these.
The Finland summer can also generate strong lift, and we (I went with one of the Finnish instructors) found lift up to 7 knots, to around 6000 ft. And today wasn't even necessarily the best day of the season! Cu's everywhere, although the day went a bit blue towards the end.
The Duo Discus XL is certainly a nice beastie, handles not too differently from a single-seater, difficult to compare it with the Arcus as we flew the Arcus a year ago, and I don't necessarily remember everything about its characteristics, and it goes when you want it to.
Tomorrow Eric and I head out from Helsinki. Our job tomorrow is packing! (groan)
Cheers!
6 July, from the crew dude
Well, not much left now except the Closing Ceremony and prize-giving. And I'm wondering just how many will be in any fit state to attend, considering the success of last night's end-of-comp party!
We've got pretty well everything done now apart from cleaning up the car we've been using, and of course the big pack-up job prior to our departure on Monday.
The rest of this week will probably be good gliding weather, judging by the forecasts. "Finnish Summer installation successful", although I think there are storms forecast just when I depart Helsinki for the journey home.
This'll probably be my last post then… We're now just waiting on Eric's from yesterday :-)
Cheers
Saturday, 5 July 2014
5 July, from the crew dude, part 2
Meantime, here are some pics of the gliders returning yesterday.
And of Eric just after touch-down!
Check-in/OK message from SPOT Eric's Spot
Latitude:60.74334
Longitude:24.11280
GPS location Date/Time:07/05/2014 18:16:39 CST
Message:Racing!
Follow the race
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http://staussglidingwgc14.blogspot.com.au/
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5 July (the last comp day!) from the crew dude, part 1
Day 6
Today was finally a good day on the scoreboard. I was doing the right things and the main reason for the good result was just not messing up. I had a few slow spots down low. Andy said that he even wrote down my coordinates from the tracker at one point in case he had to pick me up from the area but then that must have been what triggered a good thermal..
By not messing up today I finished 8th. The feeling for the day was just a relaxed and focused state not worrying about the scores or trying to think too much. I just flew my own race and made home.
I started with the Pole's and the fins just behind. We had a very good run into the first turn. The fins were just ahead for the last few k's of this leg. Christian flying VA is a great pilot to watch. He feels the air and extracts energy from the air very well so we had a little workshop session for 15km or so before I dropped off the back.
Past the turn and we had caught the main gaggle where I slotted into the top if the group. After 2 thermals it was just a Swed a Pole and I running to the second turn. Each time we stopped for a climb the gaggle would come in underneath. Around the turn and we had some breathing room on the gaggle. 4 knot climbs were not turned down but the occasional 5 gusting to 6 knot climbs were around the place. 10km from the 3rd turn we saw the Fins climbing and raced off to catch them. Still the Swed, the Pole and I; we came under the cloud 1500' lower than the Fins and couldn't find the climb. The pole and I moved on to the next turn connecting the dots between clouds. The next cloud didn't work so just hoping that the one after would. It did. It was just upwind of the turn and I drifted through the turn in 4 knots.
Almost back at cloud base and we started zig-zaging our wag across the cloud streets trying to fly the most efficient line. The other 2 we just slightly ahead and made the decision to fly more than 30 degree's off track to a good looking cloud. This is where we parted. I continued direct on track where there was a similarly dark Cu looking like a good thermal was beneath. There wasn't. I visualised the others passing well high oder head as I could see them climb well. I pushed on and ran the cloud street deviating more searching for the strong climb that I needed to match the others with their climb before. I chased a gaggle of standard class guys into a giant thermal and took about 6kts average (bottom to top) back to cloud base at about 4700'. The 4th turn was bluing out and only whispy Cu remained. Out of the turn and I had another good climb. This time the gaggle formed back underneath and the Swed was now down with them.
Approaching Räyskälä from the south is scary stuff. There is no where at all to land.. except for lakes and trees and even a swamp or two. I played it conservative following the clouds toward the southwest of Räyskälä where I know a good field is. When I knew I could definitely make it back to Räyskälä then I left back on track for the last control point, 8km away from Räyskälä on the other side from where I was. I had a good margin for final glide now and raced home.
I was the first to cross the finish line by seconds and was the 2nd to land. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face I was so happy with my flight. The scores didn't matter but gee did it make it sweeter when they started rolling in and my name was sitting high on the list.
Tomorrow will be a repeat. I just have to relax and get back into the same groove. I can mix it with these guys.
Friday, 4 July 2014
4 July, from the crew dude, part 2
Of course, as a result he did me out of a job :-)
I'll let him tell the rest of the story.
Cheers
Check-in/OK message from SPOT Eric's Spot
Latitude:60.74249
Longitude:24.11501
GPS location Date/Time:07/04/2014 18:20:46 CST
Message:Racing!
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4 July, from the crew dude, part 1
Thursday, 3 July 2014
Day 5 highlights
Not going to say much about today. But instead just leave you with some pictures. The wave pre start was unusable for the first leg so it was just a waste of time but still lots of fun. First leg was under Cu then one more climb after the turn and it was all in blue and straight into the paddock from there.
3 July, from the crew dude, part 2
Now for some pictures.
One part of the grid, from the other end of the field.
The other part of the grid.
There was enough wind today to get all the flags streaming out nicely!
The glider in the high crop. OK, by this point we'd already pulled the wings and tailplane off… but it looks kinda nice (?) here...
Custom message from SPOT Eric's Spot
Latitude:60.68959
Longitude:23.52656
GPS location Date/Time:07/03/2014 21:20:22 CST
Message:Safely outlanded in a field. Bring trailer and beer
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Check-in/OK message from SPOT Eric's Spot
Latitude:60.74339
Longitude:24.11332
GPS location Date/Time:07/03/2014 18:37:48 CST
Message:Racing!
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Day 5
We've had a few attempts at day 5 now, I think that it will finally go ahead now.
The sun is shining, small Cumulus are popping and 'Who stopped the rain' was played pre-briefing.
Club class task A is in the black, a racing task zig-zaging all over the place and a 3 hour AAT in blue which has some of all 3 sectors just inside the map folds
Should be a fun day.
3 July, from the crew dude, part 1
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
2 July, from the crew dude
Update 1116 - first launch 1230. Some showers around the place.
Update 1206 - first launch 1250.
Update 1214 - task A is scrapped, task B is active.
Update 1229 - first launch 1315.
Update 1243 - first launch 1330.
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
31 June - oops, 1 July!, from the crew dude
Update 1311 - day cancelled. Hardly surprising - the cloud's thickened up even more.
Go Karting
Here's a video of my first race while the track was still quite wet..
It did dry out eventually and everyone's lap times steadily shortened. This race video has camera adjustments as well as no spin-outs
Monday, 30 June 2014
30 June, from the crew dude
I'll go through what happened yesterday.
Well, that concludes that report.
Total cloud cover all day, starting off at around 6000 ft and ending at 500 ft. (Yep, that's right, five hundred.) And rain, easing off during the day, leaving us with mist.
Not much better today, the 500 ft cloud is still with us, no prospect of anything resembling a task.
Yesterday, all the sight-seeing places seemed to be shut. Today, they'll probably be open, so sight-seeing will likely be in order.
Tomorrow's not looking too promising weather-wise either, but, conditions might change a bit. We haven't got there yet.
Update 1100 - definitely no flying. But the forecasting site that the competition uses is forecasting usable conditions for tomorrow, however RASP is suggesting exactly the opposite. Hmmmmm...
Cheers!