Competition day 3 & 4.

So what happened on competition day 3? 20 kilometers short before the first turning point everything with a plug attached to it turned black:

Shit! Fuse? Let me see.. Seems ok. Let’s turn everything off and one by one on again… No. Let’s try to bypass the fuse with the cereal bar package. Seems to be a sort of aluminum, so let’s give it a shot. No.. Lets shake every cable I can reach. Nothing. Can I remove the instrument panel cover? That’s goanna be a mess. Forget it. So what do we do? No map, no compass… As the weather was not so good as predicted, flying along with the others seems a bad idea. No need to land out when you are unable to collect points. Wait! I still have a copy of the map with the ships papers. I can even reach it! This is going to be a challenge…

Some river and road crossings and a very good visibility did the job and before I knew it I was on final glide to… I forgot its name, but it wasn’t Chaves! Luckily I could find another thermal and after I checked the map I could go on final glide to Chaves.

The problem was the fuse holder directly on the battery. In the morning I was explaining to Franco why I found it so important to have the battery charged: because it is the only one on board. I said that it was the only thing that was critical and without backup. Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Anyway, at least I could enjoy the surroundings at ease and without 50 gliders spoiling the view ;) Furthermore I was lucky to be at home. For some it turned out to be a long day and one even had to sleep in his glider until a tow plane was able to spot him with sunrise. I think you have to be careful about where you are going to land over here..

Competition day 4:

Because of the late retrievals a short task. 2,5 hours AAT. And this time the weather was exactly as predicted: 2500 meters, 1/8 of Cu an thermals up to 4 m/s. Just before I wanted to go I met de French in a thermal before the starting line. I flew with them the whole time and by extending the legs a bit and coming back to the same altitude I knew I only had to stay with them to win the day. Just before the third turning point they decided to go off course to some well climbing gliders. I thought: There must be something good on course too. Lets rewind: I only have to stay with them.. Damn. Of course the clouds didn’t give what I wanted and my spilt second decision did not take account for: the incoming sea breeze, flying alone (and the center of the thermals were hard to find), the wind that made it very important to turn the third point high and… that the clouds didn’t give what I wanted! Ok, that was stupid, but let’s fly home as fast as we can and there is only negligible damage. Before I knew it I found myself on a very bad path down to 600m AGL and had to climb in 0,5 – 1,5 m/s until final glide altitude. There goes another bottle of wine...

Anyway: 5th place is not something I can complain about and it was a very cool flight!