The second contest day & more

I promised you to tell my tactics on day 2... Pretty easy: start early because of the cirrus clouds from the upcoming front. Big gaggles are less likely when you fly an AAT. Furthermore you can fly a bit bigger distance in the first circles and still use the other to help you. We even had some cumulus so there was really no reason to wait. First leg was pretty good, I was in the flow and was gaining on the others. I took the right path under some nice Cu. Guess I had a good practice in Uvalde. On the second leg the cumulus were not in line with my plan, so I had to fly a big banana. Halfway on the third leg it dried out and conditions were not so good anymore (as expected). Had to fly very carefully to cover maximum distance to find the few good thermals. In combination of 45 km/h tailwind I thought it was good to lose some water too. There were two small circles left and I could go on final glide. Don’t ask me why (because I don’t know myself), but I messed that up big time. Result: flying the last leg with 250 kph and still cross the finish line way to high! That costed me the winning of the day and a nice bottle of “Treintatres” vino :( But you don’t hear me complaining about 4th place!

So, what happened more?

The night before this day, we celebrated Franco’s birthday. It’s something what we share: always celebrating our birthday on an airfield…

After day 2 we had a big BBQ and I finally had the opportunity to taste some real good meat from the Pampas! The Toselli and the Barrera’s (I’ll tell you about them another time) invited me to join. They said it was the last (HUGE!) piece from the butcher and therefore not the best, but I loved it!

Day three: Rain, rain, rain… So I took the chance to process the wine from the day before, sort my cloths between wet and almost dry and practiced some water management. When it stopped to rain I joined the Toselli family to Tres Arroyos. The town is about 50 km away and is a mid size town. Lots of Dutch roots, but to be honest I couldn’t tell. Wikipedia: Queen Beatrix visited it in 2006! Things you do on a canceled day: the women go shopping and the guys are somewhere behind it ;) We had a very good pizza and went to bed early.

The Toselli's

Day four: We got in the grid and before I got to my plane it was already cancelled. Lots of trouble with a volcanic ash cloud! We wanted to go the beach, but the cold air is kicking in and I decided to do some stuff like writing you this story.

Day five: let’s hope for some flying weather, preferably as good on the day of arrival!