And then the farewell party: It starts around 23:00 with… meat! I forgot to check the times, but the price giving started around mid night and was ready somewhere in the middle of the night. Lots of people from the village and everybody got dressed up for it: This is Argentina! I finally got the opportunity to taste some Argentinean night live too... Got back from the village early in the morning and after a hour of sleep I could drive with Enrique and Luciena to Buenos Aires. They invited me to stay at their place and I’m writing this message from their table. Thanks to both of them for staying here!
Pre-Mundial @ Adolfo Gonzales Chaves
zondag 22 januari 2012
The last one...
And then the farewell party: It starts around 23:00 with… meat! I forgot to check the times, but the price giving started around mid night and was ready somewhere in the middle of the night. Lots of people from the village and everybody got dressed up for it: This is Argentina! I finally got the opportunity to taste some Argentinean night live too... Got back from the village early in the morning and after a hour of sleep I could drive with Enrique and Luciena to Buenos Aires. They invited me to stay at their place and I’m writing this message from their table. Thanks to both of them for staying here!
donderdag 19 januari 2012
About the people
The last three days were cancelled. It was interesting to see the difference of opinion between the Europeans and Argentineans what can be a contest day or not. But I’ll spare you the details…
It’s really amazing how friendly and helpful the people are here. I got lots of examples, but let me pick one:
- Christina, his wife who takes care of all very well, including me!
- Lucien, the only daughter and the oldest with her husband Enrique (Kike). He was a fighter pilot and flies now for Argentinas Aerolineas and makes sure everyone gets launched within 1,5 hours. They have a 1,5 years old daughter Delfine and of course she is the “niña del ojo” of the family..
Mustn’t forget: Emma & Renata, two sausage dogs who watch over the surroundings.
The Argentineans have two weeks of vacation per year (some have a bit more). Who will spend his or her ONLYvacation with the family on an airfield back in Europe? So much for family values…
The other Eduardo is called Barrera. He is head of the National Aero Club (FAFAV) and contest director. His family is here too. Both families fly at Córdoba and seems to be old and good friends. The “11” I rented is from this club.
Barrera's in the front, Toselli's at the end and me in the middle.
There is one more thing I would like to tell about the people: their eating habits. Beside the times they eat it’s just my thing! I already told you about the meat and wine, but I discovered something else that is well beloved here: Dulche-de-Leche. Caramel and milk in a sticky creamy form. You see it everywhere and can put it in or on almost everything. I was searching for a good one that I could take home in my overfull suitcase and as if she knew I got one from Anallia Dekker when she introduced herself to me. It’s 1 kg in cardboard and from Chaves itself (you can visit the factory): perfect! Thanks Anallia!
maandag 16 januari 2012
Competition day 6
We waited a lot. I saw WG going by himself and thought about going with him. But I stayed. The group was going and I went right behind them. I was on the far south end of the starting line. With a northerly flow not optimal, but it was the best place to stay. I winded up with some open class gliders who were going to the far south side of the first sector. Again not optimal, but the other choice was to go by myself in some difficult weather. There were three other standard class gliders with me and after the flight they told me they had the same thought as I had. A lesson learned: I was too conservative, the other standard class gliders would probably have followed me (or I them). The second leg was bad. Bad thermals and they were very hard to find. The open class was going to the east side of the second sector and this time I decided to go by myself. It was a good decision, because I saw them coming low near the hills. I just touched the second sector and took things slow. A bit too slow maybe, because there were still thermals of 1-2 m/s. I was just too afraid of coming below 1200m where thermals were not the best.
I think I made the best out of the wrong decision on the first leg. The winner just touched the first sector and the far end in the second sector. Apparently the weather was better there. That’s flying AAT over unknown countryside! 17th place of 54.
This night I had a very good and long sleep. I think I needed one. The rumor was that’s today was going to be a very good day. I was ready to go and up for a very fast flight, but unfortunately a cold front is coming too close. A very short task and a short usable time for flying. It takes them 1,5 hours to take up all the gliders and standard class is last (I’m even in the last line!). Let’s hope for some flying. If not: the car is ready to drive to the beach :)
zondag 15 januari 2012
Competition day 5
So nothing really special for this day. Franco discoverd some damage on the tail caused by the tail dolly. So sanding on the airlplane has to be done this morning and he has been busy all yesterday evening repairing the dolly. Thanks Franco!
Today they expect that the subsidy inversion will have more influence. Thermals are going to be surpressed and wind will pick up again. Lets wait and see!
vrijdag 13 januari 2012
Competition day 3 & 4.
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!
woensdag 11 januari 2012
The second contest day & more
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…
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!
maandag 9 januari 2012
The opening & the first contest day
Strong winds (360/40), blue, max 2000 meter., thermals between 2,5 and 4 m/s. A short taks: 183 km/h. I guess they were afraid the wind was going to mess up the thermals. But it didn’t. I have a habbit of messing up the first day. The goal was to change that. I fly alone in a plane I don’t know, in a country that I don’t know and the sky is just blue. So what will be the tactics? Start late… That’s pretty hard for me, because it not the flying that I like. I want to go, not wait. But Sweden 2006 learned me to do it and I kept strong and departed almost last. Tactics: stay high and use the others to point out the good thermals. And it worked! Because I didn’t climb out the thermals as the proceeding gliders did, I gained bit by bit. After that I could even get away a bit. I placed 5th. The fastest of the late starters, so I found one reason why the French were faster (they had the benefit of teamflaing, that gave them the option to start early), but they were much faster, so what did they do? I had a look at their files: they even got out of the thermals earlier than I did, not climbing out of 1900 meters and they got down to 1100, a bit deeper than I did. But that still doesn’t count up for the lost time: my final glide was slow. I just couldn’t find the thermal downwind and I had to fly slow to keep the path. I could just keep the path and I threw in a couple of rounds against 40 km/h of wind. That will account for the rest I think… Anyway, we reached our goal not messing up the first day. Today will be similar (it is HOT!), but now we have an AAT. That changes the tactics dramatically. But for now I’m not goanna tell you what that will be:)
Results: http://www.soaringspot.com/sgc12/results/standard/daily/day1.html
The opening. What can I say? They put in a lot of effort in it and the whole town participated. One teacher started half a year ago letting the children make paper and plastic airplanes. They even had an Olympic fire, that they walked (!) over from the town center to the airfield, which I see burning from my tent as we speak. The best way to get an impression is to watch the pictures:
http://www.chavesdigital.com.ar/verfotos.php?id=11204