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Wednesday 13th
August After
briefing The cloud has developed significantly since the previous report for this morning and now we see serious overdevelopment with showers. There is a strong SW flow of maritime air moving into the contest area. This will also be affected by a small ridge of high pressure. Local showers are also expected and strong gusts up to 25 – 30 kts. Whilst we were at briefing there was a short shower of rain and the sky is full of similar clouds! Tasks have been set with the Open class first off, followed by the 15m. and lastly the 18m. class. They all have a racing task as the A task, and the B task is an AAT using the same task points with a radius around them. So Open have 385.7 km., 18m. 312.5 km, and the 15m. 293.5 km. Dick, as Chief Steward, reminded the pilots about safety in the air and that pilots should not get complacent about safety when flying in close proximity to others. After briefing all the pilots were asked to assemble, by class, for a group photograph. First launch is expected at 11.30. A bright sunny morning but the wind is blowing quite strongly. So could be an interesting day for the task setters. It is however nice to see almost clear blue skies and the sunshine. There are a few traces of clouds but not much. At yesterday’s 12.30 briefing it was quite obvious that there would be no “small window of opportunity” for a task, so flying was cancelled for the day. Dick had very kindly prepared a power-point slide presentation about the Helli Lasch Challenge, so I then told the assembled masses a little about Helli Lasch and the Challenge. Some of the pictures, take by Quintin, are magnificent. After briefing some of the SA team headed for the ten-pin bowling alley where the team manager was in the lead for quite awhile before being overtaken by Pieter (JS2) Havenga, and eventually the Maine man managed to clean up after two rounds. Then it was back to the airfield for 6 p.m. It was the closing session of OSTIV, and Attie gave a presentation about the JS1, which was well received and some pertinent questions were asked. After that we enjoyed the team party of the Polish and Czech teams. They offered beer, 75% proof vodka and a huge army-like tank thing that was the ‘soup pot’. The thick soup having cabbage & sausage as the main ingredients. I haven’t seen JS2 this morning, but I have it on good authority that he was doing well on the vodka. This morning we welcome Steve “Taffy” Thomas to the SA team – he is visiting for 3 days, so I’ll be interested to see how he puts my reports on the SSSA website. So till after briefing . . . |
