Jenny, Jeremy and Ziggy Leave

Even though I've been sacked I thought I would post the last post before getting involved in the Flatland Cup.

Jenny,Jeremy and Ziggy have departed to Budapest for thr night with Zig Driving so they could end up anywhere. From there Zig leaves for Aus tomorrow and Jenny and Jeremy to Poland to return the Glider via Prievidza to see the boys at the unflapped pre worlds.

A few photos of the last day with Team Kauffmann with Discus CS "P"and relaxing at the bar with Graham, Kris and Sam.

All for this site see you on David and Graham's blog

Greg

Back home last day's final comments

It was a typical European day today. There was a lot of moisture from the previous day's storms and cloud base was low. The cloud base only got to around 4500ft later in the day and was much lower out west, though I did leave earlier to avoid the forecast late overdevelopment. Being my first taste of a real "European day", I tried to stay high-ish and went slow, really wanting to get back home on the last day. There were some good climbs later in the day so again a later start would have been better, but again a gamble. As it was i flew through rain again on final glide and at that time it was pretty overdeveloped around Szeged.

Anyway, it's been fun.

Jenny

Last Day

The weather has slightly improved, enough for a desperate competition to set a 3hr AAT. Forecast heights are 1000m with high probability of overdevelopment. First launch at 1115, with 15metres on the back of the grid. Should be an interesting day.

Jenny

Last chance

Greg's been quite disobedient and does not take direction very well. As of tomorrow he is sacked (after the task has been completed). We hope we get a flying day in tomorrow to keep him busy, as he has had too much time on his hands to be mischievous.
Jenny

Baba Jaga

Last night was Baba Jaga night where all the new witches were initiated.

This is Jenny in all her finery. Jenny has just told me I don't have to put all this s--t on but I will disobey her anyway.

Here is Jenny and Akemi . The bonfire is for the first solo on the broom

Marta our adopted Pole, we are trying to swap her for Ziggy, was another of the not so keen participants.

Also first solo shot

We have had another no fly day due to storms and have returned from another 3hr lunch.We now have to decide what's for dinner.

Day 9 and the weather is worse

Even the weather man was not very up-beat and we are still sitting round drinking coffee with 100% low cloud cover. The gliders are gridded but it doesn't look hopeful. Plenty of Aussies to chat with.

Don't forget to look at the other aussies' blogs at http://www.users.on.net/~dgjansen/ and http://teamdingo.blogspot.com/

Jenny

day cancelled again

There was a small window surrounded by large showers. A sniffer nearly beat the tug back so the day was cancelled at 13:30. Blue sky appeared around 3pm but the cu's were very low. Tomorrow should be flyable but NOAA indicates storms, some mid and high cloud and max cloudbase of 1500m.

J

Late night antics

Post Script:

Jeremy and I had a quiet night BUT...... Ziggy, Greg and a girl and crew from the Polish team went looking for night life. Ziggy's language "skills" managed to get them to a gay bar. Unfortunately Ziggy was wearing his diamond earing and one of the patrons took a fancy to him. Witness said he was sweating severely with worry. They got back home at midnight anticipating a no-fly day.

However, we've just had briefing and we have been given a 3hr AAT. Best heights forecast are 1300m for a short time only, and weak climbs - they keep talking about a flyable window but we are doubtful it will be a large enough break for a real task. We are gridded and waiting to go!

More later, perhaps.

Jenny

Wednesday Augusztus 5

We obviously didn't fly yesterday. While Ziggy and Greg visited Budapest, we saw the sights of Szeged. There's lots of interest to see. There is a veritable tribe of Aussies here now with Graham Parker, David Jansen and his mum, Chris Kauffman and Sam, and us, with Hank and Lorraine and Graham's wife to arrive soon.

The weather today also looks very doubtful, so more sightseeing may be on the cards. We are now running out of flying days, with only two more possible after today.

Jenny

Day 8

There was lots of uncertainty on the weather yesterday with a stable airmass to the south and very unstable to the north. 15m was at the front of the grid but at scheduled launch time there was no activity. We finally launched 3/4 hour late with very weak conditions. The whole of 15m class ground round at around 2-2500 feet for about an hour before conditions picked up enough to start. The other classes launched later and had their task reduced to 2 hours but ours remained a 3hour AAT. While conditions were weak I stayed with the massive gaggle that meanderd its way on task and after another hour the conditions suddenly improved with great climbs and 7500ft - and then I had trouble keeping up. The day ended up lasting much longer than previous days, so a later start would have been a better choice - hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Today the weather looks doubtful with wall-to-wall high cloud and thunderstorms predicted for Hungary.

Last night was the International night where all the teams exhibited their national foods. We had no Vegemite, lamingtons or pavlova, so while I flew yesterday the team found some Australian wine. A good night was had by all.

A good day today

A lot came together today. Greg and I looked at the weather and thought the day would finish early and there was talk of storms so I planned to leave a soon as possible. The rest of them were playing gaggle games and so I started as planned just after the gate opened. It was a great run on the first three legs and i only had a bit of trouble on the last leg - the sky was clearly dying and it was a good decision to leave early. Pipped by 0.4kph by the current 15m champion in a fully loaded 29, so pretty happy.

Jenny

994 POINTS

The rest day has worked.
Jenny 2nd today beaten by Katrin Senne(Current World Champ)in an ASG 29, by 41 seconds.
A really great effort. By leaving early Jenny used the best part of the day.

A Few More Photos

Last night was Hungarian night and Ziggy "Blinged Up"

Check out the left ear.

I am starting to worry about Jeremy and ZIGGY'S dress sense. They are both wearing socks with their sandals.

I am having a lot of trouble getting Ziggy to to come out and play at night. Every time I get dressed up to go out this is what I see that Zig has got on

water update

After many hours in the heat and some help from many, the bag on one wing was removed - a small twist at the end. We filled it and checked the capacity, and to our dismay, they are small bags of 50 litres each so now I am committed to being quite light for the entire comp. At least we now know, and the bad wing fixed will now give me about 15 more litres.

Jenny

Rest Day

Well finally a rest day has been called. We have found someone to help us pull out the bags and we are ready to take them out. More later on whether we get some success.

Jenny

home again, sort of....

As Jeremy said earlier, a short task was set, because the met indicated a worse day than yesterday. A short task was ok today but for the wrong reasons - the day was late starting and when it did, it went ballistic but fell to pieces after 2 hours with storms in the last part of the task area. Once again I had a good run for the first half, only stopping for 4m/s but being 410kgs as opposed to everyone else at 525kgs, I just couldn't keep up with of the Germans and French that I followed. Then the day collapsed and it was a struggle to get home. I just had final glide but as I approached Szeged there were rain showers all in front and it meant I had to land at the control point (Szatymaz Airfield), 9 kms short. I organised an aerotow from that airfield behind a Hungarian monster plane of some description and had a 3 minute tow home. The day was devalued (thank goodness).

Jenny