The weather has not cooperated for flying yet, but it looks like tomorrow it could be the day. We have 25 competitors flying 23 gliders registered in the Camp. The format is a combined cross-country clinic and contest with seminars every morning and contest tasks in the afternoon.
Both Jerzy and I have been able to borrow ASW-27's for the camp to continue practising for th worlds. I am flying Udo Rumpf's 27 (ET) and Jerzy is flying Walter Weir's 27 (2W). In turn, Udo is flying my LS-8 (F1) and Walter is team flying with Luke Szczepaniak in the SZD-55 (XG)
Day 1
Everyone met in the clubhouse at 0900 for registration and a briefing on local procedures and Contest Rules. Following that was a briefing on Airspace in the contest area. At noon we scrubbed the day. In the afternoon we watched a DVD of a talk that George Lee gave at Darling Downs in Australia for a club seminar about cross crountry and task flying.
A steak BBQ dinner was hosted by the Junior Soaring Team as a fundraiser and all enjoyed fabulous striploin steaks.
Day 2
The seminar for day 2 was provided by Joerg Stieber who talked about the different types of tasks, MAT's and AAT's and the strategies that should be used in each task, as well as how the rules apply to each task. The forecast for the day showed a very small window of soaring weather, but not enough for a task so the day was again scrubbed at the pilot meeting.
A Fine Week of Soaring, with Karl Striedek flying in a Duo at Mifflin was enjoyed by many and by the end of the movie the sky had cleared and cu were popping, so a few people flew, but again the window was too small for a task.
Dr Jack showed a small area of good convective activity over Rockton, and he was right. It was raining in Cambridge and Hamilton, but the sliver of sky over top had cu.
Day 3
The seminar today was weather by Joerg Steiber. The topics covered were internet weather sources, a refresher about weather systems and how to read a tephigram. Joerg walked everyone through his routine for forecasting the soaring weather.
The airmass for today was very moist resulting in cloud around 2500' AGL for most of the afternoon. The forecasts called for continued low cloud during the afternoon, but showed a clearing trend between 4 and 5 pm. At the noon meeting the day was scrubbed, based on Dr Jack's predicted buoyanc/shear ratio of about 2.
A few people rigged for local flying and prepared to launch around 2:30 when some light rain moved through, but sure enough, just after 4 pm cu could be seen to the north and before 5 they were overhead. The gliders launched and were able to fly for about an hour in broken thermals.
