Ivan, the blogging machine !

28/06/11, Ivan

Morning is clear with blue sky, some cirruses high up (I should ask for right spell, as they seems to be here every day). Forecast for light wind, so we should go places.

I start getting use to routine: up at 7, pack instruments, batteries and water, go to breakfast with WiFi, check the messages, carry very heavy bag to headquarters about 300 meters (gosh, I missed my Lightness harness so much!), find shade, wait, jump on bus, get up, find shade, get launch pack, wait, punch coordinates, check map, wait for lull, get in bus and go for swim in cold river...

That was scenario for yesterday. After that we went on bus tour, courtesy of comp organisers. Local trout farm, sulfur hospital, which make me consider to quite smoking, beginning of the river, which is also highest point of Potugal, almost 2000 meters. They build it up to make it to 2000 meters.

After 9 o'clock they organized a party in Monteigas, which is about 10 km from headquarters. I missed it, too much local cheese make me sleepy.

Midi is back, he carrying his back with great accuracy, just like me on bad day. After receiving great deal of advices on what to do and what not to do from bunch of us, he went to rest for few days. Hopefully he would be fine for world.

Time to make this 300 meters walk...

28/06/2011, Ivan

Back from flying. Long retrive with changing buses and waiting for people to fill up big bus. I was first on both buses of course. All gliders transported in green track. Not many pilots keen on separation from their gliders, but we don't have a choice...

Today 80 km task suppose to be with down wind last leg, but predicted wind was from other direction, so we were pushing into head wind all the way. At the end wind become stronger, thermals were trashed on flats, pilots were struggling to get 1600 meters. I don't think anyone made goal with leaders just getting over 50 km mark. I think Matts Eliasson and Michael Bass get over 50 km, Geoff, Dave and me got over 40 km. Would be interesting to see what scoring system would do to results.

One Hungarian pilot had accident on top of the ridge on the way to last turn point. Suspected spinal injury, doesn't look too bad, that's what they saying anyway.

Geoff got cascade with twists, stall the glider, sort it out and managed to catch up and overfly most of the field by taking back route over high ground. That's the way to do it!

My tracker was beeping every 10 seconds like bloody microwave. I couldn't switch it off, buttons doesn't work. It has mind of its own and I was seriously considering to drop it. It was really frustrating when we playing yo-yo on flats pretty low in brocken with head wind over 25 km/hour.

And I appreciate my old harness without seat board even more now! Wet shorts from consrant shifting from side to side, back and forward become every day reality. I was tired and sleep in the bus again after only 3 hour fght.

Now I sounds like Negative Dave. We are trying to convert him into Positive Dave by the end of this trip. He still refuse to use right terminology, like "extremelly ridge soarable" instead of "too windy". So hi is in denail so far, but we'll keep trying.

Portugal is slate country. Most of the houses, retaining walls, stairs, mountains, launches and even some of the roofs are made out of slate. On launches they luckily have shade cloth pinned down, so our lines are still in good shape.

Local people are very friendly, unlike flys. There are quite a number of them on ski slopes covered with white carpet. They just baking there under the morning sun and don't even trying to kiss you all at once, not like in Australia (I mean flys of course).

Locals are also very interested in politics. From what I understand, Portugal political system working pretty much like front loading washing machine in our accomodation: once you put detergent and your cloth in, it start pumping water and make all the right noises, but it doesn't turn or spin. And then you have to spend next tree hours trying to get you cloth back and wash it by hands...

29.06.2011, Ivan

Morning routine was dominated by yesterday's score news. Michael Bass done brilliant job on such hard day and come first, before our oun Matts Eliasson. Well done!

In first dosen we have now 4 Australian pilots, which is not bad at all. Other ways to look at it is all our pilots are in first dozen, or one third of the first dozen are Australian. Dave look at it slightly differently, he was beaten by pilot who been flying only just over year. We have to fix it, I mean turn him into positive Dave.

Would be nice to keep same placing during next comp:) Not likely though...

But if we'll raise few more Mikes in next five years, who knows, it might happens. Always good to have a dream.

Hungerian pilot is stable, no nerve damage, just fructure, so we expecting full recovery. Midy walking around, he should be all right for the World.

It is interesting to see discussion on acro maneuvers and comp gliders. I even might send some thoughts. Not sure how it wiil be taken but... Mike was laughing on Gavs email, he is appreciate support. Who doesn't?

Today we went up lower launch, wait untill thre o'clock and came back to spend the rest of the day next to river. It was noticeably colder day (of cource because I decided to leave my jumper at home) and extremely ridge soarable... Wind came down a bit as day progressed, but with cloud base of 2000 meters and only few thermals organisers canned it. Few people flew and even got up, but all agreed that with mountains around it was not safe for too many pilots in this comp.

Couple of Russian pilots decided not to wait for buses and went down by goat track. It would be about double size of Beechmont, but they negotiated it in 29 minutes. Considering that in this Slate Country there is no Australian Building Code, so when they buid these mountains, they put every piece of slate vertically. And it is sharp. Geoff's knee come second best against retaining wall other day. But Russians came down without scratch.

Tomorrow is final day of this comp, I still fiddling with my (sorry, it's actually Simon's) harness. Hopefully I should be good for Piedrahita.

Ivan

26 June 2011, Ivan

Just finished flying second day of Nordic Open. Today was windy, hot day without cu's and with a lot of cirruses (I am sure I spelled it wrong, but it was the onky option on my PDF). Termals were going only to 1700 meters and we were pushing into wind. With 60 km task, most pilots landed before 20 km mark. I heard that only couple of guys made it to goal, so they would be the most unpopular tomorrow :)

Midi got dusty on landing at first turn point, and hit the ground after collapse pretty hard. Ambulance took him on stretches to hospital with suspected compression, but we all hope he would be OK. Midi was calm and didn't complained much. We'll check him tomorrow in hospital.

Yesterday was much better day.

27.06.2011, Ivan

Breakfast was very good as usually. Still wondering how they can do it for 3 euros. Midi is OK, not even compression they can see on Xray. Still in pain, but might be out of hospital soon with bag of illegal drags. So we will take him to our house from his tent. I am sure other 3 Russians wouldn't mind. It is only house in whole park, with thick walls out of slate. On ground level it is always cool like in cellar, even in day heat.

Today looks clear so far, but they expect stronger wind. Yesterday results are out. 3 pilots in goal and Mads 200 m short. Winner got 160 points, so everyone love them now. Guys deserve medals at least!

ivan's dream come true

Put on your best Russian accent

Dream come true.

I got these nightmares for the last two weeks before trip to Europe: I am late for my flight, I am missing connection flight, my tickets, passport and money were stolen, my glider is too heavy and they wouldn’t take it, my bag have been lost and combinations of the above.

So I wasn’t really surprised when baggage belt in Madrid airport went empty, crowd disappeared and I was still standing there without my glider. I guess it even out the fact that I didn’t miss any flights, money or documents, despite the real chance of being late for departure in Brisbane. Road to airport was parking lot and after half of hour sitting in it, my wife took service road and scenic route.

It still made the whole trip pointless, as I can’t fly without glider. I am trying not to think about Simon’s harness and Hollywood’s radio, it is just a bit too much for me at the moment.

I can’t buy local sim card in airport, so I don’t have a chance to find Geoff Wong with his car. I still need to let him know that I am sleeping in here for the next week or until my glider arrive, whichever comes first.

After getting rough direction to closest shop which sell sim cards (apparently you can’t get there by foot), I discovered that Spanish language is actually quite different from English. To my surprise you couldn’t understand not just most of it, but mostly all of it. Needless to say, that despite friendly attitude, locals could not work out my accent and sign language either.

I recon if anyone would open sim card shop in every major airport, they would become a millionaires. And they can open money exchange inside of Chinese airports, so you don’t need to apply for the visa, if you want to buy drink or food (that two are royalties applicable).

Paris was rainy in the morning, but Madrid was quite pleasant 27 degrees, with a fresh wind. A bit strong for flying, not if I need to care.

On the way out I suddenly stumbled on Geoff and Dave Gibbs. Boy, I glad to see you guys! Dave’s glider didn’t arrive from London either. And the van he bought for traveling and living in it blew up 5 minutes into his trip.

So it could be worse after all…

By the way, maps here are in Spanish too. But because we don’t have any, we don’t need to worry. My GPS don’t have maps of Spain, so it is useless as well.

After weighing our options, we decided to go to Piedrahita, which is only 1.5 hours away, rather then trying to find accommodation in Madrid. I left Dave phone number and my email address for lost baggage office and explained to smart looking women as best as I could importance of finding my glider. Letter from HGFA office did the trick.

Roads in Spain looks pretty much like our highways and well signed. Wind is on fresh side, so landing would of been vertical. If we would of have our gliders that is. Ground seems pretty dry btw few patches of green here and there. We are driving along fairly sizable ridge line about 1500 meters with some bigger mountains behind it. It looks like old rounded hills, similar to Bright landscape with Spanish flavour. Flats looks rugged, cut by deep little creeks, littered with big rocks, not unlike area around Armidale. Sky is pretty clear with few small cu’s, some lenticular and cirruses.

As we come over notorious pass about 15 km before Piedrahita, it does look complicated. Wind getting stronger and blowing along the valley. I am not keen on getting low in this area.

In Piedrahita we try to get accommodation in famous La Residentia, but at 6 o’clock it was too early, so we have to come back after 7 o’clock. I wouldn’t understand that ever, but Geoff does speak Spanish! And he understand it as well! From now on I have to stick with Geoff no matter what. I still don’t have SIM card, address or internet connection, but we got Geoff, so, we should be OK!

Finally we settled in La Residentia and even done some shopping in local supermarket. Prices a bit better than in Australia, so we will survive.

By 8 o’clock we could see a dozen gliders above the launch. Mostly parked, they didn’t go anywhere in a hurry. By nine they all came down for beer in local pub. We recognise few faces, good to chat to people you met 10 or so years ago.

Piedrahita is something hard to describe. If you been to Manilla (who hasn’t?), it is nothing like it.

Buildings, roads and even fences build out of rocks. Some big rocks! About 800 years ago! Some of them anyway. And they looks that way as well. Tiny wiggly one way streets between stone walls. Big timber doors with century old handles. Most of them need adjustment (it’s renovator speaking). And a lot of storks, probably more than ibises on Gold Coast or flying foxes in Logan. And their nests are huge. And they are everywhere, including mobile tower.

All these baby stories are lies after all, otherwise Piedrahita would be at least size of New York.

I was told that storks are crap at termalling, but their nests are pretty good termal markers…

Spain is good place to be. Especially if you like beer or coffee. Not so good with tea. Most of the time people don’t understand why would someone want tea.

La Residentia is empty and echoed at the moment. View out of our window is much better than you would expect for 10 euros, including breakfast.

Dave got phone call. His glider arrived. Lucky Dave! Today is Wednesday, they promised to deliver it on Monday, in 5 days time. Apparently tomorrow is national holiday. I love the way they think and count! I also love Siesta. We have to have it in Australia!

At midnight we check my glider on internet – no traces of it. In my nightmares that night my glider deliverd to my home.

At 6 o’clock in the morning good news arrived. My glider in Madrid as well.

We drove back to Madrid, picked both gliders and got to Portugal without much drama.

On the way Geoff got us into camping shop in Salamanca, so Dave got his home now.

Training - of sorts

So the Schmittenpokal (which was also the Austrian Nationals) didn't happen - it got cancelled on the first day, without a briefing, due to the bad weather forecast. No flying in Zell am See, despite being there for four days :-(

I did finally get a flight on the way back to Munich, in Koessen, thanks to Axel and Anna (and Luis!) who very kindly stopped for me to race up the hill and have a 20 min boat around complete with spirals to try out the M4 - flies beautifully. Bit of a problem landing, though: It glides so well that I ended up using most of the rather large landing padock before touching down - will have to work on that one. But all in all, so nice to be in the air again, and how light is that speedbar, and how easy does that wing turn! :-)

So, that was a bit of an unexpected end to 4 days of non-flying, where I took all sorts of other opportunities to train for Piedrahita:
Carrying small children to train for carrying my bag
Carrying my bag to train for carrying my bag
- up to launch, twice, and down again
- looking for another launch in the clouds, and up again
- onto trains, cable cars etc
- entertaining small children all day to train endurance - I'm exhausted!
- walking down from launch in Zell am See for fitness - turns out what I actually need to train is walking in my flying boots, my feet hurt!

Anyway, off to work for another week, and hoping to fly in the Harz mountains near my parents place (Rammelsberg, Goslar) next week.

Antje