Yesterday was a no-fly day, to accommodate the Opening
Ceremony. Morning weather looked grim
for flying (windy, low overcast) but by mid-afternoon had evolved into a sky
with (tolerably low) cumulus and moderate wind that probably would have
supported a reasonable task. This led
to rather good weather for the ceremony, which featured all teams marching into
the Chaves town square (about a mile east of the airfield) then standing around
for various speeches, dancers, gauchos on horses, singers, and a release of
pigeons. Today, at the airfield just
prior to the morning pilot briefing we had a grand flag-raising event – on
signal, each Team Captain raised his country’s flag (I count 24 in all). With due ceremony has thus having been
observed we can now proceed with the official competition.
Today’s weather forecast can be summarized as good lift, few
clouds, too much wind. As I write this
all launches are complete and pilots are struggling with blue conditions in winds
that are easily 25 kts on the ground, and substantially more aloft. The World Class was first to launch and had
to strain mightily just to stay within reach of the field. We watched a gaggle of at least 20 gliders
climb high while drifting rapidly downwind, then top the thermal and head
upwind, arriving back at the airfield around tow release altitude – lather,
rinse, repeat. We were told that lift
should improve and cumulus clouds might develop later in the afternoon. It looks as if significant improvement will
be needed for today’s tasks to have a high rate of completions.
4pm update: Wind has
strengthened a bit. A number of pilots have given up the fight and are back on
the ground at Chaves. Perhaps a dozen
trailers have hitched up, though it’s not clear whether this is because of a
landout or simply in anticipation of that possibility. (Team Captains are required to report
landouts to the Scoring Office, but there currently seems to be no way to see
that information.) US pilots appear to
be doing okay, though it’s unclear whether speeds are sufficient to allow task
completion before the day dies.
Good luck to all of you
ReplyDeleteFrauke
Thank You John,
ReplyDeleteChecking it multiple times a day for updates!
Scott Alexander