Closing Ceremony (last post)

Uys Jonker's sailplane (in trailer) being packed into the container for the long journey back to South Africa

The morning was dedicated to packing up and saying goodbye to all the great people and friends we have made from all over the world. Some shirt swapping was done and I am pleased to report the NZ shirts were certainly in high demand. Then at 11.00am it was time to head into the market square for the closing ceremony and the awarding of John's silver medal for 2nd place in the 18m Class.

John Coutt's, 2nd place for NZ, 18m Class

Silver medal

After the closing ceremony we all sat down for a final team lunch in our favourite restaurant in the market square before everyone went in their separate directions to start making their way home.

The last supper

So as the sun sets on our final day in Leszno I'd just like to say a huge thank you to all those who sent messages of support from back home in NZ and from around the world. They were all read and appreciated and were a topic of conversation every day as we were amazed by the number of people following and wishing us all the best.

It's been a pleasure keeping you all informed (although hard on those late retrieve nights), I hope you have enjoyed the posts. Zegnaj (goodbye) from Poland.

Day 10 (last day)

An exciting end to the comp in the 18m class where John was in with a show for the top spot. He needed to gain about 120pts on the Polish leader Karol. To do this he really needed a good showing on a 1,000 point day. The day started off with task A of nearly 400km which would have been ideal. Unfortunately as it stayed blue until nearly 1pm and the task was progressively shortened from 400km to 300km to 250km. This meant the day was always going to be devalued which made John's task even harder.

As it turned out John had a pretty good day in 10th and the Polish weren't so flash back in 31 and 32. So as the results from the finishers came in John was in the lead by 7 points. Unfortunately in 18m there were a number of landouts and as these results came in the speed points for the day began to reduce and  John's lead was cut from 7 points, to 4 points, then 3 points, then it was 1st equal and eventually the points dropped to 7 behind Karol. So outlanders were the undoing of an almost great second victory for John at Leszno but second is still a superb result!

John nervously waiting for the final results to come in

Day 9

Grid Day 9

4-5,000' cloud bases today with a prediction of consistent weather on task for a change, so a 360km racing task was set to the West up towards Berlin. All went as predicted except for a slight soft patch up near the second turn point. One below average thermal at this level is all it takes to slow you down 5 or 6kph and make a big difference to your placings.

John did well enough to hang onto his 3rd placing with a 16th for the day meaning he stays in touch with the Polish pilots who are running 1st and 2nd overall in the 18m class. In the 15m Sebastian Kawa from Poland is looking pretty certain so the locals are looking strong moving into the last day.

Possibly a blue day tomorrow for the last day so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Grid help looking for a glider

Day 8

John in his words had an "irritating day" as a bug wiper didn't retract and spent the rest of the flight rattling around on the leading edge of the wing doing damage and adding a lot of unwanted drag. Despite this John still managed 7th for the day, moved up into third overall and only lost a few points on the leader, Karol Staryszak from Poland.

John as winner on Day 6

Bug wipers sometimes seem more trouble than they are worth as the reliability factor with them seems quite small. The left one on my glider has only ever worked twice, yet the right one is good. So I get one leading edge bug free and the other buggy.

Brett got around in 39th for what was a devalued day (under 3hrs) as the winner did the 325km task in just 2hrs 21mins at a speed of 138kph.

In the 15m class Sebatian Kawa from Poland has one hand firmly on the trophy and he strengthened his hold today with an emphatic win at 129kph over 4kph faster than the next closest. For me, I'm still having trouble reading the weather. There is a particular part of the day that keeps catching me out, where after the sky has initially filled with cumulus a reorganisation of the sky seems to occur where large areas of cumulus simply evaporate and the afternoon sky settles in with nice cumulus but about one quarter of what initially filled the sky. So after getting horribly low after the second turn point I was  simply pleased to have recovered and got around.

I didn't take any photos today so have borrowed some from Jacek Lewinski. Check out his Facebook page he has some great photos.   https://www.facebook.com/studioltv

Pulling JS off the field

Concordia with Leszno in the background

What circa $40M of gliders look like on a grid

Day 7

Tricky day today with large patches of cirrus weakening and killing the lift in places.

Brett and John had good days with John holding his spot in 4th and still in contention for the lead and Brett moving up a spot or two. I flew into a patch of sky at the second turn point that just shut down and I didn't have the height to get to the better clouds further on so my day ended there in a paddock.

Long retrieve and not back home until 10.30pm. The locals were very nice but had no English so I spent two hours trying to explain how I came to end up in their paddock.

No fly day 4

No flying today due to the same weather system as yesterday still hanging around. Has kind of worked out for me though as I have been hiding in my room all day with a nasty head cold that had been threatening to appear for a while now. I hope to shake the worst of it by tomorrow as the weather is looking better.

It would be nice to finish the contest with four good days of flying as the weather has been nowhere near the high standard we experienced during the practice period. It would also be ideal for John who is currently in good form and easily within striking distance of the top spot.

No photos from me today so I stole one from the American's blog instead.

No fly day 3

From the only in Poland files, anyone want to hazard a guess as to what a "Pony Fantasy Magic Sleep Box" might be?

A rest day was declared today. Overcast in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Although the skies in the below picture don't look so bad. So a bit of exploring of the local area was done by all today.

News Flash Day 6

Looks like that now all the traces are in John won the day. So great news, another day win for John!

We now just need the weather to come right. Rest day declared for today due to overcast skies.

Looking for a way through yesterday's storm

Day 6

Another great day for John with a skillful 2nd place on a day that was dominated by storms. This effort puts John right back in contention which is great to see.

After complaints about no racing tasks the organisers took a chance and set a hard point racing task day on a day with high risk of thunderstorms, which seems to be just about everyday around here. The day was blue right up until launch at 12pm when the CU's started. They developed quickly and those in the know knew what this meant and they all took off early as soon as the gate opened.

It was a 355km task for 15m and about 320km for 18m. The first leg was 180km for 15m and about 150km for 18m. Depending on how quick you started everybody ran into a massive line of thunderstorms about 80 - 100km on track.

I tracked along the front of these storms for a short way with dark rain and lightening on my left until I saw a lighter area which I thought might be a way through. I headed in for a couple of km but a large bolt of lightening dead in front about 1km ahead made me decide this was a bad idea so I turned around  and headed out. This was as close as I got to the turn point.

Brett however, with a much closer turn point headed in to have a go. His last radio call was "I'm surrounded by thunderstorms with no way out". So he landed out somewhere near his turnpoint, which meant a long retrieve for Barbara, Matt and Geoff.

John with much more experience when it comes to storms managed to weave his way around and get the first and second turnpoint before finally running out of options and being forced down by rain.

John's paddock

The Vengabus

John's retrieve car 'The Vengabus' is pretty special. Neither of the front windows work, the aircon doesn't work, 1st gear selects only sometimes and reverse selects rarely.

People of WGC 2014

Competitors and crew WGC 2014

Day 5 (Steve)

Sebastian Kawa waits on the grid for a launch

A pretty crappy day weather wise but flyable, just. As you can see from the photo above things were pretty blue and weak come launch time. So a small 1.5 hour AAT was set.

As it turned out it was a great day for team kiwi in the 18m class with John Coutts coming in a clear 1st for the day and Brett Hunter coming in 22nd. Pity the day was so short and devalued. Today's win means John keeps his record intact regards having had a day win in every worlds he has ever attended, this being his 7th. Not so good for me in the 15m class at around 36th (some scores still to come in).

Here's hoping for better weather tomorrow. A 1,000 point day would be nice as we have managed only one so far.

The sun shines on John Coutts winner for the day

No Fly Day 2 (Steve)

Brett has killed his computer so can now only post when he borrows mine in the mornings.

Another no fly day today due to continued high overcast killing thermal development. The day was called nice an early so everyone had time to go and explore the local area and get over the after affects of 'International Night'.

Adam looking like Nigel felt the next day

We all meet in the town square for a nice dinner, including Tyskie and ice-cream of course.

Sleep in tomorrow as the gliders are already watered, prepped and ready to go so it will be just a case of hook 'em on at 9.00, then weighed and gridded before briefing at 10.15. Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow.

Rest Day 1 (Steve)

No fly day today due to stink weather. The Open Class were actually tasked and launched but were all back on the ground within 20 mins.

For some great photos of the comp check out the below website link:

http://mm-foto.eu/2014/07/szybowcowe-mistrzostwa-swiata-leszno/

Went for lunch today in a local village called Smigiel 20km north of Leszno. Not sure what the translation is but a local shop made for an irresistible photo opportunity.

Tonight was International Night in the hangar. Every team had a table on which they provide a taste of their home country food and drink wise. It seems most European countries have a favourite food that requires a drink that is at least 50% alcohol to wash it down. Things got interesting when the drunken mob decided to lift Sebastian Kawa's glider above their heads to much cheering and flag waving.

The girls did a great a job of preparing a dessert that included slices of NZ kiwi fruit that they found in the local Tesco.

Except for John who was off fraternizing with the enemy we almost got a photo of the whole team. Tom Claffey from Australia however did a great job of standing in with an expert piece of photo bombing.

Day 4 - Geoff and Matt have arrived! (Steve)

Another weather forecast predicting afternoon thunderstorms so another short 2 hour AAT for 15m & 18m. To emphasize the weather the task setters set a "raining finish" which means the finish circle which is normally 3km was extended out to 10km, presumably to give more options for finishing and getting home. As it turned out their was rain about but nothing too dramatic for the final glides.

A better day for me and an OK day for Brett and John.

The 'raining finish'

After a cross Europe marathon Geoff and Matt have arrived. So to celebrate we all went out for dinner at the pretty little lakeside village of Osieczna where Nigel is staying.

The perfect after dinner treat - beer and icecream

Day 3 (Brett)

A tough day at the office today for the Kiwi camp. It started badly for Steve with him discovering his airspace file in his LX9000 was missing a step down in airspace which he unfortunately touched, losing him most of his points for the day before.
The weather man told of a high probability of thunderstorms and a short thermal day peaking between 1 and 3pm, setting the 18m class a short 2 hour AAT. The inference was clear - get going early and get home before the day dies or you get caught out. After launching everybody was playing start games in the haze at cloudbase. It was very busy in there so when 2pm passed I got going, aiming to the far side of the first circle with the intention of joing a gaggle as I exited the area. The cu's looked OK but most were just "water bags" and the thermals when you found them were bubbles - sometimes good lift for a few hundred feet, then gone. So I drove it into turf crossing a blue hole where the stepping stone cumulus were empty promises.
The rest of the class started 1 hour later in improving skies with no hint of thunderstorms and had a relatively easy, if slowish run.
I have never had such a warm greeting on landing out. It was way out in the sticks and I was something of a celebrity. There was a group of between 10 and 20 members of various local families following me about, their phones and cameras going overtime.

High tea at the Clampetts

It was made clear to me that the two girls on the outside required husbands ....

So an interesting, if disappointing day. We got to see a lot of Polish countryside on the 6 hour retrieve and Barbara, Nigel & I had a nice dinner in a quaint little restaurant in a town on the way back.

Day 3 (Steve)

A tricky one weather wise today. Am learning the weather does pretty much the opposite of what they say it is going to do in briefing. Yesterday, no mention of thunderstorms and the late starters get caught out by thunderstorms. Today they say thunderstorms in the afternoon with the thermal graph showing the day finishing early so a short 2:15 AAT is set for 15m and 2.00 for 18m. All this means don't start late or you risk getting caught at the end of the day. As it turns out, no thunderstorms and the day got better the latter it got so a good day for the late starters although there were still some large tricky blue patches out on task to negotiate. I almost got caught out by one of these patches where all the initial clouds just disappear as the day gets organised and had to track cross course and then climb up from low level to get back on track. This slowed my cross country speed and put me well down the field for the day. Unfortunately I heard Brett on the radio landing out so he will be in for a long and interesting retrieve no doubt. Barbara and Nigel have gone to get him. John had an OK day at 16th but has a long haul to get back up the points ladder after his not so good day yesterday.  We are all looking forward to things getting better from here on in!

First on the grid for me today beside the Americans

Day 2 -Where did all my points go! (Steve)

Woke up on Day 3 to discover most of my Day 2 points has disappeared overnight. Turns out I had crossed an airspace line that was not on my flight computer. Unfortunately the organizers as per the rules only provide an SUA file which is next to useless as most of the flight computers like LX don't read SUA, they only read CUB. So unless you are an IT whizz and know how to convert SUA to CUB you are reliant on borrowing a CUB file from somebody who has it, which is what many people do. Unfortunately it turns out that the CUB file I borrowed didn't have the one airspace line which I managed to briefly cross. Hey presto, scored as a land out after 75km on a 1,000 point day. Quite gutting really.

Day 2 (Brett)

Poor Kiwi sustained leading edge damage from rain & hail

The weather conditions as they relate to flying are quite different here than from home. Yesterday (Day 2) is a graphic example. The humidity was high (88%) and the surface temp 31 deg. Nothing too unusual there but typically in NZ we have a temperature inversion anywhere from 4 to 7000ft which would cause spread-out and cycling. Here the isotherm tends to be above 10,000ft so the cu's just keep going up until the thermal runs out of grunt or all the moisture has condensed.

The haze layer below requires your next climb to be identified before you are half way up your current climb

The other outcome is convective showers and thunderstorms later in the day. It can be a minefield dodging heavy showers, sometimes it isn't possible as a convergence line lies across your path and you just have to gain as much height as possible before punching through.

I found it difficult to establish a rhythm to my flying on day 2. I started OK but got overtaken after 100km by a gaggle who started 4 minutes after me, then had to penetrate rain and run to the back first circle to the back to reach thermals again. I had a low spot in a weak area which cost me time - but not as much as poor Couttsie who had a save from 700ft.

There was a huge CB developing over Leszno which we beat back but a few of the 15m class had to park up 30km from the finish until it was safe to land which cost them hundreds of points. One tried to punch in but got driven into the ground on his third attempt and sustained damage.

Day 2

A 3:15 AAT today for the 15m class and 3.00 for the 18m. A very hot day with no real mention of over-developemnts or thunderstorms but a large and rapidly developing storm over Leszno was the feature of the day that caught a few people out on the final run home. Unfortunately John got very low midway through the task and recovering from this slowed him right down.

The latest in grid fashion

We all only just had time time to get the gliders away before we had to take shelter container HQ while it absolutely bucketed down. The lightning was most spectacular.

Day 1 (Brett)

Well - it's actually 7am day 2 now. In Kingaroy Steve and I got into the habit of getting to the airfield around 6am to prep the gliders. The water pressure is good, there are no distractions and you beat the heat.
So I'm back for at the apartment for breakfast.

6am at the tie-down area

Yesterday I had a good run for the first two legs - I caught a gaggle of 20+ gliders at the first turnpoint and managed to get to the top by the second AAT area. From there things got a bit soft and a little after the last turn I only needed one more climb - in fact my computer said I was on a MC1 final glide with nothing to spare. In the haze I hadn't seen that the outflow from a CB near Leszno earlier had cut off thermal development and I never got another climb, so I trickled in at a very slow speed watching my task speed wind back from 128 to 123km/h. At least I made the airfield but it was character building.
John did exceptionally well for 2nd place and must rate well for a podium position.

Day 1 done

Pilots leaving the hangar post briefing ready to do battle

We're finally underway with Day 1 done and dusted. John showed his class and experience with a 2nd place first up signaling he will be a real contender, while Brett and myself were well done the pack as novices amongst the pros. Certainly looking forward to shaking off the novice status and getting some improved results!

The task today was a short 2.5hr AAT as the day was starting late and predicted to finish early with high cirrus moving in from the west and potential local over-developments. I went through the gate early, 15 minutes after it opened and missed flying with the gaggles when they started 20-25 minutes later, so I was out in front all day. I was first home on my first day at the worlds which was kind of cool (even if not good results wise) and John was second home a few minutes behind me so for a minute or two John and I were the only gliders back home on the field!

We finished the day with a nice BBQ dinner and few cooling beers in the shady spot behind our container. Looking forward to tomorrow now.

Showtime (Brett)

D-Day has dawned with blue skies and the promise of action on day 1.

6:30am day 1

In Kingaroy Steve and I developed the habit of getting to the airfield early to "beat the heat" and to have an uninterrupted run at prepping our gliders without distractions. We have found it works equally well in Leszno with the added bonus of having good water pressure for ballasting. Then back to the apartment for breakfast (& blog writing) before hitting the mayhem that is Leszno airfield.
I had a pretty good day yesterday - 126kph on a 2 hr AAT. John Coutts was happy with 131kph and the Australians seemed pleased with 122kph so I feel as ready as I can be.
So today is the culmination of 18 months preparation, (and support/sacrifice of family and work colleagues).
Bring it on.

Opening Ceremony Day (Steve)

The day started with the sounds of a horse whinnying, a dog barking and a Tui singing. Yip, you guessed it Nigel McPhee has arrived. An unofficial practice task was set today as we missed the last two days of official practice due to rain. It was just a short 2hr AAT as everybody had to be back in time for the opening ceremony in the town square. Did 304km at 114kph which I was happy enough with as the day was average compared to previous.

Team flags

The opening ceremony was a colourful affair with competitors and crew in their team colours waving their national flags, a band playing and the local marching girls carrying the team name.

Preparing to march into the town square

Entertainment

Icecreams after the event for two current and one ex-Auckland Gliding Club member