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.