July 16th (Brett)

This morning I got the keys to the Team NZ HQ. This is a shipping container transformed into an office - complete with window, door, power points, air con and office furniture. Very nice - and thank you to Gliding NZ for your sponsorship of this. There are 7 or 8 of these sited next to eachother and the Aussies, South Africans and Americans also have one so there will be a few laughs had over the next few weeks.
Steve was on the roof affixing Kiwi flags and the Wallace children are preparing artwork for the walls.

While this was going on Kerrie Claffey mentioned there was a task pinned on a bulletin board. There have been no briefings or formal communiques from contest management yet - and it was already after 1pm so there was no time for ballasting in the rush to get airborne as the task was a 4 hour AAT.
I started with Tom Claffey as Steve got launched 30 minutes after me. It turned into a tricky day with track selection and timing of cycles critical. I suspect Tom & I were the only ones to complete the task - 423km @ 104 km/h; Tom with 107 km/h. Steve started 20 minutes after us which was just too late, and turned back half way around the course in weakening conditions, but probably did as many km. We all landed within a few minutes of eachother at 6:30pm.

Sandwiched between the inversion and the cu's

July 15th (Brett)

Today is gazetted as unofficial practice day 2. I took the day off yesterday to attend to mundane issues like laundry and getting settled in to this town for the next month.The wx looked pretty average to be flying anyway.
This morning I ran into the Wallace family at breakfast. We spent the morning rigging Steve's particularly well sorted out ASW27 B and generally fine tuning our gliders.
We are among gliding royalty here - Dick Butler was rigging his Concordia and I got talking to Janus Centka who is flying a Quintus here. (we flew together on Sunday for a while).
After lunch I was only one of three WGC pilots who took a launch and had my first proper x/c flight here (now I had a potential crew). A good day with about 300km looking at the terrain with average climbs of 4 to 5 kt to 5000ft. I hope the conditions hold.
So what did I learn today?

The yellow areas are wheat and the green is either maize or forestry

The city of Leszno

• I am really happy with the way my (Davids) glider is performing. It is totally tweaked.
• Apart from getting back into the groove of performance flying there is no local advantage with respect to flying out of Leszno. What you see is what you get, which is great news but leaves me with no excuses. The thermals and streets seemed to have little relation to the terrain below, whether it be forest or crops. However towns and power stations seemed reliable sources and lakes good trigger points. Nothing new there.
• About 1% of the fields are harvested but that will rise to about 80% in 3 weeks, weather permitting.
• The locals thought today was sub-par weatherwise

We met up with Tom and Kerrie Claffey and the Kiwis and Aussies cemented ANZAC ties over dinner.

Leszno at last (Brett)

I arrived at Leszno airfield at 2pm this afternoon. That was 1 hour later than my GPS trip computer in the car
predicted. I did see an unnecessary amount of rural Polish countryside enroute but it proved worthwhile for a few observations:

• I have a rather strained relationship with vehicle navigation systems.
• All the beautiful large flat fields I have seen on Google Earth while super-imposing old Leszno .igc files are filled with either maize or wheat.
• The country roads are one lane and although they look in good condition maximum speed with a trailer is 55kmh due to the undulations.

Lest you think I am painting a gloomy picture there have been a healthy amount of positives today:

This photo taken at 6pm from my hotel room at Leszno

Cloud base about 5k agl. Whoopee.

• The wheat fields are just beginning to be harvested. I see a week making a big difference in land-out opportunities.
• The airfield is HUGE! I had looked at it in various photographs and Google Earth but they do not do it justice. There is much activity here (Saturday) with parallel vectors in use aerotowing, winch launch gliders, winch launch paragliders and GA circuits. 
• Lesno (and Poland) is much less 2nd world than I had expected. It is clean but sometimes a little dated. My hotel room is a very acceptable 3 star with a clean tidy room but in a glorious palette of yellow, oranges and browns. Very 80's - but hey, I'm old.
• Beer at the airfield hotel is 6 zloty for a 500ml glass. That's $2.40!

I'm looking forward to Steve, Lisa & family arriving Monday now. Time for some company.

Still Germany (Brett)

I spent an very interesting 3 or 4 days at the M&D factory in Friedeberg. Not only do they manufacture jet turbines but they make components for wind generator blades and have a large sailplane maintenance facility. They use more than one tonne of resin per day.
They have an elaborate test bench for the turbines in a closed glass sided wind tunnel inside a soundproof room. They gave me an interesting display running up a turbine with a glass panel in the casing showing the start sequence and fuel burn patterns.
I had a flight in VR while there - towed up by a Samburo motor glider (also manufactured by M&D) which surprisingly made a very effective tug. I was chased back to the field quite quickly by a thunderstorm which are common in the afternoons here.
VR has the distinction of having flown on three continents now which is a good effort for a 2.5 year old sailplane.
Tomorrow will be a visit to the Cobra trailer factory in Edermunde, then it's time to strike out east for Leszno, where I should arrive on Sunday.

Germany (Brett)

I left Paderborn yesterday after locating the gliding club and watching operations for an hour or so. The Wx wasn't inspiring and it was winch only so I did not bother flying there. Their day started at 9am sharp with their version of youthglide - good to see the kids managing the entire operation except the winch driving.

Today was an interesting study of the Teutonic mind-set. I was at the port of Bremerhaven at 8am as arranged with the freight forwarders and just 3 hours later (!) I had my long lost JS1 hooked on to the back of the car. Woohoo!

Now Bremerhaven is a "Free Port" in that it is independent of Germany - much like an embassy is. At the gates to the port area are the customs. I have not met such an officious bunch of bureaucrats in my life, and while I had gone to considerable effort to have the required documentation they seemed hell bent on finding a fault.
They finally decided the trailer required liability insurance from a German company rather than the cover I had arranged through my NZ brokers. This after deciding that it was not in fact a "sporting trailer" which is exempt  - and they called a police officer in to make that judgement. So unhitch the trailer and back to Bremerhaven to sort out the required insurance. A further two hours later I was on the road.

I was on the Autobahn 15 minutes into my voyage south when I was pulled over by a blue customs van. Three heavily armed Gestapo types then reinspected all of the paperwork and trailer contents with drug sniffer dogs. I was horrified when one of them put on blue rubber gloves, but it was only to search my suitcase. Whew!
Their disappointment on not finding anything at fault was obvious.
Barbara told me "don't mention the war" so I won't.

So this evening the JS1 is at the M&D factory (manufacturers of the jet turbines) in the lovely little town of Friedeburg- having its installation brought up to certification specification. A much friendlier bunch of people who are making me very welcome. I will be here for 2 or 3 days while they complete the work, then they want me to spend the next day flying. Cool!

VR incarcerated at Customs

OFF WE GO!!

Hi There,
The Wallace pilot and his ever supportive crew are about to embark on their epic adventure to Poland via Melbourne, Dubai, London, Paris and Frankfurt.
We look forward to sharing this adventure with you all...

Leg 3

The fun and games are over and the serious stuff begins.
I arrived Frankfurt this afternoon and am writing this from a remarkably less salubrious hotel room than that I left yesterday morning. This will be the new normal until Barbara rejoins me in 20 days time as the Hunter Crew Chief.
I pick up the rental car tomorrow and make my way to Bremerhaven over the weekend to pick up the JS1 from the wharves. What could possibly go wrong?

We raced this jet across the English Channel this  afternoon. It was much
 closer than it looks in the photo - about 500ft higher and separated 400-500m horizontally.
 As you can see I'm in the arse-end of the plane as usual.