July 19th (Brett)

Today the briefing was much better. I could hear the interpreter and Uli Schwenk who was sitting next to me took pity and explained the unfamiliar charts which the weather man broadcast. As an aside I have got Uli keen on competing in the SI regionals this year.
The wx predictions were positive and we were all set a 550km racing task. I hadn't intended flying today but with poorer weather forcasted in a few days I changed my mind and it was all go to be ready. Steve and I were towards the back of the grid with only 2 tugs operating so we were away late.
The tow planes used are ancient workhorses with radial engines made by PZL. They are fine for dragging club Jantars into the air but totally inadequate for ballasted racing gliders. Anything over 60kts and the climb rate reduces to about 2 kts. So the pilots resort to towing at about 62 kts and thermalling up. This is highly exciting for the pilot of the 600kg glider turning in the wake turbulence.
It was another good day although not as predictable as yesterday. Cloudbases were between 6000 and 8000 ft but climbs varied between 4 and 8 kts. The early starters had a better run with one completing the 115km first leg at 149kmh at cloubase. At the end of the day things died off which slowed me down; Steve skipped  the last TP to make sure of getting home.
My speed was 127 km/h which I am quite happy with as the top pilots who started earlier got into the low 130's.
Had a lovely dinner tonight with the Wallace family and the Australian team in the town square.

The flying here is superb

Although at times visibility is poor - I am a FLARM convert.

Tomorrow is a no-fly day for me as I submit VR for technical scrutineering, and I change accommodation.

Second Unofficial Practice Day (Steve)

Towed into the air by the equivalent of a small truck

Briefings are interesting with a translator describing what the polish task setter is saying. You then have to translate the translated English into usable English. For example, yesterdays task was described as "exercising your cheeses" which meant it was an AAT task using wedges instead of circles.

Slowly getting the glider sorted, having translated all the German labels into English. Flying with height in meters and speed in km/h takes a bit of getting used to. Thanks to Brett yesterday for helping me sort the non-existant total energy compensation on the LX V5. Was just a case of swapping a few tubes around but makes a big difference to being able to pull up into a thermal. A well deserved Tyskie for Brett. On the yet to sort list is making the bug wipers work and fine tuning the tail ballast.

Nice weather and nice task today. An ATT with two circles and one cheese. Minimum distance 300km, max 683km, time 4hrs 30mins. I flew 530km at 103kph with lots of room to go faster when a few more items that require sorting are ticked off the list. Brett had a great day flying with Tom Claffey from Australia.

Tyskie 'o' clock

July 18th (Brett)

With good weather predictions today the tasksetter set a 4.5 hour AAT of between 300 and 683km. None of this namby-pamby 2.5 hour stuff.
Little wind and regular marked thermals to 6000 ft made for a great day. I flew again with Steve Wallace and Tom Claffey. Tom and I flew and communicated well together and I see some collaboration happening over the next few weeks.
I suspect Steve and I were among the few to complete the task - in my case 566km at 124 km/hr so I am already feeling well tuned. I will have to be careful to avoid burn-out with more than 3 weeks of daily flying to go.
One of my more pleasurable days flying and it makes all the effort and expense worthwhile to have days like this.

A very productive day (Lisa)

Hi There,
No fly day today...
So the Wallace Crew set off to Bucz which is about 40 mins North of Leszno.  We were on a misson to pimp out NZ HQ with a fridge.  A local guy by the name of Greg told us to go to Bucz and there we would find a place that imports second hand fridges from Germany at very cheap prices.  We stumbled across a place but the fridges were brand new and not so cheap so off back to Leszno we went to the electric store.  Here we found what we needed and so NZ HQ now has the only fridge on the airfield.  The lovely Australians are now eying it up...

Local church at Bucz

Our holiday home - once renovated

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day...We get power on at NZ HQ.  You may not find this exciting but the temperatures here are well over 26 degrees and us kiwi need air con.

The view from NZ HQ

We made it! (Lisa)

Hi There,
Sorry this post has taken a little while to be written.  I had a few technical issues.
We have been in Leszno now for two days.  All is well.  We have finally found the good weather after leaving it back in Germany.
Two days ago we set off from Poppenhausen, Germany at 2pm.

We safely arrived in Leszno, Poland at 1am!  Not the 7 hour drive we predicted but we were towing an ASW27 with a VW van with two kids in the back who needed regular feeding and watering.

Yesterday was a most productive day with Steve and Brett successfully rigging the ASW27.  Steve now needs to figure out how all his glider instruments work as it is all in German!

Today Steve went for a 4hr 21 min flight around the countryside.  I don't know all the details but he seemed pretty happy with how the glider went.

Concordia in the distance 

July 17th (Brett)

The weather is gloomy so no flying today. However there are plenty of small details to attend to which is filling in the day.
 We attended a task briefing this morning which was a complete waste of time. The weather/task chap sat in the front row of the lecture theatre facing forward while delivering his words of wisdom in Polish. His interpreter sat beside him also facing the front - she may have had a thick accent but I wouldn't know as I couldn't hear her. I am sure this will improve when briefnigs are held in the hangar and a PA system is used.

Team NZ HQ. Fridge & BBQ to be procured today.

Finishing touches

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