USA #1

As promised the day was set to prove that the previous day was not that challenging, and they could out-do themselves. The day was actually a nice soaring day, then ALL of the gliders went in the opposite direction. To separate the classes, we had the 15meter as the sacrificial class with 100 percent land-out, I believe mostly in Serbia. The open and 18meter class motored home for those that could.

The start sucked, it was less than 1knt and completely blue....so we waited...and waited. Actually SS and I both returned back towards the airport just to climb up again...and we waited. I eventually got a good climb near the start to cloudbase, SS said to not wait up, and I appreciated that, because I really did not want to. I started at near cloudbase, but alone. I went north of track, and advised SS to not do the same, called climbs for him and how conditions were up ahaid. He found the pack, I was very lonely. I deviated upwind quite a bit to practice my Mifflin flying. There was a small ridge, and very little wind, which I did not want to be downwind of. So I floated along, dropped all the water, and limped. I did see 1 two-seater above me once, then another motoring home from the direction of the first turn. SS managed to get ahead of me, and turned the first turn at least 10km ahead of me, interesting doing head-on with the entire open class.

I turned around and now SS was calling climbs, I decided to head out across the valley in the rolling hills, It worked SS was reporting 1.5, and I took a 4....yes a 4knt thermal, I had no idea they were around, I was empty and one of the EB's was not, I climbed right through him....it was great. That got me pretty much even with the gaggle...the remainder of the open class. I then found a 3.7knt climb, which SS came over to visit me with. This got us on top of the pack, which by the next thermal I was the highest with A and 4M (our new radio friend). WE was also reporting weather ahead. We ran along, A flying too fast for me, 4m found a climb and this got us out in-front. N1 eventually pushed out with us, I tried hand signals to change to our radio freq. But we got it sorted. N1, 4M and I pushed along into the bleak unknown....We bumped a thermal...which we should not have, SS centered it and I told him to STAY!!!! because it was really starting to suck. We found a gliderport, and I started the engine on a modified downwind following in about 5 18meter gliders.

So it was a very good day, AST, started late and passed the pack...it was soo cool...but it was a distance day, which SS was able to win. I'll let him write more...I am going to bed, the adrenaline has worn off.