28 July 2010

Day 4 - Canceled

We woke up to a gentle drizzle this morning. A grid time was announced and task sheets were handed out at the pilots' meeting. The cancellation at the end of the meeting came as a bit of a surprise, particularly since XC Skies showed the potential for a soarable window for this afternoon. In fact, the sky is clearing and the sun is coming out.

A number of Open Class gliders landed out in Serbia yesterday. Some pilots and crews didn't come back to Szeged until 3am this morning. Apparently, the Serbian authorities had o.k'd flights into Serbian airspace but the fact that gliders would actually land there had taken them by surprise. Consequently, there was intense scrutiny of all documentation at the border. We learned that it is necessary to have all documentation for pilot, crew, car, trailer and glider handy. It may be a good strategy to send out a car for the pilots, so they are back in time to get sufficient sleep and deal with the retrieve of the glider separately. After all, Hungary is the south eastern frontier of the European Union and its borders with Serbia and Romania are also the borders of the EU.

Ferenc and Dezso, our local radio experts showed up this morning with a new antenna for us. Very generously they declined to be compensated - even for the materials.

The team will take care of housekeeping chores, such as laundry, shopping, etc today. After so many rain days, there is a danger that pilots and crews may have trouble switching back into competition mode, when the weather turns good - something we need to watch for.

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