Gaggles, blue, very blue, plenty of dust during take off

This is how I will remember World Championships in Benalla:

We had only one day opportunity to fly with use of clouds and it was
only half of a day during contest.

The other day was one practice day with nice cumulus clouds.

Rest of the days were blue or very blue, this is how the weather lady
described them each day during morning weather briefing.

I started the contest with a penalty of 61 points for low finish because
there was plenty of sink

just 5km before finish cylinder and I finished below minimum altitude.

Almost every day take offs were in dense dust so any cleaning before
flight was useless and some times a tow plane was hardly visible during
roll on the ground due to dust.

First part of the contest was hard for everyone as huge gaggles were
very unpleasant and also two accidents in the air casted a shadow over
the whole event and were very upsetting.

European tactics of flying in the group is very tiring and taking away
all individual thinking from the pilot, scoring is very steep and loss
of 1km/h can cost up to 20 points

A land out meant practically elimination from any chance for good placing.

My best flight was on the day when we had 5 hours area task with some
clouds and I didn't see any glider from start to finish, high cloud base
and good lift was a nice reward

for such long trip to Australia.

I finished on 14 place after 7 racing days, which is not the best, but
it looks that it is the best result from North American pilots in all
classes.

Today we were served dinner sponsored by organizers: a freezing cold
rubbery chicken legs with also very cold macaroni with one mini tomato,
all served in a plastic box packed in huge gray paper bag.

Our Crew had to pay for this dinner $30 .

Thank you Joerg for managing our team and helping me and Maria in
glider preparation .

My best friend from school time in Poland Adam Zolnierczyk currently
living in Sydney visited us for 4 days during contest and was
crewing for me as well.

Container pick up for return trip starting Jan 28 is arranged till
then Joerg, Marian and Jarek will have opportunity to fly our gliders
for 4 to 5 days hopefully they will have better

soaring conditions .

Just after closing ceremony we drive back to Sydney to return almost
brand new cars with hitch to Manly Rentals which we had for duration of
our visit in Australia .

On Tuesday we depart Sydney for long flight back home.

Jerzy XG