Friday was neutralized for all classes due to the weather – continued rain in the morning. There was time to take a look at the area or to recover from the hardships of the last few days.
The forecast for Saturday, however, looked better again. Grid-time 8:30 – 10:20 AM, start direction 26, briefing at 10:30 AM.
Walter Hermann, our meteorologist, yesterday described the weather as unstable and humid from the west – including the requirement for showers and thunderstorms – so everything is possible. The cloud base should be at 12:00 AM UTC – ie 2:00 PM local at 1000m. This means that before 1:00 AM hardly any launches are possible.
The thermal end was not really predictable, depending on the storm, it could be abruptly over or stop a little longer.
True to the motto of Christoph, our sports director: “Not to fly is still an option” the field briefing for the open class was carried out quickly at 12:00 o’clock AM because there was a small change in the task sheets regarding an airspace. The competition rules stipulate that a briefing must always be carried out in changes of task sheet information.
Since it was Saturday, there were also some visitors who wanted to watch the spectacle up close.
The first aviator has already started including a camera team for air and air-to-air shots.
The following tasks were advertised:
The open class was allowed to fly Day Task A, an Area Assigned Task (AAT) with a minimum flight time of 03:00 hours and a distance of between 305.0 km and 504.5 km. From the departure point Stendal Nord they went first to Vogelberg, then to Gajki and back again to Stendal airflied.
The doubleseaters had Day Task A, an Area Assigned Task (AAT) with a minimum flight time of 02:30 hours. The route could be layed by the pilots between 257.4 km and 427.6 km. Their task was to fly from Stendal-East to Kammermark via Strasburg and back to Stendal-Borstel.
The 18m pilots received Day A task, an Area Assigned Task (AAT) with a minimum flight time of 02:30 hours. With a distance between 223.3 km and 396.4 km, they started from the departure point Stendal West to Perleberg via Herzfelde and back.
13:40 was the departure released for the open class when the doubleseaters were already towed.
The pilot speaker of the DoSi’s reported this morning at the pilot speaker briefing, that it was a bit chaotic under the different levels of cloud base. It was all in the frame, but it is always a bit tricky with a low cloud base and less thermal options.
Towing the 18m class, rumbling began in the east. A thunderstorm cell passed the square and brought a few thick raindrops. Also on the horizon a little further away, the cumulus clouds piled up in this labile stratification to Cumulonimbus (thunderstorm clouds).
The weather window was very sharp. As soon as all the planes were released in the air and the start of the 18m class, a huge cloud of shivers crossed the airfield and turned the dusty desert into a muddy field.
Via live tracking it was easy to see how the pilots moved through the air.
The shower was over, and the first open-class pilots arrived in front of the finish line and landed in the square in front of a dark gray backdrop of thunderclouds passing by west of the course.
You can find yesterday’s scores here.
In the open class Markus Frank (FE) wins with his EB29 and an average speed of 125.42 km/h:
The DoSi’s day’s win is made by Alberto Sirogni and Elena Fergnani (iAM) of Italy in their Arcus T with a 114.75 km/h average:
The winner of the 18m class Ronald Reith (iES) from Romania with his ASG29 and a speed of 99.54 km/h:
Congratulations.
