Woke this morning to rain. Forecast is for more rain. Took the opportunity to get wet weather supplies plastic, tarps and pins etc. We are all now sitting tight at the Hotel waiting for the rain to break. We set off for the field just after noon and arrived to discover finally the Organizers had erected tents for the Teams. We staked our claim with the flag erected on a corner tent and began preparing models. Two orange tarps kept the models off the muddy ground for assembly and the tents provided shelter for equipment as the drizzle persisted a little.
The wind was quite strong from the North so it was a real good opportunity to practice in overcast windy conditions. It was quickly established that the line of buildings behind us represented a slope lift bonanza if you ended up low and Stoil and Bob easily flew many minutes back and forth at yhe front of the buildings. The west wind direction was almost at 90 degrees to the buildings and that is not the forecast direction for the contest. If the westerly is here the buildings will be far less of a player.
In general the lift was fairly good all afternoon and plenty of practice was had by all the pilots.
The launch setups were dialled in and each model tested with ballast in the windy conditions. By 4pm the wind had subsided somewhat and ballast was soon removed.
Charleston got some launches in for the first time with towers and we finally dialled in his 3.5 V tail with the expert help of big Thomas of the German Team. He helped us tame the model and make it a littke easier for Charleston to fly.
Both Stoil and Luke were making many flights and enjoying the conditions.
Bob spent quite a long time thermalling with various ballast setups as did Neal as they felt out the field and its very variable conditions.
By the time we packed up around 7pm everyone was in good sprits and.looking forward to the Precontest tomorrow.
Starting 1st round at 9am we need to be up early at 5;30am so now its time for me to sleep.
Good night.
