Thursday greeted us with more overcast conditions but a good weather prediction for the day for more calm and less wind and rain.
Neal Rd 10 The early morning air saw Neal without a read in thick overcast sky. He initially went with the gaggle holding upwind and faded left as he was looking better as the gaggle went right and within 2 minutes Neal was high guy. 79oNeal shot a 99 with a 9:53.2 to take the granny for the group.
Bob took Jody and Kelly to the flight line in ever improving boyant conditions and took an easy ride out over rhe factory area for a max scoring 9:53.4 – 99 for 997.6
Jody 9:53.8 – 99 for 994.9
Bob Was first up in Rd 11
9:55.1 – 98 for 996.2
Jody Group 4 9:54.0 – 100 for 999.4
Neal Rd 11 saw the flags on the flightine showing a read downwind and took his full tow to turn and chase the air. He was accompanied by Jan Littva and both got out fairly easily. Had a touch of bad luck in landing with a bounce from 100 to 99. His score was9:53.9 – 99 for 994.5.
Team scores Germany 1st with29870
CZE 2nd with 29443
UKR 3rd with 29375
USA 3rd with 29313
RD 10 Juniors
Luke 9:52.1 – 93 983.3
Stoil 9:52.8 -99 996.3
Charleston 9:54.8 – 75 965.1
RD 11 Juniors
Stoil 99:53.6 – 96 993.5
Luke 9:52.1 – 100 for 998.8
Charleston 9:50.6 – 90 for 982.2
Juniors in 3rd place with 29527 points
2nd BUL 29539
4th place is CZE with 29523 points
Seniors Rd 12
Bob 9:53.3 – 100 for 996.5
Neal 9:53.3 – 100 for 996.8
Jody 9:53.0 – 91 for 981.7
Senior Team after 12 rounds
3rd place with 32292
2nd place CZe with 32429
1st Germany with 32859
4th UKR with 32217
Senior Team Rd 13
The 13th round was flown in really difficult conditions of wind overcast and at times no thermals with models simply streaming into the wind for the entire flight.
World Champion Arijan Hucaljijk spent his entire flight in this fashion in Group 1 gradyally gradually sinking and finally drifting crablike from his crosswind location back to the LZ arriving on time but two low to avoid other pilots on his final direct line approach causing him to duff the landing for a 70.
Jody and Neals flights were flawless and they both made great scores but the drama was during the final group as Bob flew dar downwind surfing air with his back to an approaching storm which at one point sebt a lightning bolt to the field less than a mile away. Bob worked his way back upwind to the AirBus factory and was saved by the bump there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the click to wind down. When he finally came with about 1:30 to go he raced through the other higher models to reach the LZ to post a great score for Team USA.
Jody 9:54 – 97 for 998.5
Neal 9:53.1 – 99 for 998.5
Bob 9:48.6 – 99 for 997
The final result was a huge relief for Jody as he is now in the finals regardless of his score tonorrow.
When all the scores were posted it was clear that the CZE pilot Lubos Pospisil had a bad round and With Bobs fabulous flight we were once again into 2nd place as a team.
We have a slender margin so the 3 senior flights tomorrow morning are crucial that we take no rusks get our times and make a landing to retain the 2nd podium spot.
The German pilot Timo Drust also had a bad round with a score if 723.5 after finishing early which brought Germany closer to us in 1st place with a total of 35580 points
USA 2ND WITH 35286
CZE 3rd with 35272
Looking forward to a big day tomorrow.
GO TEAM USA!