On schedule we were transported out to our awaiting C-5A and loaded onto the passenger deck. This portion of the C-5A has 73 seats all facing aft situated above the cargo deck and aft of the wing. The passenger compartment has no windows, no insulation and ugly stewards. After finding our seats the loadmaster (steward) passed around earplugs, which gave us some indication of how the next 7 hours would be. We all had high hopes that the Team might get to visit the flight deck or play a game of soccer on the cargo deck but these delusions were not to come true. In spite of our neat U.S. Team uniforms and VIP status the loadmaster was not interested in treating us any differently than soldiers. Despite this the Air Force connection served us well in that not only did we save a significant amount of money but our pilots were all able to fly their own ships.
We arrived in Ramstein Germany early Sunday morning, picked up our Opel wagon tow cars, gathered the sailplanes and started the 8-hour drive to France. By noon of the next day the Team was at the Gap-Talliard airport assembling gliders for an orientation flight that afternoon.
In addition to their own ships, Bill Malpas would spend a day with each pilot in the Gap-Talliard club Janus working on mountain flying and specific areas that only years of flying in the French Alps would teach a pilot. All agreed that this session was most productive and help the Team in the coming weeks.
Kerry and I went directly to the contest site and focused on registration of the Team and preparation for their arrival. Each evening we would travel to Gap collecting information the organization needed in order to smooth the documentation process. On their arrival, all pilots were fully registered and able to immediately focus on flying.
The WGC-97 organization had scheduled the week prior to the Championships as the official practice period. In addition to this being practice for the competitors it was a necessary practice period for the organization. In the end it turned out that only the first three days of the practice period were flyable which further accented the importance of our training period the week before in Gap. Task flying was unstructured and some of our pilot would fly the task and others did not. Those that did placed well in their class which not only boosted moral within our Team but set the stage with the rest of the Teams that we would be a significant force in the Championships.
Sunday the 23rd our 4 Air Force Academy personnel showed up on site after an arduous trek from Colorado Springs. After a day of rest we quickly oriented them on the US Team and coming activities and assigned them duties. It did not take long for the cadets to become an integral element of our Team with specific and necessary responsibilities.
Part of the preparations was a technical inspection of the gliders including weighing and measuring of the wingspan for the Standard and 15-Meter Classes. The wingspan was measured by a very sophisticated laser measuring system accurate to 1/1000th of a meter. More than 50% of the aircraft measured initially came in over 15.000 meters. On our Team only Bill Bartell was over the 15-meter limit and by 5 centimeters when equipped with his new Masak tips. The organizers after considerable debate decided that a penalty of 1 point per contest day per centimeter would be imposed on those exceeding the limitation. As this penalty was more than we could accept we resubmitted Bill's glider for measurement with the factory tips. In order to achieve the minimum wingspan we took the glider in the early morning while the air was coolest and supported the wing with wingstands for a period of time to hopefully achieve a "set" which favored us. The first measurement came in a 15.008 meters, which was above the acceptable tolerance of 7 mm. We pushed on the winglet for a few minutes and quickly re-measured and this time came in 1 mm under the threshold. Therefore Bill would fly without penalty. It should be noted that both Gerhard Waibel and Tilo Holighaus were on site bending, sawing, heating and sanding on tips to get compliant. What a mess!
Another controversial subject was the organization's enforcement of the 40-cm height of contest numbers on the vertical fin. Again, a large percentage of the airplanes did not comply and crews were busy adding tape and markings to increase the height. Ron Tabery, who had just taken delivery of a new glider from the factory, was a full 10-cm short. Not having an easy way to increase his contest number "SS" by 10 cm he came upon the idea of adding a vertical 40 cm bar on each "S" making them dollar signs. The organization bought this change and now Ron is flying dollar dollar "$$". (As Ron was unable to get US "N" number registration on his glider for the contest it was marked with German registration. We thought it funny that Ron was flying a German registered ship with the contest number "SS". Changing the CN to "$$" made the Germans happy.)
Additionally, all gliders had to have bright orange anticollision marking applied to the wings at the tip (two 30 cm stripes for the Standard and 15 Meter Classes and three for the Open Class). Suprisingly, the competitors accepted this without much complaint.
The end of the practice week was capped off with a "No Host Bar-B-Que" in front of our Team hut which was a huge success. We invited all the friendly Teams (not France) and asked them to bring meat and a bottle of wine. We were able to round up two Bar-B-Que pits (one had come back from Uvalde in 1991 with the French Team) and supplied the fire, music, and a big welcome. By midnight we had consumed 32 bottles of France's finest and lots of meat. We were reacquainted with old friends and made some new ones as well.
The day of the Opening Ceremonies was a banner day for the US Team. We assembled in front of our Team hut in the International Village in full regalia for pictures by Chuck O'Mahoney our US Team Public Relations Officer. The uniform of the day was blue pants, white long sleeve US Team button down shirt, USA Flag necktie and Team Jackets. The pilots, George Moffat and myself had a leather bomber jacket with name tags and the US flag embroidered on the back. These were a big, big hit with not only our Team but the rest of the competitors as well. The organization had scheduled a full day of activities beginning with a parade of Soaring National Teams followed by speeches and an airshow.
The parade was organized in alphabetical order with the host Team at the end. Therefore the USA came at the end of the line just before the French. As we paraded into the reviewing area a big reception greeted our Team indicating to us that we were the most favorites even amongst the French citizenry. Just in front of the reviewing stands we had orchestrated and practiced a routine using our US Flag umbrellas whereby on cadence we all raised the umbrellas, unfurled and twirled them in front of the dignitaries. This literally brought down the house.
As we all stood in a semicircle listening to all the dignitaries say their part, one of our Air Force Cadets, Brian Burke, got in front of the crowd and started the "wave". As each speaker would finish his presentation, Brian would jump out and start another "wave'. In addition to breaking up the monotony of standing for better than an hour it was hilarious.
By the end of the opening ceremonies it was cleared to all Soaring Teams, the Organization and the visitors as well that the US Team looked the sharpest, had the most fun and would be a dominate force in the Competition.
Doug Jacobs and Jae Walker team flew the task and were separated on the next to last leg in weak lift. Doug made it home posting a 6th place finish and Jae landed just 8 km short on the final glide. The last leg was covered in light rain by the time Jae turned the final turnpoint and the necessary lift to get him home was not there. It was a classic case of 15 minutes making the difference between a winning finish and a land-out.
While Jae was less than happy with the landout the Team was pleased with his performance. The scoring system of the World Championships and the devalued day would not cost Jae a lot of points.
Each evening the organization operates a Bar and Social Area in a hangar on the field which has met with limited success. Beer costs 10 francs per glass (about $2) which can stifle even the driest mouth and there generally is no live music. The format for our Team in the practice week and the first day of competition is to patronize a local restaurant or pizzeria. Without a doubt the food in the Provence region of Southern France is spectacular and fairly reasonable. We have found the best buy here to be local wine which is available in a liter bottle for the same price as a 6 ounce glass of beer at the Hangar bar.
Day 2 saw "DJ" take 1st for the day and 1st overall, "JW" placed 6th moving him up in the overall standings, "SS" came in 4th with "1" placing 6th, "P7" taking 6th and "OF" in 11th. In the case of the 15-Meter and Open Class their daily place was also their cumulative. All pilots reported having a good day with classic mountain racing. After the days scores came up the US Team stood proud with "DJ" in first overall in the Standard Class and our other pilots still very much in serious contention for a Championship.
We gridded as instructed and anxiously awaited the launch time of 12:45 p.m. As we sat on the grid we could see a classic wave form to the west off of the Lure with rotor cloud underneath. All pilots were trying to determine how to fly the complete task using only this wave as it was the only piece of lift in all of France it seemed. Just prior to launch the organization saw the risk in putting 92 sailplanes into stable air and called the task off for all three classes. A deep sigh of relief could be heard from all pilots and crews.
It should be said that landouts in the South of France are feared from a pilots standpoint because there are few decent fields to choose from and the chance of damaging a glider is high. Just after arriving on site ahead of the rest of the Team, Ron Tabery had outlanded and done damage to his ship. Fortunately he was able to find able assistance and repair the glider just in the nick of time. The crews also dread the thought of an outlanding because of the time required to get to most of the sites in the contest area. By US standards the road structure in France is poor. Only do the autoroutes compare favorable and provide rapid transport but they end just 25KM north of St. Auban. The balance of the road structure here is narrow and slow to navigate.
With the task called off too late to do anything else we did the American thing and had another Bar-B-Que. By now the other teams are beginning to envy our own personal Bar-B-Que pit and the tantalizing aromas that emanate from it each night.
The bulk of the Team organized an excursion to the Grand Canyon Verdon - France's equivalent of the Royal Gorge - for a day of hiking, sightseeing and kayaking. I ended up in Moustiere with my family and some guests from the States. Kerry shopped while we climbed the mountain to a monastery on top. There we found 22 large snails that may become escargot for the French Team at our next Bar-B-Que.
Tomorrow night the US Team will sponsor a party on the airport in celebration of the 4th of July. We have ordered 300 hamburgers, french fries, and brownies from the only McDonalds within 100 miles and will serve them to the Teams with Coca-Cola and red, white and blue Popsicle's. You would have thought we were passing out Filet Mignon and Champagne from the response we are getting. The entry requirement is that everyone must wear something patriotic to the USA. We expect to have a grand time.
At 12:30 the Meteo man briefs us on the latest weather which changes the forecast little. Still a small window of flying predicted and the group was released to the grid with tasks forthcoming. On the flightline the Open Class is given a 187 km quadrilateral to the south and the 15-Meter Class about the same only 17 km shorter. As launch time approached the weather was looking pretty good with active cumulus in all quadrants. As time progressed conditions did as well and the Standard Class became increasing disappointed that they were not allowed to fly as well. Due to the conservative forecast by the Meteo all competitors elected to start as soon as the task was open and the cloud formations looked right. As it turned out the weather continued to improve rather than deteriorate and the tasks ended up way too short. The winner in each task came in significantly under the 3 hour minimum devaluing the Open Class to 369 points and 246 points maximum. After all were down we were wishing for a longer task or a later start. The Standard Class was really looking blue for not getting to fly. In the end SS posted a 4th place finish and "1" came in 7th. In the 15-Meter Class "P7" brought home 5th and "OF" 11th. The point spreads in all classes was still very tight between 1st and 10th place. After our performance this day the U.S. rose to 1st in the World Cup Competition with a total of 1049 points against the French with 1041 points.
Now it was time for the US Team Party in the hangar on the field. We started the festivities at 7:30 p.m. with the Stewards scrutineering the field of paper airplanes which was easily 100 strong. They took their job very seriously with postage scales, metric rulers and a wingspan measuring device. The French brought in their entry at the last minute which was a huge cardboard ""paper" sailplane with a turkey head on the front end and very colorful decorations all over. At 8 p.m. the McDonalds hamburgers arrived and within 13 minutes we had passed out 500 quarter-pounders, American hot dogs, fries, and brownies, many liters of Coca-cola and beer. Our Team was serving the masses and was totally over-run. It was like driving into Ethiopia with a meal wagon and ringing the bell.
After the meal was served we began the paper sailplane flyoff. First the Juniors all stood on the stage and did a mass pitch into the air. It was really cute to see 30 kids all hoping theirs went the furthest. Next was the Standard Class (must have been built with a single sheet of A4 paper) and finally the Open Class where the French flew their giant. The French entry did remarkably well and brought down the house when they heaved it. Our entry in the Open Class by John Good was a strange looking ship - a long stick with cylinders of paper on each end. Unfortunately, John's flight was disqualified by Hannes Linke because he mistakenly thought it had flown through restricted airspace (outside the hangar) when in fact it had not. Without a doubt this was the best entry from an aerodynamic standpoint and left all the OSTIV delegates debating the physics of such an aircraft.
The party continued with great excitement until the witching hour of midnight and left everyone talking about "The US Team Party". The Air Force cadets took turns playing "Disc Jockey" spinning American tunes while the guests danced. We all felt the party a huge success and one by which all other Team parties would be judged.
Just after launch all pilots reported contacting the wave at the Lure - a mountain ridge just west of the airport - and climbing in 5 to 10 knots through 15,000 feet. The start point for the Standard Class was just below the wave which required a dive to the start observation zone maximum altitude of 3500 meters then back up into the wave before heading out on course. "SS" was able to fly the 381 kilometers with just 3 climbs and posting a speed of 108 kph for a 12th place finish. A british pilot, Robin May, smoked everyone with a speed of 124 kph, more than 7 kph faster than the next competitor. "1" finished in 14th at 98 kph.
Both the Standard and 15-Meter classes posted elapsed times of less than 3 hours devaluing the day again. These two classes had yet to fly a task worth 1000 points. "JW" and "DJ" ended 11th and 23rd respectfully with "OF" and "P7" coming in 14th and 25th.
All pilots reported broken and turbulent lift with no wave. All classes would fly the day at or below ridge level in very rough air. Everyone saw monster sink and only weak climbs and as a result the time in the cockpit was quite long. "1" reported squeaking over a pass in the high ground traversing east to west and seeing other open class ships come up short and have to deviate way to the south increasing their leg distance two-fold. Late in the day the Durance valley south of St. Auban went totally clear of clouds and pilots trying to get to their steering turns for the final glide began having trouble. First of our Team in the area was "P7" who had started very early. He left the Lure abeam of St. Auban at below ridge height and and headed for his last turn at Vinon - 40 km south in the Durance Valley. He got in their low after not finding lift and was unable to get away. Shortly thereafter "OF" came overhead and low as well. After struggling for some time over Vinon he was able to get away and make it to within 6 miles of the field before "running out of wind" and landing out. Soon thereafter the field where Bill landed became a popular spot and attracted a large number of gliders including "DJ". "JW" held on until the official gate closed at 2118 hrs whereupon he had to land in order to achieve maximum points. It is incredible to me that the lift is still working after 9 p.m. in the valleys and we have to land because of a predetermined time. After the day was over we would find our team still in good shape in spite of 4 landouts. The rules for World Competition do not penelize as heavily landouts as you find in the US Nationals or Regionals. In the Standard Class "DJ" and "JW" posted 20th and 34th place finishes and 10th and 24th place overall, "OF" and "P7" showing 12th and 26th for the day and 9th and 14th cumulative in the 15-Meter Class, and "SS" and "1" claiming 5th and 12th for the day and 4th and 12th overall in the Open Class. Even though our guys were not at the top of the score sheet each day consistency would ultimately rule and keeps us in the running for the top positions. After this day of competition the US would find itself in 4th place in the World Cup Competition behind France, Netherlands and Great Britain. We think we will be moving up soon.
This night in the Hangar Aniel on the field the German Team sponsored a party featuring German beer, sauerkraut and spatzle along with German music and a presentation on the upcoming World Championship for 1999 in Beyreuth Germany. For 10 francs the Germans would "loan" you a very nice German beer glass stein full of beer. The idea was that the 10 francs would encourage you to return the stein after the party was over but based on what I saw the Germans took home very few steins. The US Team is all sporting German beer steins as souvenirs of the Championships. Fun was hard by all but the German Team party was still short of excitement when compared to the US Party.
The launch was started at 1315 hours and proceeds with precision utilizing 18 Robin, Ralleye and Cap towplanes. Due to restricted areas over the factory to the east, the public areas to the west and the city to the north the towplanes make a sharp left turn after liftoff at an altitude of under 200 feet. I can only imagine in a gusty wind of 20 knots this must be quite exciting.
The Opens were to go first and on the grid "SS" had a problem with his datalogger. The box started blinking and the screen showed that the internal security had been broken. Kent Hardin, Ron's crew chief, ran the box back to Team headquarters where John Good jumped into the telephone booth with his laptop, woke up a Cambridge technician at his home in the States, and did a 3000 mile repair. It reminded me a little of Clark Kent doing his transformation to Superman. In this case John was truly the Superman of our Team by fixing the GPS logger and getting it back in Ron's ship just 4 minutes before launch.
Tasks were again of the zigzag or butterfly configuration like before with the Standards to go to Die and back for 388 kilometers, the 15-Meters knocking off 402 kilometers and the Opens going 472.9 kilometers. "1" got into trouble on the second leg and entered 10 to 12 knot sink and were literally forced into the ground landing on a 500 meter long grass strip at a town near their second turnpoint of Die. A simple aerotow home and they were safe back at headquarters but both disappointed with their performance and shocked at how quickly you can go from euphoria to disaster in the Alps.
At our tiedowns each afternoon we have a tailgate party where all crews and pilots gather during the finishes. Crew boss John Seaborn pulls out his folding French picnic table and sets it with all sorts of yummies like fromage (cheese), meats, cookies, wine and beer. There we watch the finishers, try to calculate preliminary speeds, welcome our pilot hero's home and enjoy a little French cuisine. This has become the highlight of our day and a great time for us to wind down and socialize. Today "SS" posts a 10th place finish but still solidly in 5th overall, in the Standard class "DJ" is 10th for the day and 5th overall, "JW" 15th and 19th, and in the 15-Meter class "OF" is 15th and 8th while "P7" is 12th for the day and 13th overall. I cannot tell you how proud we all are of our U.S. Team Pilots performance against the French and Germans who have substantially more experience in the Alps. We are not in first place yet on the score sheets but when analyzed on a performance versus Alps experience scale we are blowing them away.
After all the racing and contest excitement the last 14 days our Team decided to disperse for a quite evening alone and an early night in bed. Through the course of our time in St Auban we had visited a number of neat little French restaurants and sampled everything from pizza to pigs feet (Pied de Paquet). As it turned out this evening quite by accident the entire group ended up at a little eatery in Les Mees called the Affa Mees looking upon the petones all lit up at night. We totally overwhelmed the proprietors and spilled out onto the veranda. We had a grand time and totally blew our objective of a quite early evening.
The weather today is to be better than the last and the tasks get increasingly longer. The Opens are given a 453 kilometer course to a turnpoint around the northeast corner of France over northwestern Italy. We have been warned that an outlanding in the Bardoneccia valley of Italy is not only dangerous because of the lack of landable fields but could pose problems on a retrieve with customs. The 15-Meter class receives a 428 kilometer triangle and the Standards are tasked to a 395 kilometer task predominately north of St Auban. This proves to be a banner day for "SS" as he takes the checkered flag at 124.7 kph. "1" does not have as good a day and lands up by the northern turnpoint close to the Italian border. They worked this bowl for 2.5 hours with a number of other Open Class ships trying to get just enough to escape over a pass to the south. The French Open Class pilot, Gilbert Gerbaud, takes the risk we talked about that morning going into Italy and squeaks home for a 12th place finish. We all agree that Eric makes the right decision by landing and taking a tow home.
"DJ" and "JW" are flying well and holding their own on the scoresheet. It seems that each day someone ranked higher than our pilots makes a mistake which moves us up the classment. If we can hold on long enough we will win be default. I don't say this meaning that our pilots cannot win on their own but that in the Southern Alps where some pilots have considerable experience - namely the French - our Team are the underdogs. Today we do this in both the 15-Meter and Standard Classes.
Tonight is the Kiwi party. The blokes from down under shipped up 800 racks of lamb which when divided into lamb chops yielded 8000 chops. In addition they airfreight in tons of apples, kiwifruit and Steinlager beer. The crowd descended on this pile of consumables and quickly decimated it like they did our stash on USA night. For entertainment they asked each Team to put forth a amateur performance of some type. After considerable debate it was decided that John Good and "Crazy" Bob Leve, our Team Psychologist, would sing "Charlie and the MTA" with guitar accompaniment. While I thought they were quite good the judges gave them the lowest score of the night. I guess if they would have won we would have suffered through another rendition.
The weather is getting better still and the tasks longer yet. Today the Open Class will see 533 kilometers turning just north of Grenoble. The Standards get a 448 kilometer zigzag butterfly (the task setters are really getting creative growing the tasks within the limited area the weather allows) and the 15-Meter get the biggy of the day - a 477 kilometer task up to the Mont Blanc - the famous mountain where fancy writing pens are made.
The Open guys have a great ride turning the course at over 145 kph. I could hear "SS" and "1" yelling "yippee" all around the tasks. Thermal lift over 10 knots and long cloud streets made this a really fun run for the long-wingers. Similarly, the Standards have a good run with al but one pilot getting around the course. The story of the day came in the 15-Meter Class who got into trouble on the first leg. We on the ground at St Auban could hear reports of the cloud bases going down obscuring the mountain tops in the Alps north of Grenoble. We were to hear later from "P7" that the cloud bases at the turn by the Mont Blanc were less than 1500 feet above ground level. Most of the group made this turn but quickly ran into trouble in the Grenoble area due to over-development. "OF" worked one ridge after another through this area affected by rain and cloud shadow and ended up landing in a field not too far from the second turn. 13 of the 31 pilots would landout on this leg and the balance had some interesting stories to tell. An Italian pilot "GT" hit a logging wire in the high Alps north of Grenoble and flew the rest of the task home. Examination of the glider revealed he had struck the wire just 100 millimeters below the nose taking off his tailwheel and a piece of the wing.
Gary Ittner "P7" was the hero of the day for the US Team by squeaking in after deviating to the East around the bad air in Grenoble. We had the trailer hooked up and ready in the event he landed out knowing that sunlight would be precious. When Gary called on the Team frequency and announced that he had worked his way onto final glide and would be home soon a cheer went up all over the USA camp. He ended up placing 11th for the day and moving up to 11th overall.
After Bill Bartell got home from his retrieve he told the story of his landout. It seems he had landed in a tiny farm field far from any metropolitan area. After walking to the road he was able to flag down a farmer on a tractor and get a ride to a telephone. Afterwards the farmer, who happened to own the field where Bill landed, took him on a tour of his dairy where the milking of the 28 cows was in process - by hand of course. Afterwards, the farmer and his family invited Bill to supper in their home all prepared by the farmers wife and their daughters. Afterwards they went back to the glider for a little cockpit soaring for the kids and pictures. The most amazing variable here is that Bill and the farmer had a wonder time and neither spoke the others language. Bill said later that these are the experiences that you treasure forever and compenstate for the devestation it does to your standings in the scoresheet.
Everyone rushed off to do the dreaded wash, shopping, banking, and letter writing which had been put off in the last days. This evening was the French party which we had all been waiting for. Just as the party started a huge thunderstorm moved overhead and dumped buckets of water on the cooks outside and we all hoped this might be an omen of things to come for the French. They served up plenty of food - I say plenty because in my opinion it was not all that appetizing and there was plenty left - rice, sausage, and those darn pied de paquets (pigs feet). The beer, wine, music and fellowship were good however and we all had tremendous fun. By French standards it was a resounding success because a fight broke out in the closing minutes of the party between the towpilots drawing blood and overturning tables. The Gendarms (police) quickly had it under control and the original advocates where together again by the end of the party. This was just the recharge our batteries needed for the final stretch home.
Also during the meeting Steward Hannes Linke tells the group that today will be the day for Doping tests in accordance with French Sporting Codes. The procedure would be that 2 names would be drawn from each class at this meeting and upon landing after flying the task a Steward would meet the candidate at his aircraft and immediately escort him to the control location whereupon the unlucky pilot would be required to consume water until he could provide a sample. A member of the organization was called up to pull names from the hat and the first one was "DJ" in the Standard Class. Next name pulled was "OF" for the 15-Meter Class and the third name drawn was "1" for the Open Class. The erupted into a loud howl as the first three pilots chosen for drug testing were Americans.
On the grid the crews find different ways to occupy themselves, the most popular has become Bacci Balls with some very impressive players. The runway at St. Auban is a large grass field 400 meters wide and 1200 meters long. By launch time the temperature reaches 80 degrees and strenuous activity tapers to a minimum. Today the cumulus grow rapidly and threats of rain appear on the horizon. The organizers, fearing that all tasks are in danger of weather related problems issue Task B on the grid. The Standards are given 276 kilometers, the 15-Meters 290 kilometers and the Opens a 337 kilometer circuit. As expected the cumulus grow into cumulonimbus and all of the classes start calling in trouble. First around for the day are the Standards who easily circumnavigate the bad weather and most get home. Next on the sceen are our Open Class. Their course line takes them back over the airport to a steering turn 40 kilometers south. "SS" comes overhead 3000 feet below final glide and in smooth air. He presses on and finds nothing to work landing out at the steering turn Vinon. 15 minutes behind "SS" comes "1" in a similar state. Still well below glideslope he pushes 9 miles beyond the final turn to the sun and works half knot lift until it develops into 6 knots and finally gets him up to glideslope plus 2000 feet for an easy ride home. The 15-Meters also run into trouble and final glide to the ground just 10 miles short of the airport. It was a tough day and a number of competitors land out which with the scoring does not do us a lot of harm.
We had previously proclaimed this day as "Crew Appreciation Day" and in their honor the pilots prepare another Bar-B-Que at the Team hut. While the impromptu cookouts are not as formal as the quaint French restaurants, it works much better for a Team who has been at work all day and wants to get in bed at a reasonable time. Tonight the Team is in great spirits - we have become a group of close friends after 4 weeks of togetherness and not a single personality problem has developed. Stories, jokes and laughter fill the evening as we wind down the next to last contest day. We all know that soon we will be going back to the US and rejoining our previous lives and even though nobody says as much this evening will be one of the last together as a Team by ourselves.
The pilots briefing this morning is primarily consumed with giving thanks to the various parts of the organization that worked without recognition like the scoring team, the Mondial Visions staff, the marshallers, and the Meteo-France group. The weather call is good and the tasks range from 318 to 365 kilometers. Talk amongst the pilots as to why they do not call a longer task centers on several theories including the need to get everyone home for the Farewell Party tonight to protecting the French lead in the race. Whatever the reason our pilots would like longer tasks which favor a come from behind.
The pilots fly the tasks quickly with with only one exception. "DJ" pushes hard and gets into a hole. It takes a while to work out and he pushes off again. For the second time he gets low and has to spend precious time working back up. It had been decided at the US Team pilots meeting earlier that morning that since we were not in contention in any class for 1st or 2nd place that the pilots could attempt a heroic feat by pushing real hard. Moffat would leave this up to the individual pilots to decide for themselves. This is indeed what Doug did and unfortunately it did not pay off. Had he had been successful he could have moved up potentially to a place on the podium.
The races were over and the celebrations begin. The organization put together a "soiree" or party for everyone and it was a big hit. The place was packed when the festivities began. They had set up a large buffet table full of food and the plan was to draw from a hat the names of Teams and that would be the order in which we would be served. The first name out was Italy who dashed for the start gate while everyone sat by watching. Well it did not take long for the Americans to figure out that waiting around was not a good idea and we made an illegal run for the start gate. Most everyone got through before the Competition Director caught on and issued a penalty but by then it was too late. Other Teams, figuring that waiting was also not good strategically, hit the start gate and soon mayhem ensued. It was a classic case of leeching on the Americans while on task. Fortunately there would be no task the next day as we stayed much too late "enjoying" ourselves.
The End
| Dr. Günther Eichhorn | Springer 233 Spring Street New York, NY 10013 USA, email me |