underground Loop #4

Preface

After the yesterday's outlanding drill and the moments that followed it it has been quite peaceful here. Vaisala box chants: 174700 WIND 280/5 kt CAVOK TEMP 23 DEGREES CELSIUS DEW POINT 3 DEGREES CELSIUS QNH 1017 QFE 1002... it looks like a sweaty task for every class today. It is a drowsy, sunny afternoon.

No-one out there seemed to know a free, efficient and bugless translator from Pagemaker to plaintext. Happily Janet gave us yesterday some material we were able to put on-line.

I'll tag here a copy of T.Savolainen's column in today's Groundloop.


Too long tasks

by Tapio It happened on Saturday. The perfect record of ideal tasks got a hit. The weather did not believe our commands. We had two differenr tasks in the tasksheet plus one on the table ready to be printed, if necessary. The biggest risk of the day was a front from the West. It was not clear whether it will kill the thermals in the West too early or not. Just before the launches I pushed the task setters to stay in the A tasks. It was a mistake. The blue conditions was no problem, but a cloudy area from the North spoiled the tasks of the smaller classes in Padasjoki-Kuohijoki area. The open class took full advantage of its better performance. Almost every glider of the class finished this very demanding flight. Standard class saw two finishers and 15-meter class only one.

The goal was not to have 70 outlandings in one day. The goal is to get all gliders flying home.

Tapio


Bits and pieces

To Ollie with love

This is Ollie. He looks like a doggie, but he really is not. He is a fierce 4-wheel hairy Terminator equipped with a 1-bit CPU (thus, two modes GERADEAUS && HALT). He's been thrown out from Lift & Sink on a gradual basis, but he used to re-appear there in a flick of an eye. We Finns are boring people in this sense, as we tend to keep our dogs in a line. As Ollie is a German (Austrian?) fella, he doesn't have to obey these dull and inhuman Finnish limitations. We're betting on how long does it take until the health authorities close Lift & Sink. It is another tightass Finnish rule not to allow dogs inside a restaurant.

Ollie is an OK guy, though, as he bit the German Team Captain in the hand the other day. It was only fair however, because them Germans are flying like hell. What is more, the captain tried to stop Ollie from wasting a dog one third of his size in the Briefing Dog Eating Championships. He just chose himself a wrong target. A gooood solid mouthful of Weiss' or Ziegler's right hand (or a seat of pants) would have been more profitable to the other teams.

Ollie has other funny hobbies like chasing wasps -and eating them still warm- and swifts, and whatever that moves including one guy in the GNSS evaluation team he has warm feelings towards to. Unfortunately for him, they are not responded with the same intensity from the GNSS cabin.

Janet probably hates me.


Mystery or how did it happen?

One of us underground Loop editors 'borrowed' Janet's Digital Camera yesterday to provide the net audience a look at our nerve center. Unhappily, we only got this one picture. In it, you can see our Internet connection in detail. Note the bars in the window - the cable is wrapped into one of them.

Why the heading 'Mystery..'? - simply because the borrower forgot to tell Janet about the loan. When she was unloading the pictures she saw this one and named it 'Mystery'.


British Fashion at Räyskälä

As you can see from this picture, things are well indeed for BBBBB from the Great Britain, as the Sun is shining, task has been assigned and the outfit suits the weather.


The Bar is Open.. but for how long?

The last few days have been so warm and sunny here at Räyskälä that the beer supply of Southern Finland is quickly coming to its end. Note the bartender's worried look. He is constantly looking for new sources to get beer from to satisfy the ever-growing need.

This is one of the reasons the Organization has recently set penalties for breaking certain rules in six-packs instead of the normally used points. Secure your own back.. eh.. throat!


Sidebar

You! Get off moi land!
One unfortunate British pilot (Mel Dawson, 840) had hard time yesterday after his outlanding, as the landlord did not find the idea of having this foreign pilot with his glider on his field amusing or interesting at all, but instead blocked his way to the road, took a firm grip of an axe and refused to let his crew de-rig the glider threatening to destroy it. A 100 FIM landing fee and phone calls to the competition director were needed in resolving the threatening situation.

Clashes in the sky
C64 gave a little push to 64 during the yesterday's flight by hitting 64's fuselage with his wing when they were circling. Fortunately, no serious damage. Both are on the task today. Now.. what does that 'C' stand for?


8th European Gliding Championships '96 - underground Loop #4 on soaring.guenther-eichhorn.com


© Dr. Günther Eichhorn
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