Saturday June 25
Arrived 3pm Frankfurt – slept 6hrs on the plane which is something unusual for me. Andi met me at the airport and we drove to his house and Jochens' where I was given a nice room. Met Wesseline (Andi's wife) and in the evening we went for dinner and went into Bingen for the local jazz festival – very good – 7 stages through the town – sunny but cool – bed at 12.30 and slept well - very happy to be here amongst such hospitable friends!
First night in Langenlonsheim
Sunday June 26
Picked up at 10 by Andi. We went to Langenlonsheim and met Stefan and club members and rigged the ASH 25 – heavy but not too bad – flew for 5 hrs – low cloudbase over hilly terrain so never far from the ground – weak, fakey clouds. Went west, then south, (flight on OLC under Andreas Munzenberger) we didnt do well but had an enjoyable sightseeing flight including north up the Rhine to the Lorelei.
5hrs in the air in the back seat with high rudder forces and lots of turning in small thermals and my legs were sore! Much stronger forces need from the back seat and coordination also more difficult. The ASH was fitted out with the new LX9000 flight computer front and back (an expensive luxury) - a very good opportunity to start getting familiar with it as the LS10 I am renting has one too. . Briefed on the glider (LS10) with Stefan and handed over the moolah. Dinner again after a hot evening cleaning and de-rigging.
Monday June 27
Up at 9 again and out by 10. Plan for today was to maybe fly the '10 but after going through the systems, installing parachute, feeling very comfortable in the cockpit, but jet lag was finally catching up and so I decided not to fly as it was all very familiar.Put it in the box and drove to Kassel – even so we didnt leave until 3.30pm so reached Kassel near 7pm to pick up the car – TomTom was a life-saver again – Met Friedemann at GoeteStrasse and handed over the moolah and contract and hitched up the glider – and drove the 30 minutes to Ulrike and Johannes in Hann.Munden. Very nice seeing them again – had a light dinner with them in their garden, talked about the contest and went to bed – not too late...
The Ugliest Car In The World - my Renault Kangoo
Tuesday June 28
Up at 6am today – convoyed to Lusse with Frederike (young club-member from Der Dingel) who was driving Kai's ASG29 – Tom Tom got us here safely despite roadworks and it was HOT! Rigged the tents, unpacked, assembled the glider, filled it with water, talked with Herbert Maertin (contest director) who was very gracious and did the technical inspection and the registration which all went smoothly – The '10 takes about 200litres of water ballast and we had to dump about 60 of them due to the motor and fuel tank and me.... Tie down and we had pasta and beer with Klaus and Kai and Dirk, all from Der Dingel. Johannes can not now arrive until Thursday due to work conflicts.
The gliders present (15m, 18m and Open ) were stunning – the only ASH30 was present – more ASW22's than I've ever seen in one place – Ventus2's (15 & 18), ASW27's and 29's, a solitary JS-1 – and just 2 LS10's. Quite a few ASH31's. Everyone uses covers when tied out – even without weather risk- seems like the 'done thing' but the LS10 didnt come with covers. The camp site was large and relatively quiet – not a problem getting a good nights sleep – a good quality air mattress is essential however.
Dome Sweet Dome
Lusse is an immense field - nearly 3km long and 1/3 of a km wide - with the inner 2km perfectly flat close-mown grass. Excellent facilities, buffet food service, campsite, showers, hangar and repair shop.
Wednesday June 29
Finally we fly today – breakfast for 4Euro in the mess. briefing at 9 in German – re-read the local rules and procedures, loaded radio frequencies etc. made cheat sheets for pre-flight configuration etc and launched around 2pm in sweltering (35c, blue) conditions. Late start due to some configuration issues with the LX9000 which we eventually solved. Surprisingly strong conditions – 4-6kn to 5-6k MSL and had a good familiarization flight with the 10. Tow was tricky behind the Wilga – 120-130kph but had to use all available flap to stay above the massive downwash behind the tug – got caught in it a few times and the glider started wallowing around like a drunk pig. Released at 2k agl and all was good.
The Wilga - Schleppen-flug
Excellent climb at 600kg – easily keeping up with Open and out-climbing 15m even at 600kg. Very fast flat cruise – easy to get 60-1 at 100mph with a few pullups. Thermalled left, right, different flap settings and speeds to find the optimum. This is a nice machine. Went out toward Juterborg, Lubben, back to Lusse and west to the Elbe. Checked the motor operation on the return from the Elbe while still high – flawless operation , though climb rate was weak as I was still flying heavy. Landed after 3 hrs and an excellent cross-country orientation flight around the area. Gear was difficult to lock down easily – will need to look into that.
LS10-st - Lima November - serial #3
Thursday June 30
RAIN! Frontal passage with steady rain – tent will probably leak like a sieve – need to check it after I write this blog. Using the day to fine tune the LX configuration, memorize the good areas and key turn points, - looks like we may have a narrow window for a task tomorrow (last practice day) but so far I'm feeling pretty good about preparation – terrain is gentle, not intimidating, the locals all know the hot-spots off by heart . My glider is great and flying flaps came back very naturally. The Dingel club pilots I am with are very friendly and helpful with english tanslations of the briefing, though Herbert is repeating key information in English for the international guests.
Highlight of the day for me was the technical inspection hangar - 2 EB29's (thats 29m span, people) that only just fitted between the hangar. The size of these gliders has to be seen to be believed - the videos on YouTube just dont give any sense of the scale. Just when my jaw couldnt drop any lower Bruno Gantenbrink showed up with his NimEta at 31m (yes, thirty-one meters) - sitting in the cockit with the last meter of span (tips) sitting in his lap. This is a Eta wing with a modified Nimbus fuselage. The wing root and fairing have been massively beefed up. electric dump valves, you name it this glider has it. The fin is taller than I am. The main hangar at Lusse has an ASW22BL and 3 Nimbus 4's suspended from the roof by electric winches. (A new cloud form - 'Nimbus Suspendus'!)
Why not throw in a Bucker Jungmeister just because you can?
Nimbus Suspendus
Friday July 1 – Official Practice Day
OK – the tent leaks like a sieve. Emptied a bucket of waterout of it yesterday after the rain stopped – luckily for me Frederika and Matt (visiting Canadian student) left today and there was a spare tent I could move into. Saved my bacon.
Very cold last night – everyone shivering around the campsite- this morning we had good post frontal conditions Cu bases initially 1000m rising to 1800m around 3pm. Conditions were forecast much weaker after 5pm -
Task was a 300km triangle from Lusse with a line start and line finish, direct landing preferred. First leg SE to Esterwerda, then NE to Beeskow and due west home under the low Berlin class C airspace via a conrol point at Bruck.
The launch was later than ideal, with the start gate opening at 2.15 making a quick start important. Task went reasonably well – took some large exploratory detours so my course line was less than ideal but I had a good second leg and caught up with a large gaggle of open and 18m ships. I found it easy to outclimb most of the Ventus2's even flying full at 600kg. The run (typically around 170kph) was very comparable. I led out to the second turn and out toward the third but the big open class ships inevitably pulled ahead. Its hard to beat physics. Half way home on the last leg there were no cu under the higher 6500' class C floor and I diverted under the 3500' airspace to the last ragged cu – which gave me 2-2.5kn up to 3500 but from there it was a dead glide to the control point – the airspace forcing departure well before cloudbase. Since it was a practice day I picked a good field and at 700' started the motor – the turbo is a windmill start so it uses height to get going and I was down to 200' before I started climbing well. With practice I will do better. A quick 2 minute engine run got me the few feet I needed to get home. So close.... but safe, and a very useful tune-up flight.
Saturday July 2 Contest Day 1
More Rain – Drizzle and light rain started at 8am. Briefing at 9.30am – an obvious no-fly day. A day to update the blog, set up SPOT for our German support group and go shopping for supplies.
After this contest I will write a report on using the LX9000 and on flying the LS10.
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