Peter Deane – USA – Std Class – Standard Cirrus 75 “AN”
Argentina time zone is GMT -3hrs. Gonzalez Chavez is 38 degrees south – about the same southerly latitude as Melbourne and about the same latitude from the equator as Athens and very similar latitude to California.
Web page info - competitor info, scores, tasks, etc are here at http://www.wgc2012.com.ar/
Weather patterns are expected to be somewhat similar to central California except with no mountains between the sea and the plains (where we fly) I expect winds to be stronger than we’re used to in CA. Perhaps more Hobbs/Texas style conditions.
I’ll be flying with my new iGlide PNA (high sun readability) at the contest and flying the Cirrus with club-style instruments - PNA with suction mount on the canopy etc. The GPS altitude accuracy of the iGlide (with SiRF) GPS is +- 50 feet at worst (tested by driving around the coast roads at home and walking on the beach - hard to argue with that definition of sea level…)
I have my Cambridge GPSNAV with model 20 GPS brick which I will use to drive the LNAV installed in the Cirrus. I have my EW micro recorder as main GPS recorder, powered by a Glidertools adapter to supply the EW with power and the iGLide with power. So far Ive not been able to get the iGLide talking to the EW but this will resolve with a little more time to debug - which I ran out of trying to get ready. The GPS altitude is so good on this unit that its not a concern for my setup.
Departure
Preparing for an international contest in 2 suitcases is challenging. A monster number of things to bring - parachute, SPOT, airbed, GPS recorders and PNA’s, converters, plugs, glasses, tools, shoes, clothes, Team USA uniform for the opening ceremony, apostille of all required documents (what a ripoff - $65 a signature times 4 documents….) medical class 2 certificate, glider licence, sporting license, radio license, pee-bags, the list goes on. All crammed into 2 suitcases each under 50lbs. I’m getting quite good at it - 49lb and 45lb for each case. No problems at check-in.
SFO to Dulles
Boarding the flight I bumped into my old team mate from Slovakia, Mike Smith- what are the chances of that? He was shuttling back to DC dressed up in his United uniform. Sat here in the back in cattle class I read through my notes from Slovakia - 18 months ago now and it seems like a lifetime - and reading the notes again brought back to me how brutal that contest was. Reading through my soaring diary has really helped me to start getting into contest mode - I highly recommend keeping a diary of contests, learnings, private notes-to-self etc
Dulles to Buenos Aires
United crew was more cheerful than normal - Was upgraded to economy plus and had 3 center seats on the 767 to myself so was able to lie down a little. Probably slept on and of for about 4 hrs.
Final glide into BA was to sunny skies and high-base cu’s - the temps in the mid 80’s - when I boarded the plane the cabin staff handed out customs cards and I nearly choked - any import goods valued over $300 had a 50% value duty - no one appeared to be freaking out about this so I presumed it was for returning nationals and when I asked at Argentinian customs this was the case - so my suitcase full of gliding equipment was safe. Good to know for the future. US citizens have to pay an entry fee of $140 however my British passport came to my aid and got me into Argentina free of charge.
Buenos Aires to Rafaela
The big airport at Buenos Aires (EZE) is very new and well set up - walking out of customs I found Gustavo’s smiling face in the crowd and we were off. We talked so much and Gustavo was concentrating so hard on his English that we ended up going the wrong way out of Buenos Aires! So that added an extra hour to our drive time - I hadn’t realized how far it was from Rafaela (his home base) to Buenos Aires - he had been driving from 3-or 4 in the morning to meet me at 11 (was out by 12 from baggage claim and customs) and we had another 7 hours to go after we started out - so it was a very long day for both of us. He has at least one very good meal in his near future. It was New Years Eve when we arrived of course and from 11.30pm-12.30am the firecrackers going off in Rafaela made it sound like the shelling of Beirut - however I was too tired to care.
Cars are very expensive in Argentina - as are gliders due to the 50% import duty. So most cars are old and beat-up - few BMW and Merc’s many older VW’s and Renaults. . Gas/Diesel is about $1 per liter so around the same price as ours. You don’t pump yourself anywhere - attendants do it for you.
The roads around Buenos Aires are in reasonable shape but there is still huge poverty in some areas of the city - camps/slums freely visible from the freeway. The older part of Buenos Aires (which I caught a quick glimpse of) is reminiscent of parts of any older major European city.
One key thing in the town centers is poorly marked and fairly severe sleeping policemen - used for speed control - you could easily take your suspension out on one of these things.
Also -- cars will NOT give way to pedestrians so no California style sauntering across busy streets. At most urban cross streets there is no stop or yield but the general rule is that you give way to traffic on your right.
There are MANY toll booths on Buenos Aires freeways so make sure you get enough pesos for your travel right from the airport. My TomTom Argentinian map was reasonably accurate but out of the city the map wasn’t up to date or as detailed as it should have been -
I could not share the driving with Gustavo as it was not his car so by the time we got to Rafaela he was pretty exhausted - we decided to postpone our new year celebration until tomorrow night.
One thing is that you need to bring plenty of pesos in small denominations - 100 pesos is the max note - (about $23) and locals don’t really like to change large notes. I had been told that people liked to be paid in US$ but this is not true.
Raphaela Club
Is huge and well equipped with older gliders all in pretty good shape. Argentina is a relatively poor country and the club resources are limited (tools, equipment) - it is a classic club - a couple of key guys are the experts on everything. Good hangars and tow planes, club gliders (Jantar, Cirrus, PW5) have open trailers however the gliders are well looked after in large hangars.
A enormous grass field, 01-19 and 16-24 runways. On site food and drinks available with a pool. The local community come to the park setting there (the pay a small access membership fee to help the club) and so it is busy with people on the weekends.
The local wildlife is interesting - Iguana’s (not like the Galapagos variety but mottled black and white - baby ones are 18” long and the adults can grow to 3ft long. Solid looking with a bad bite (like mini alligators without the big jaws) but not poisonous.
The club is extremely social and I was constantly introduced to various club members of various levels of importance. Later in the day Walter arrived from Chavez (10 hr drive) and in the evening we had a late (9.30pm) but fabulous meal at Gustavo’s parents house in Rafaela - the best steak and some extremely good red wine about $10 a bottle - we’d pay $30+ for the same in CA. Back to the hotel very late (1am) - checked out at 10am the next morning with bags packed - I stay with Walter and his wife on Monday night prior to leaving for Chavez with Nelson on Tuesday evening.
Cirrus 75 “AN” - Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
Sunday - When I got here the glider was a long way from ready. It was on its side in the shop and pretty dirty. Gustavo and I worked a looong day on Sunday installing my instruments and of course the glider wiring was a mess so we had to rework that as well. Basically your average club ship. Cleaned, new sealing tape, many trips into town to get the things the club didn’t have. The glider required 2 batteries and we spent some time figuring out how to mount them safely in the glider with no chance of the spare falling into the elevator pushrod area……this redesign spilled over into Monday and took most of the day as Monday 2nd was a bank holiday with few stores open.
Monday night at Walters was great - good wine and pizza - I picked vegetarian with ‘heart of palm’ which was like a crispier version of artichoke heart. Great wine and good company - we ate very late and I crashed about 11 - slept through until 9.30 but very much refreshed for a good night sleep.
Tuesday was very hot - at least 35C and we improved the battery mount again - this time it is really safe. Flew with water as well and Gustavo helped me though the process of settling the dump valves before we filled with water. He also took me into Rafaela and we went to a café for a few minutes and a good coffee , and then to the local foreign exchange where the advertised $US exchange rate was 4.3 pesos - Walter called them ( he knows the owners ) and I got 4.6. That’s huge!..This country is great if you have friends and contacts.
Today I handed over cash and signed the contracts - nice surprise is that the price was $500 cheaper than I expected. I paid Nelson 50% up front with the rest due at the end. All the glider documents were in good order and we were good to go.
Flying with water (60liters) was easy - an improvement in performance but not much change in handling or CG. I flew about 170km with plenty of height (6000ft +) and 5-6kn average thermals with cu - took off late with all the faffing about so flew only 1hr 40mins - tows at the club were about $45 to 600m so not cheap but OK. Everything is working fine but the radio is not loud enough and awkward to program in the air.
Instrumentation and iGlide
The iGlide works faultlessly - the Cirrus polar appears accurate and my setup is good. The GPSNAV feeds the LNAV just fine but to use it as a glide calculator I need to read the manual. The iGlide with SeeYou is very adequate for the job. Mounting was done with the suction cup mount on the canopy and this works fine too although not for vertical mode - due to the angles of the mount that comes with the unit . I hadn’t expected that…so I will use the RAM mount on my glider at home. Sunlight visibility was good in all conditions and the screen is just large enough that details were easy to see at a glance, without being too big for a small cockpit.
Drive to Chavez and arrival at Otto Ballod Gliding Club
Monday I found out that we would leave Tuesday night for Chavez - “we” being Nelson my crew, Bruno his son and myself. It is a long way to go for Gustavo for no reason so we said goodbye tonight. Tent, duvet and pillow finally arrived - Nelson was a few hours late and so getting things ready was a little long as he was the glider expert but we manage without him OK. Finally loaded luggage, camping stuff (for 3) and we were off at 9pm.
We really needed 3 days to work out all the wrinkles on the glider and get everything organized but Gustavo was just fabulous - incredibly helpful and hospitable but I could tell he was getting a little tired and he needed to spend time with his family - his wife Lalla, and beautiful daughters Olivia(6), Lucy(4) and Anna (4 months) - he made a huge effort to get the club organized and to look after me as well - I’d have been dead in the water without him especially since my Spanish is appalling. I am learning new words fast but not fast enough to be useful. I have promised to speak better Spanish when I return next year. Mostly as a survival prerequisite but also out of consideration for everyone else as it is always a strain communicating in a 2nd language for most folks.
We will arrive in Chavez tomorrow in enough time to set up the camp and the glider and hopefully get a airfield briefing. This will allow 2 full practice days to get dialed into the site - the glider is prepared now and I feel like I know it well enough to go racing with confidence. The brake sucks but what’s new about that?
Ok - the rest of the journey - we drove until 2am from Rafaela to the town of Pergamina where we were staying. At this point Nelson informed me that we were all 3 of us sleeping in the car at the gas station we were stopped at and leaving again at 5am- I tried really hard not to have a sense of humor failure and I mostly succeeded but insisted on somewhere to sleep - fortunately we found a sleezy motel nearby for $30 and I crashed there for 4hrs sleep (actually a very good decision for the next day) - Was up again at 6.30 and we were on the road at 7. Tired but not coma territory.
Our route took us pretty much due south on route 51 south from Pergamino through Chivilcoy and Azul to Gonzalez Chavez. The total distance Rafaela to Chavez is about 970km (~600miles) of cross country roads that cut across the main radial routes into Buenos Aires from the west and south west. This part of Argentina is big and flat. Very big and Very flat. It goes on and on and on like the California central valley on steroids. At our first rest stop the glider attracted some attention from a local reporter and Nelson and I were interviewed on camera for a local TV station. Of course I didn’t say much, just smiled and looked ruggedly handsome for the camera. Nelson gave them some details about me in Spanish , about the championships and what we do with our gliders. I used the journey to write my diary/blog and prepare the daily routine for Nelson - to ensure expectations were clear before we start.
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| AN on its open trailer after the 1000km drive. |
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| Part of the very large well wooded campsite - essential for shade in the heat. |
Today was stinking hot with a bodacious sea breeze front stretching from east of Chavez, west to the Sierra de Vantana 100km to the west. Too tired to fly and hot on the ground with only a light breeze, setting up camp went reasonably quickly but with significant cellphone communication to find people and check the correct location for the tents -
The glider was filthy on the open trailer after the long drive - we rigged in the evening when it had cooled a little and tied it down for the night - We went into Chavez for supplies and shopping and by 7.30pm I actually got something to eat after eating a croissant for breakfast 12 hrs earlier… my sense of humor improved dramatically after that. I later discovered they have a tent selling refrigerated drinks and general groceries for the campers - vegetables, fruit, cookies, icecream, mosquito repellent - you get the picture - a really really good idea.
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| The club swimming pool - great for crews and families. |
Practice Days – 3 and 4
Penultimate practice day - Even more stinking hot and very windy with it - a really tiring day. Winds were 30mph and the max temp was 104F - imagine camping in Uvalde with wind.
Nelson has done a great job so far - he’s definitely worth his fee as I can just ask him to do anything and he just gets on with it - no cajoling or pleading required - just a pleasant request is all that’s needed - its taking me some time to get used to…I keep trying to help and the culture here is that people take pride in helping others - how refreshing!
The wind was 30mph at 3000ft - not good Std Cirrus territory. Thermals were strong but very broken. There was no pilots meeting but they did have a task - a hopeless overcall that no-one even attempted. I used the day to explore the weak sea breeze convergence and check out the Cirrus glide performance into a stiff headwind.
I had a good conversation with one of the Rafaela pilots (Fernando Pais) who was a very keen pilot with a good knowledge of the weather here - landout spots, sea breeze front discussion, wind conditions. The ground is very flat so not many trigger features until you get west to the Sierra Ventana.
Flew for 2 hrs plus - a small triangle SW , East and back from the SW into the teeth of the wind - I reconfigured the LNAV better than the club default - it was a little less confusing but the final glide slope indicator was not working right. My iGlide was dead nuts on.
Registered, paid, and met many more pilots from many countries. We ate around 10.30pm (started the process at 9pm)
Opening Ceremony Day
No flying allowed today except foreign pilots having problems with their gliders/parachutes/equipment. (This included Francois, Sarah and Tom as they didn’t bring their parachutes - the ones they were given were so old that the on-site rigger wouldn’t touch it. This was a big problem.) Francois had problems with his radio, undercarriage, parachute and insurance but eventually got things going - normally pretty even keeled he was pretty stressed out. Sarahs glider was ok except the parachute was also a non-starter and she had water ballast problems.
So - I am glad that I brought my own parachute and spent 3 or 4 days up front working out the glider problems (minimal) on the Cirrus before we came to Chavez. The extra time is really good investment in reducing stress and making sure you have contacts and trusted helpers is very important.
The mandatory pilots meeting is today at 3pm. Then at 6pm we have the opening ceremony in the town square in Chavez, followed by another ceremony here at the airport at 8pm.
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| Opening Ceremony in the town square - a very charming event. Each team was presented with a commemoration plaque from the city - I recieved this on behalf of the US Team |
The ceremony was very charming - local folk dancing in the square, nice speeches from the town mayor and each team was presented with a memento plaque from the town.
With great pomp they lit a ceremonial torch which was them walked all the way to the airfield for the official handover from FAVAV (Argentinian organization) to the FAI; This was then used to light a permanent torch on the airfield HQ, and this was mounted next to an original Horten brothers flying wing glider.
Adolfo Gonzalez Chavez
Today Nelson and I went into town and I was able to explore some of the facilities, visit a hotel, café, hardware store, rent a fridge and buy a few supplies.
You might find this town in Mexico or the CA central valley - rural, agricultural, pretty poor, the main square is the center of the town and all the facilities of the town are within a few blocks of the square. It reminded me very much of a large-scale version of Avenal. English is spoken in the better hotels
Fridge can be rented from ElectroMechanica El Panther opposite Cyber Balducho’s (cyber café) on the way into town - cost about 400pesos for the contest period. Shops on the main street into town and I was amazed that the way Fernando found the fridge was following a trail of word of mouth contact to contact (residential houses) through the town until he found what he needed. It is the Argentinian way.
The whole town is involved in the gliding scene - everyone wants to know about how it is going.
Your best bet is to focus your shopping needs near the square - around the square there is a bakery, a supermarket, a shoe-shop, a school, a church, the town hall, the bank, and a couple of bars.
On the streets around the square (within a block or two) there are camping supplies (Aguamarina), restaurants, a pizzeria, the ‘Jet’ Nightclub/disco, and pharmacies and some other general stores.
The best restaurant in town is the Restaurant Central on Mitre and San Martin.
Hotels
I found 2 hotels - Hotel Paris (near the square) and Hotel Central - Hotel Paris is the best at 350 pesos/night (~ $75 )for a double room including breakfast and secure parking - a good café and bar /restaurant on the ground floor and the rooms on the second. English is spoken at reception and over email - I believe Francois and Dottie stayed here.
I inquired into the price of housing - we should expect to pay around $US800-$1000 per month for a 3 bedroom house (presumably 6 people) his is massively cheaper than a hotel. Houses most likely will have air conditioning and typically you pay ½ up front.
Contest Days 1-13
Day 1
Well after all the preparation and culture shock its all happening. Everything came together at the last minute (the Argentinian way) after a 2 ¼ hr mandatory briefing in massive heat and much animated pilot-organizer discussion.
We gridded , reference weight was OK and programmed the task - Launch was going well and everything ready to go - hook up the rope - and the release was jammed open. Merde. Pushed off into the soy crop on the side of the runway and frantically ripped out the cockpit pan while Nelson tried un-jamming it from underneath. Copious amounts of WD40 and grease with prodding from underneath with a screwdriver released it and all was well after testing it many times. Put everything back together and was able to launch at the back of the grid into hot windy blue skies. Not the best of starts but we recovered very well.
Task was a cats cradle of ~185km with forecast 4-6kn windblown thermals in a 35kph northerly wind. My first task in the Cirrus wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. I made rapid progress to the remote start and met up with the main std class gaggle and quickly worked my way to the top and relaxed for a while - the day was better than I had thought and I was where I needed to be for a task into the blue.
I eventually started at the front of the gaggle at about 3.40pm and headed well upwind of track, across the wind to the first turn - Darroze started a minute after me flying a Genesis so had a real performance advantage - I had a good run into the first turn and an excellent run into wind to the north running a blue street requiring very little turning. Downwind leg went well and climbing up to a conservative final glide around the turn and into the wind Olivier Darroze slipped in underneath me - So Cirrus vs. Genesis I had done pretty well on handicap. Scores the next morning put me in 10th place overall out of 50+ and a very strong French team in standard class. Several world champions....feeling good
Day 2
Day 2 was a 3hr AAT - approx 300km nominal distance with 20km radii on the first 3 turns. It was HOT - 40C (104F) maximum forecast and 40kph (25mph) winds directly from the north. Thick cirrus blowing in from an approaching front from the west - The tow hook worked fine and I was just about first to launch in standard class, which launched just behind the small open class. I climbed quickly to 2000m but had a long time to wait for the start to open - so cruised out to the start zone - nothing - back to Chavez to pump up in weaker conditions - headed back out to the start line , and the radio quit. Nada. I worked my way to the top of the main gaggle (not always easy to do) and waited for someone to start so I would know the start was OK - I wanted to start early due to the cirrus and the approaching front - and at 2.20pm I was at 2800m milling about when a couple of guys went. I left right away as the start was now clearly open, and had to make pretty extreme track corrections to compensate for the wind and thermal drift into the southern sector of the first turn area to the west.
The first leg was 85km and I made it in about an hour - not too bad into a quartering headwind of 40kph. My next leg was north and the clouds didn’t really cooperate for a clean task vertex - note to self to improve that part of the task. The approaching front had caused the wind to veer westward and so now the next northerly leg was also into a quartering headwind. I made good progress into the teeth of the wind with blue streeting - my plan was to extend this leg prior to the next two downwind legs as the wind to the east would be more northerly giving me more distance downwind on the fourth leg.I went deep into the 2nd sector (northerly heading) and headed east for the third area. This was into the blue and I was on my own by this point. Massive groundspeed now and a really good climb in the blue got me into the 3rd area in good shape still on my own on the 4th leg I found a few 6kn (3m/s) climbs and glided into the blue to the last few steering turns of the task nearer to Chavez. The air was pretty quiet but I found a good 5kn thermal and was instantly glommed onto by about 30 gliders. Took it up to final glide slope and got the hell out of Dodge. Good for 11th place - so consistency at least for the first few days. 10th overall after 2 days.
Francois and Sarah flying in 15m started later and unknown to me till much later, Francois landed out as the day quit and Sarah landed out but fortunately inside the Finish cylinder so only suffered a 5 minute penalty. I wish my radio had worked as I could have kept them abreast of conditions ahead.
The weather forecast was for t-storms with chance of hail this night as the front approached. The organizers recommended that all gliders de-rig and that those with open trailers (ie me) keep them in a covered warehouse in Chavez overnight. We disassembled in oppressive heat (sweating bullets) and got the glider ready to take into Chavez. Nelson drove it there and returned - Showers all round and with no flying the next day my Rafaela clubmates introduced me to the ritual of the happy cup - a large communal mug of Fernet and Coke. Quite effective.
Around midnight - the front hit - oppressive heat and humidity, no breeze. The forecast was for 1 inch of rain overnight and it was miserable in my small poorly ventilated tent - eventually the rain and thunder arrived and cooled things down a little - It was very noisy with 50kph gusts and rain and thunder for 4-5hrs. I slept in the next morning.
Day 3
Eventually the rain quit long enough to get out of the tent and start drying / cleaning things out. Flying was out of the question - Pilot meeting at midday said it all. Had a very pleasant hour talking with Brian Spreckley about a range of subjects over coffee while we shivered in the supply tent.
Fernando is one of my new Argentinian buddies and besides being a prince of a guy is a great cook. We had an excellent lunch cooked on the communal camp stove and then headed to the coast for a little grey weather site-seeing.
The coast is only 100km south of Chavez and despite the grey weather we had a very relaxing time. The beaches were huge and stretched forever - many people were 4x4’ing on the beach - fishing, swimming, watching the world (ie the girls) go by.
I paddled in the South Atlantic. A first for me - and it was much warmer than the Pacific coast of home. Old Jeeps everywhere. Classic coast-side shanty town culture look and feel. A damp night and another great communal meal with my Rafaela buddies. Long discussions about Argentinian history and culture, gaucho’s and folk culture.
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Frontal passage on day 3
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We woke to grey but clearing skies - retrieved the glider from the warehouse in Chavez and tried manfully to get the glider assembled and ballasted and gridded before 10.30- we just made it. Todays problem on the glider was the gear doors - the retract bungee had broken. Nelson and I put the glider (now christened “Rocinante”) The tailplane wouldn’t go on either - however WD40 came to the rescue and it slotted right in - just need lubrication. together - late pilots meeting at 11.30. The key issue for the day was the low thermals high wind and very poor visibility due to volcanic ash blown in with the front from a troublesome volcano somewhere in Chile.
The Open class was launched after Brian had launched as sniffer and reported 6-7km visibility. It was dangerous as the ash was very light , smokey and dispersive, and very difficult to see white gliders in that, let alone the ground. The standard class was at the back of the grid today so was cancelled first, followed by 15m and eventually Open class. A good way to waste 7 hrs.
We used the opportunity to have a US team pilots meeting to plan out our needs and requirements from both ourselves and team captain for the upcoming worlds. Lessons learned - how to cope with the local conditions for the main Championships etc.
Day 5
Eventually I hit the *end of convection* at 6.40pm after 6 hrs in the cockpit and put the glider into a good cut hayfield next to a dirt road. SPOT relayed my coords to Nelson but no cellphone coverage (Spot will be essential for the Worlds) - What followed was a fabulous experience with the folks who managed the estantia I landed on - that’s a story in itself - a great experience never to be forgotten for their openness, sweet nature and willingness to help a stranger, their material poverty and spiritual wealth. Plus the night sky of the Pampas had to be seen to be believed.
30 gliders landed out today in standard class. I got back at 2am exhausted and down some points but enriched.
Day 6
Tired and up at 7 to rig and get everything ready to fly again. Batteries in bad shape this time despite being on charge all night. Big panic. Nelson came through and magically appeared with 1good battery 2 minutes before we launched (after several cellphone calls) - I was functonal but on 5 hrs sleep I wasn’t on top. My flying on the task was a little mediocre - the start gaggle I was with went too far downwind of course line for my liking and I ended up flying the whole flight by myself . Conditions trickier than I had anticipated - very windy with cu but very broken lift and almost all clouds were were cumulus fakus - and to add insult to injury there was no streeting on the into-wind leg - Talking with Brian Spreckley afterwards (he flew the same task) he had the same experience and called it a blue day with clouds to fool you - he was right. It took me a long time to get connected with cloud base (half way round the course) but by then I was on my back foot for speed and although the downwind leg went well the day started to quit and I took a medium thermal on the 2nd to last leg in the blue to get onto glide slope and come home. The radio quit again earlier in the flight and the PNA was driven by the same battery - It quit as I was climbing up to final glide so I had to do my final glide on mental arithmetic and the British Standard Eyeball. It worked out fine and I finished without any drama, but feeling like I should have been 15% faster. 38th for the day - blah.
Day 7
Time to try something different . Francois and Sarah were having a lot of success with team flying in 15m class but I had no such partner - Talking with Serbian pilot Branko he attributed his success to following the big gaggles and staying high but was really looking for a partner to fly with as it is unsatisfying (although effective ) using this approach. It was time to do something different - I’ve always believed it is possible to do better than the mass late-starting gaggle with a well matched partner and team flying skills but getting both together is difficult - and I’m the only US pilot in standard class and likewise for Branko as the only Serbian. So we jumped at the chance to fly together.
We strategize the flight together before launch and decided on a simple team flying approach with basic radio comms rules. We started together and pushed each other along - he flew a little faster between thermals than me but I was generally better at finding a good energy route between thermals and we complemented each other well - I liked his infectious enthusiasm.
The flight went well - Branko pushed a little too hard at the end and landed inside the finish cylinder but off airport , suffering some penalties, while I took a more conservative climb to get home and finished a little ahead on points - I was 30th for the day but for a first serious attempt at team flying we both felt like we got a lot out of it. On our debrief we decided weren’t getting the value out of our pair flying we could do as we were still starting late with the big gaggle flying faster ships. We resolved to start earlier the following day, and fine tuned our approach a little.
Day 8
Our turn for an area task. Standard class is launching and therefore starting last on most days - It was a blue day with a major game of chicken going on at the start. It was difficult to get a good height for a really good start but we got there and started ahead of the main pack - turns out they followed us 5 minutes later.
We had an excellent run east to the first turn are - we planned the flight to minimize time into the wind and maximise time crosswind and downwind. We had a great climb just prior to the planned turn upwind however the upwind leg was quite difficult - where the thermals had been solid columns on the way in they were broken up bubbles in the east and heading into wind. This gave us some challenges heading into wind and team decision avoided the hills which could have given good climbs but we ended up diverting to a gaggle off our course to stay together. Clipped the upwind area turn and headed crosswind into the blue haze - It turned out to be very weak and we took 3 1-2m/s climbs to get across the third leg heading west. Finally we connected with a good solid climb which we milked to final glide and home. Much better today with 14th place and only a few kph out of top 5.
Day 9
Cancelled - narrow window - only open was launched - standard was at the back of the grid and was scrubbed at about 3pm. Tough call but probably the right one for standard. Too bad - I wanted to race.
Day 10
Rain & task cancelled after gridding and waiting.- Cu-Nim forecast with strong gusts - put the glider on the trailer and took it to the warehouse in town. Great sunset and big CuNim late in the evening.
Used the free afternoon opportunity to look at the houses advertised for rent on the contest website. This took some work to look for multiple bedrooms each with a double bed . Nelson and I went around the town and with his Spanish help we looked at 3 houses. They were universally appalling and in each one I wanted to run screaming from the squalor. Very depressing - I looked at the Hotel Paris and its basically a Motel 6 room for $100 (US) a night during the championship. Rip off. Feeling depressed about the town and facilities now and seriously considering camping as the best option.
Talking with Branko (who moved to the 'Elegance Hotel' in Tres Arroyos 25 miles to the south on hwy 3 reported very highly on the hotel and at $95 a night was a huge step up on quality for the same price Hotel Paris was charging. Good to know.
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| Preparing the evening meal |
Day 11
Rained hard in the night - air was very warm and humid - dawn was grey - but clearing - the post frontal conditions were extremely unstable with very low bases..
We got the glider from the warehouse and assembled , ballasted and gridded. Pilots meeting at 11am We had 3 tasks as options and it was clear before launch that class C (to the north) was the only option with rain to the west. Class C was chosen and standard class (at the front at last) was launched. I was in the first group of 7 tows - It was extremely unstable and the rain to the west was getting closer. We were released in overcast clag and we scratched around in 1kn lift under the overcast to get just a few hundred meters above release height (500m agl) The rain got closer and closer to the field - still the tow planes kept launching.
It quickly became clear that it was going to be difficult to survive the rain passage - just in front of the rain a gust front started to form and I managed to run the convergence cloud step to get up to 1200m but the next shelf stopped there and I ran north at high speed to get nearer the sun - By now the field was under heavy rain and we were being forced further and further away from the field to survive as behind the rain was a huge blue hole which wasn’t filling.nothing worked and I headed further north getting pretty low before finding another smaller gust front convergence to climb in - headed into the sun but none of the clouds were working and I turned around close to Macready zero for the field as I had been up for an hour and not heard the gate open - into the blue hole nothing was working and there were still a large number of gliders on the ground. One or two were not on the airfield.
I landed to discover that the launch had been halted when the rain hit. Nothing was said in English on the operations frequency - a major oversight. On the way back to the grid for a relight the day was cancellado’d at 3.15pm. Of course - the sky proceeded to explode into wall to wall firm base cu - but too late to launch a big fleet and complete a task.
Today I discovered a really good estantia (farm house) for the big contest - and a decent house in Chavez - so a major breakthrough in the afternoon for next years accommodation. This is huge - camping can work but its definitely harder than a decent house to stay in - and the hotels are, frankly speaking, depressing.
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| The Estantia - as nice inside as outside. |
Day 12
Beautiful wall to wall cumulus. We decided to start at 2.04pm and with hindsight this may have been 10 minutes too early. Team flying good start - excellent run into wind to first turn. Cross wind run went well - connecting the cu together was somewhat challenging on the third leg but was able to fly inter-thermals at 60-1 while flying 150-160kph in the Cirrus. Team flying slowed me down today and when I quit trying to fly with Branko my speed started picking up - I got back up to the good lift band and marked a great thermal when german open cirrus (86) joined me - he was flying aggressively and we flew together for the last half of the course. Talking to him afterward he was impressed I could keep up with him in the std cirrus. Excellent final glide under streets - started at mcready 4 +300m and kept it going all the way to the end over 75km without turning while flying 160-200kph under streets. Bodacious.
Excellent weather briefing for foreign pilots from the argentine weather expert in the evening at 7.30pm. I took copious notes and these will go to the team as part of my report.
18th for today and I beat the fench quite handily - one of my benchmarks is French pilot Denis Guerin - a good guy and excellent pilot. Any day I go faster than Denis is a good day - at Lusse he was always faster than I was.
Had help getting a hotel room in Buenos Aires for Saturday night and worked on getting Nelsons head around the idea of dropping me off in BA on the way to Rafaela on Saturday. Spent the evening with a second air mattress failure and sleeping on the hard ground - just another ‘problema technicho’ - not a great nights sleep but OK.
Day 13
Fog over Chavez caused by easterly flow from the atlantic high interacting with an approaching trough from the west. Cloud flow is SE - overdevelopment forecast for this afternoon - CB’s and cumulus congestus 3pm to 1800m cloud base. Need 30C for day to be good. 32C may trigger CB’s and possible t-storms. Easterly flow over the area - runway 13 for t/o and arrival.
We gridded and the sniffer couldn’t stay up - twice - the day was not heating up quickly enough and neither the temps of the cumulus arrived at all. - Brian took to the air in a Lak-12 and floated around in 0.5ms lift for nearly 2 hrs before it became obvious that conditions and the SE airmass were not going to cooperate. 15m was cancelled, then Standard and finally Open (at the front of the launch)
We dumped the ballast, towed back to the grid and I quickly removed my instruments and we disassembled the glider and put it on the trailer. I started to get my gliding equipment organized and packed for the trip home, and while doing this we were informed by the weather guys that the forecast was now for rain in the evening and tomorrow morning - which would make de-camping in the morning impossible - so we de-camped there and then and booked a room in the Hotel Central in Chavez - it was only $30 a night and all I needed was a bed fo rhte night but frankly I was looking forward to not sleeping o the hard ground for another night. We got everything ready (took a couple of hours) and I took my last shower and changed my clothes for the banquet.
So it was all over - we had lost 4 days out of the last 5 , 6 days out of 13 overall for a 7 day contest. I finished 22nd overall due to the landout day and experimentation with team flying . I had 2 top 10 finishes, a 14th, 18th, and a couple of 30’ths. All out of 54 pilots. Not stellar but I’m much more competitive now than I was at Lusse and the competition was exactly what I needed to be ready for the full championships in a years time - many days I went better than other top pilots and the key now is to finish top 10 every day. This will take a more aggressive approach in good conditions and just a little more detachment when in racing mode with the gaggles.
Closing Ceremony
$20 a head for the banquet - which was a big, loud celebration of the contest and friendships made during our time here. Food was all you could eat Asado, with not a single vegetable in sight. Red wine with a late (10pm) start - we received our full Argentinian pilots licences for next year and by midnight the awards started - they went on for 2 hours!! Sarah and I helped close out the event with the lowering of the flags - we folded the Stars and Stripes appropriately and handed the flag back to the organizers for next year. Tired, Nelson and I drove into Chavez and crashed in the hotel - to be up at 7 to get the glider from the warehouse and be on the road.
Return to Buenos Aires
The drama on this trip turned out to be far from over- I didn’t exactly bounce out of bed but by 8 we were on the road and picked up the glider. The warehouse keys went missing so we had to use a side entrance which was difficult to get the glider out of the warehoue grounds due to the slope and dips in the ground.
The rain started coming down pretty hard and we headed back to Beunos Aires - We had been going about an hour when the truck started making a pretty nasty smell and Nelson pulled over at a gas station- the transmission was blown somewhere - one or both of the front drive shafts I thought - based on the way the truck was behaving. We were huddled outside the car sheltering fom the now heavy rain, Nelson making many cellphone calls and me wondering how I was going to get to Buenos Aires sometime in the next 2 days. I told Nelson I thought it was the transmission and asked him if he had left the truck in 4 wheel drive on the tarmac road - he answered yes - basically he fried his own transmission - I used to own a 4Runner with manual shift and the thing you never did was leave it in 4WD on a dry road and especially not at high speed. He (unknown to me) had done both.
Nelson found a mechanic in Azul (40km to the north) who would arrive in about an hour, and after telling the mechanic the symptoms he was facing a 3-4 day extended holiday in Azul to get the truck repaired.
I was thinking seriously about hitch-hiking into Azul to catch a bus to Buenos Aires, and watching several glider trailers pass by, when Tom and Mimi showed up in their little Chevrolet - and they had room for me and my luggage. Talk about angels from heaven! - I managed to repack their car so we could all get into it OK, and I gave Nelson his remaining fee and Tom threw in a few hundred exra pesos to help out with the costs for the day - Nelson was pretty bummed but I had no choice but to leave there and then with Tom and Mimi as their flight left Buenos Aires that night.
What is more serendipitous is that they had already passed us and had only turned around because Mimi needed a pee! What are the chances of that - I wish I had luck like that during the contest - however this was an amazing piece of luck and were soon on our way. Tom and I talked at length about the US team process on the way back.
Esteban Bengochea had booked me into the Buenos Aires Hilton hotel for 1 night at a great price - and it looked like I would make it after all - Tom could take me to the airport and from there I took a shuttle to the hotel . 180pesos for a taxi ride to luxury. What a deal!
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