Argentina World Gliding Championship, 2013

The Build Up to Arrival

This WGC involved an incredible amount of logistics and planning - even with my team mate Phil taking care of the container hardware and shipping side of things, finding a glider in the US, organizing accommodation and crew cars for Phil myself and the team manager, I was involved in planning and coordinating almost all aspects  So - the leadup to the contest was the usual frantic scene, working my tail off at work and trying to get organized for Argentina. Family birthdays, Hayleys graduation from UC Davis, visits from grandparents, prep for Christmas, leaving for Argentina on Boxing day. No stress, really....gliding?  you must be joking. Practice??  whats that??  Christmas Day highlights were  frantic last minute emails to Argentina for tow car and crew support due to 11th hour changes in arrangements on the Argentine side – trying not to feel distracted on Christmas Day (spouses and daughters tend not to like that...), packing and finally Boxing Day arrived and the departure for Buenos Aires.

Arrival and Trip to Zarate

United Airlines to Buenos Aires via Dallas  - Highlight of the flight over was the dogleg from Santiago, Chile over the Andes to Buenos Aires at dawn. Even from 35000ft the Andes did NOT look very far below us.....hugely impressive mountains.

My British passport saved me $160 and 2 hrs in the customs line at Buenos Aires , where Phil, Pat, John Good, Rick Sheppe and myself were all due to converge and be met by my crew Agustin and Phils crew Jose. Agustin arrived first – we had a 6hr wait for John Good who never arrived, and Phil and Pat who did – 3 hrs for them in customs. Jose’s car (on old Fiat) blew up in Rosario on the way to EZE – so we didn’t see him until the next day.  1.5hr drive to Zarate from EZE – small vibrant port city – hotel ok – small - $60 per night. Good restaurant a short walk away.

Unpacking the Gliders

Agent late -4 hrs to unpack – video of opening – 3 hrs debugging car trailer wiring. Gliders at Zarate club. Big club – envy of any US site. Swimming pool etc. Ate late but ready for early departure tomorrow.

The Trip to Chavez

7am departure – route 6 was a disaster – 2hrs to do 50km due to potholes and carriageway changes. Like driving through Kosovo. Route 3  much better – arrived 3pm – started fettling glider, wiring challenges – registered – late arrival at estancia – thunderstorm. Running on jet lag I was grateful for Agustin's driving.

When we arrived we heard horror stories about the weather from the camper, so we were glad of the estancia – very bucolic setting and grateful for it despite the high price. Wood pigeons, parakeets, long tailed flycatchers, whistling heron and scarlet flycatchers among the many birds.

Remarkable to me were the flocks of Green Parakeets - I hadnt anticipated seeing them and they came as rather an exotic surprise. 

The summer in Chavez had been EXTREMELY wet - there were lakes on the sodden fields everywhere we looked, and there were massive lakes on two of the grass runways at Chavez – in fact lakes everywhere in any low spot in the broad pampas flatland – massive amount of water compared to last year – wondering how much weaker this would make the soaring here.

Weather and Practice

1^st day – assembled glider – soldering and wiring adapter, PDA install, SN10 computer data load and customise the pages, powerflarm install, new battery manufacture, No wing stand which was awkward – found a trestle I could borrow from the British team (thanks Ian!). Trained up Agustin over the practice period – thankfully he was very sharp and reliable and a fast learner.

2^nd day – rain again last night – very windy - a tree fell on some tents – missed one guy by 3 “…hope to fly today – but no - turned into a shopping day – rubber boots needed for landouts.  Bought food, need modem at estancia as no internet. Cold front arrived at mid afternoon with 35-40mph SW winds. New Years Eve party at gliding club tonight – 10pm onward.

3^rd day – New Years – flying allowed at 2pm after all – we held a US team party at the estancia in evening – flew today to get the instruments and systems sorted out – 2 hrs. Not a bad little flight – developed some faith in the instrumentation and scraped off some of the rust from not flying for 3 months.

Official Practice 1 – rain – mud everywhere at the airfield, strong winds about 35kph - no fly.

Official Practice 2 – good practice day- strong wind about 40kph but Phil and I got to fly together at last.

Official Practice 3 – really strong wind and rain 45-50kph- an obvious no fly day - took videos of airfield and trees buckling in the wind. More trees fell down or lost major limbs. Spent the day getting systems and supplies sorted out, shopping, cooking and socializing, catching up on jet lag.

  

Opening Ceremony 

This was a great event – towns-people really came out and gave us an enthusiastic welcome – I made a video of the  parade, many speeches, folk dancing and a pigeon release, Re-acquainted with many friends for Prievidza and the PreWorlds last year. Started to feel like it would all be worth while at last. The town of Adolfo Gonzales Chaves has a main square, and is a much nicer place to be, after some acquaintance, than first appears. It is not a wealthy town, and the main employment is agricultural. It has a run-down rail depot and train station but a lively town center and an excellent cafe at the Hotel Paris, which had free internet and was mobbed by international glider pilots every morning.

Yankee Golf - The Poles nicknamed me Yogi Bear.....

Contest Days

Day 1 – Jan 6^th

Well it was all happening and the weather was definitely not on our side. Monstrous wind – 55kph,  2knots average lift, 4k ft max (3200agl) – crazy 300km task was set – landed 105km on task near all the leaders – But we had the retrieve from hell. Phil and I landed in a beautiful cut hayfield, near what appeared to be a gate to a road. But guess what - no gate - in fact we were on an 'Island field'  surrounded by an impassable ditch hidden by long grass. This required some scouting and creative trailering across the huge ditch - we backed up the trailer to the ditch, so that the rear overhang crossed the mud, and walked the glider components to the trailer, PG first then YG. A Bazillion-Million Mosquitos ate us alive. What do they eat when they cant get Glider Pilot? Very late home - 12^th

Retrieve by flashlight.....

Day 2 -  Jan 7^th

Late takeoff – boom mic work hardened and failed  – crappy too-slow tow - I mean really slow - tail stall territory - yelling at the tow pilot over the radio when I realized the battery was dead....So No Stress Whatsoever. Landed, dodging the lakes on the runway,replaced useless battery, relaunched.

We were tasked into the blue and I kept my cool despite the launch stress.  Found a great strong climb on the first leg and overtook the German led gaggle however it was very soft into 1^st turn and we got too tentative. Difficult 2^nd leg – worked 2kn for 15 mins at the end of the day to get to final glide and then hit 6kn which I could only use for a boost instead of a much higher overall speed. Lost bubble that Phil caught- finished 5 mins behind Phil - Slow - Frustrating day for both of us. The gaggle followers did better than us by ourselves – Lesson learned- Gaggles trump pair flying in the blue.   Dropped 300 pts on leaders which put us well behind in the overall standings – one poor day in this crowd and you really pay the price. Our team flying was OK but not really confident enough  - lack of practice for sure.   22^nd. Blah...

Day 3 – Jan 8^th

A so-so day – AAT blue and slightly less windy but still windy. Finished bottom of middle of the pack -  17^th & 18^th . Still a little tentative on task and this makes our speeds too slow for this crowd. Second leg we decided to go out on our own and the group of 4 we left did slightly better than our flight of 2. Better lift could be unknowably only a kilometer or two away.

Day 4 – Jan 9^th

Racing task – A massive over call – misforecast on weather – much windier and weaker thermals than forecast - 50kph headwind on 2^nd leg very slow into Sierra De la Ventana – Flew well today – team flying well with Phil –

enabled me to catch up after we got separated vertically. One good 7kn thermal near the seabreeze front at the first turn near the coast– rock scraping near Sierra De La Ventana- recovered well and back with the gaggle. Very late into last turn – hit the end of convection on the last leg – entire Standard Class landed out – only dropped 78 points on the day winners. Flew until the wheel started rolling. Selected good field – Phil and I landed together in same field.  22^nd, but 922 pts.

Day 5 – Jan 10^th

AAT – another weather overcall – windier and weaker than forecast – all club class landed out – as they were on a Racing task. Wind seems to be approx. double the forecast, and lift about half. Phil and I did minimum distance to get home before the day died -  More battery and charger problems – started to wish I had my own equipment. Needed the happy cup this night. 16^th  

International Night - a big success - the US team booth was mobbed for soft drinks, hot dogs and the occasional alcoholic enhancement to the Coke. Big thanks to Mimi who did most of the work getting this ready. It was very hot in the hangar. The Poles were serving some pretty powerful vodka, great deserts, and I arrived too late to sample the Hungarian Goulash.

Day 6 – Jan 11^th

AAT – Short – just 2hrs 15mins but with a low strong inversion and 40kph winds forecast. Approaching frontal high cirrus from the west made the start time very tricky to judge – wait too long for stronger conditions to break or risk getting stuck under the approaching overcast. – We started just before 3pm (it was a very late starting day) –Phil and I got separated in the tricky conditions at the start – I was in a position to start with the lead gaggle but Phil got stuck low so I left with the gaggle and reported back climb locations, positions and headings each time we stopped.

This enabled Phil to fly the same route and catch us up by our turn point in the first turn area – We climbed as high as we possibly could (4400’AGL) in 2kts lift before heading into the 2^nd turn area, now already under heavy shade – weak climbs -1kn in the shade and 40kph wind getting stronger as the front approached – By the time we nicked the 2^nd turn area for home we were looking at 50kph winds and at was a real struggle to make headway against the wind in lift that weak. The flight trace shows just how difficult it was – The wind was stronger at lower altitudes and this stopped us getting home – we had 500’ below final glide 25km from home and as we headed into wind looking for a last climb to get us home the wind got stronger, the lift got weaker and we were in a no-hope situation where stopping to climb would just put us further from home when we landed. I just flew straight into wind and flew until the wheel started rolling on a vast cut hayfield 12km short of making it home. 14^th for the day. Only missed completion by 500’.

12km short.....

Day 7 – Rest day

We have a rest day today (Sat 12th) .  The weather has been somewhat obnoxious - weak, very windy and blue - over optimistic task calls and weather forecasts have predominated - however the weather models the organizers use are no different to the ones we have access to - and everything has been wrong so far. 

My crew Agustin has been great - he had never crewed before this contest however with a few days training he has been awesome - The organizers put on a very enjoyable Argentine Tango demonstration in the evening – of which I was able to get some videos – some fine live tango  music and very excellent dancing  on the hard floor of the briefing hangar for all to see.

Oh No! Not the Stationary Occluded Front Torture! (2 cancelled days)  

Yes race fans we had a stationary occluded front over Chavez that moved away a bit during the day , moved back overnight, and we awakened to lowering skies and poor visibility. The second day of this cycle was colder than the first.

Day 8  was scrubbed on the grid after the early clag cleared, hopes rose for a flying day but Brian Spreckley as sniffer couldnt stay up in the Puchaz. There was the mother of all inversions at about 2000'agl so we weren't expecting miracles.....

Day 9 was worse and I sat in the Hotel Paris café  longing wistfully for the joys of howling 50kph headwinds and 0.5kn climb rates.......

Rig, tape, fill, grid, squat, cancel, dump, detape, derig, fume.

Contest Day 10 -Gaggle trumps pair flying (Reprise)

This day we started after the French but before the main gaggle – Phil and I didn’t get into a good rhythm – first day with clouds and we got separated easily and had many more route choices which showed up our novice status in joint decision making. Mediocre climb 40km out at the first turn, better second leg – good climb out of 2^nd turn where we got separated due to mis-communication – we ended up separated by 8km either side of track – to the surprise of both of us – I was going well left of track and chose a right detour to be more aligned with Phil but it didn’t work and we both ended up together and low at the 3^rd turn – no good climbs anywhere. Big detour off course to climb back up which cost us 10 minutes – death in this crowd – kept pushing and took 4kn to 5000’ and pushed from here to a great 6.5kn climb to final glide into the murk from a massive CB forming to the south for the last steering turns. I 

The French have commented that their team strategy hasn’t worked here in these conditions where gaggle flying seems so powerful. The Germans are masters at this kind of collective flying though their club class team didn’t do well today. Kawa, despite his personality quirks, appears one of the few independent thinkers, which I admire greatly.

  

Finishing just before the Squall...

Contest Day 11 Cancelled

Hopeless and pointless grid squatting exercise….under a complex frontal system – Tstorm forecast and frontal passage in the afternoon.  USA team party at the estancia in the evening – good conversation with Sean and Sarah on Continental champs and Club class with FAI rules.  Will get Argentine handicapping scripts for running with SeeYou from Sergio Reinaudo.

One Cool Picture.....

John Good, PG crew and team advisor
World Famous for Playing with his Balls on the Grid.

Contest Day 12 Cancelled - More hopeless and pointless grid squatting – *the weather is complex* - No it wasn’t – two reinforcing systems ( a high to the north east and a low to the south west) were spinning moist marine air and rain into the task  area all day – whats difficult about that??

Contest Day 13 

A Good day – higher spirits on the grid today - John Good gave his famous juggling display on teh grid .  Very variable lift – mostly blue in evaporating cu from SE marine air. – AAT 2hrs 15 mins – task C – I managed most of the team flying today and it paid off for us – we flew with the main gaggle of Germans – Its very instructional to watch them team flying together. Many of the critical decisions were made at the start in weak blue and tricky conditions. 10^th today – Phil 11^th  ( I went a little further in the same time).

Today's drama was the latest tow car change  – Sergio’s own vehicle – and getting some action into sorting out my tow car back to Zarate. Leaking heater block – overheating engine – no coolant. Oh dear.

Contest Day 14  Final Day – one of the best of the contest. 2.75 hrs AAT triangle to the north west and north east. Big drama unfolding in the air on the last day– the task was a little under called which led to some interminable start gate gaggling. Pretty much the entire Standard class in one gaggle. Everyone was there – all the leaders, contenders  and up and comers. Phil and I were thinking about a 2.30pm start but 2.30pm came and went and still no-one had left – then just after 3pm we reached a high point and the prospect of the day ending by 6pm and everyone streamed out in about 1minute flat. The gaggle on the first leg was aggressive, fast and with some pretty pushy flying – several times it was impossible to stay out of peoples way as we were all chasing the same energy lines – flarm blaring every 5 seconds and head on a swivel – the standard of piloting was as high as it was aggressive with pretty orderly thermaling but  pushy inter-thermal flying - it was quite a sight flying with 15 of the worlds top standard class pilots all pushing hard – running energy lines at 100kn, trying to read the lines of energy from side to side to get any advantage getting to the next thermal.

We were keeping up with the gaggle well – staying at the top and not giving up anything on the other teams. We pushed into the first turn area and we had a good speed (75mph) with a 12kn tailwind – we were past the area center point by a big margin and we climbed up in a moderate thermal and it was obvious that this was a major turn-decision.  Some teams headed out on track for the next leg – I was at the top with Sebastian and Mario and just as the others headed out Mario peeled off to the upper limit of the turn area and I went with him. 10 seconds later, Sebastian stormed past me hot on Mario's trail as well –Sebastian  wasn’t going to let Mario go by himself as Sebastian was in the lead going into the last day. They turned right on the limit of the area and well aligned with cross wind cumulus into the 2^nd task area. Phil and I flew most of the next leg with Mario and Sebastian who were battling it out for the world championships in front of our eyes. Eventually they pulled away at very high speed  flying their D2a’s very aggressively to our LS8 and D2b, and Phil and I eventually stopped to take a climb to get us back up to 5000ft.  We had lost them by about the center of the 2^nd turn area and as it was 50minutes left for our task and 90km to home in a weakening sky I called the turn and we headed on the final leg. A few moderate 3kn climbs to get us 500ft below mcready zero final glide and we bumped out way all the way home at 85kn., joining up with the French pair on the way. Finished 4 mins over time.

The contest was over – we were 9^th and 10^th for the day with around 107kph. – top 10 for the 2^nd day running – but it wasn’t enough to make up for our unlucky/poor day 2 where we dropped 300 points on the rest of the field. 300 points on our one bad day was the difference between 20th place and 12th place. 

As it was, our day placings steadily improved throughout the contest and we did well against some very good pilots - we definitely ended on a high note and I think we can safely say we are putting the US bugaboo about team flying to rest - at least in Club and Standard. Not that there isnt room for improvement, but we are significantly more dialed in than we were at the last WGC in Slovakia and making definite strides in competitiveness.  Personally , I think we did a great job as a team - our team captain Rick Sheppe was great, John Good tactician and crew, the willingness of all the pilots to act as a team and great crew with mutual support for all pilots.   I am quite proud to be part of such a turnaround. Its the right foundation for the future.

Closing Ceremony

After landing – we spent some considerable time returning YG to her pre-contest state – removing the temporarily installed recorders, PDA and Flarm, repacking our many equipment boxes for the journey home, and squeezing them into the YG trailer. We were unable to eat until nearly midnight after the award ceremonies – a very popular win for our friend Santiago Berca from Argentina in Club class, Sebastian Kawa who fended off Mario Kiesling from Germany for his 8^th (?) World title,  in the Standard Class, and another win for the Arentinians with young Sebastian Riera in World Class.  The evening turned very cold and we were all busy trying to prepare for our departure the next day before the closing ceremony – scheduled for a 10pm start but delayed to 10..30 – they had a nice ceremony in the increasingly cold night air – and them at about 11.30 we were allowed to eat – By 1am the ceremonies continued again with more dignitaries

World, Club and Standard Podiums

The Return

We paid our hosts for the use of their farmhouse More car changes (the FOURTH car change since we got here) with associated car rewiring challenges – we were due to depart at 12 noon but eventually left for Zarate in two cars, one car full of Argentine team luggage  towing YG, and Agu and I in Sergio’s wife’s VW – the plan for which came together literally 1 hour before we were due to leave Chaves. Just in time planning doesn’t really capture it – more like everything is a last minute diving catch. We convoyed up to Zarate and it was nice to spend a little more time with Agustin before we have to part ways tomorrow.

Port Entry

We had just one tow vehicle now (our friend Santiago Berca, new World Club Class Champion) requiring two trips to get the gliders from their parking at Zarate gliding club to the port. On our 2^nd trip to get YG, we had more drama with an electrical car fire caused by the trailer wiring module in Santiagos car bursting into flames. Frantic extraction of luggage from the back to get to the cause of the acrid smoke, turned off the power and pulled to offending unit out – what a mess – cut the wiring and isolated each one carefully and we were back on the road, though paranoid about any trace of a burning smell.  We then spent 5 hrs getting the run-around from customs officials and shippers but eventually have a plan for customs inspection tomorrow at 9am which should get us finished reloading the 2 trailers and all the equipment before the end of the day -

I amazed myself by staying quite calm and Budda-like thought the whole chaotic process. I must be getting used to this..  Even got to play some guitar (crew Jose's classical guitar) to pass the time under the shade of a bush while large trucks carrying containers thundered past generating large clouds of dust - but there I stayed - Budda and his guitar, an island of sanity in the bedlam. It felt as surreal as it sounds. We ran into the French Std Class pilots Chriistophe and Baptiste, who nonchalantly left the gliders at the port and left - one trailer , one container - someone else loaded and did the work. must be nice to have that kind of budget......Of course yesterday and today the soaring weather has been absolutely brilliant.  Bloody typical.

Customs Inspection and Packing

The next day, customs arrived late of course, we arrived at 9am per schedule, customs at 11am - The inspection went fairly well, we opened everything up, validated the packing list , sniffer dog was happy, then we got to repacking the container , taking axles off trailers, mounting them in the container – 4 hrs and several litres of sweat later (the inside of the container was like a sauna) we were done and boy were we happy so see the doors close and the customs guy seal the container. Sorted at last.

Sum-up points for the Argentina WGC

Pro’s

·         Improving performance.

·         Gaggle/team flying combination.

·         Team flying demonstrated – first real practice.

·         One poor day out of 9 separated 12^th from 20^th.

·         We achieved 82% of winners score.

·         Excellent crew and team captain support.

·         Team spirit.

Con’s

  Managing uncertanty and vague logistics - Logistical load extremely heavy.

·         Chaotic culture – lots of extra stress. Customs, etc

·         Non-typical very difficult weak weather - survival really...except the last 3 days

·         Landouts very tiring

·         Needed to train crew at the contest.

·         Cost!!

·          

Team Flying statistics

This shows me and Phils daily start and finish time deltas - I think this speaks well to our first attempt at team flying at the highest level of competition and in some very tough conditions.