Sunday, August 1, 2010

Education & Comic Corner

Things of interest when you look around.

A Tug with GRUNT!!


I remember my Father Inlaw telling me about greasing stuff with "Goose Fat"
Well Ross, this one is for you.
Hungarian Goose Fat Soup!





Shopping at Tescos.
Pick a checkout... Any checkout!!!!





I always hate it when Graham stabs
the butter!!






















The Salami Plane - Antinov 2




















Something you would expect to see in a Mad Max movie.












Our Launch Recorderess!!!







Mark


Enough

I am withdrawing from the competition. I have been worried for my safety on every flight in this competition so far.

This morning I looked at the glider on the launch grid and just didn't want to get in.

Maybe a bit soft but I think those who have flown with poor visibility at such low altitudes in such crowded skies (including a few maniacs) may understand.

Graham

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Missed by that much

Not a great day for me. I was getting around the task sort of OK but just couldn't get the climb I needed to get onto final glide. In the end it just never eventuated and I was heading into the control point a couple of hundred feet shy of making it back to the airfield.

But there is another way. After Lars' accident they changed the finish procedure from a line on the airfield boundary to a 3km finish ring, much like we have in Australia. I figured I could do a Sebastian Kawa, get into the circle and then land.

But then it rained. Glider performance went down the gurgler and I had to make a quick decision about whether I could clear the fence into the next paddock. No was the answer. Flopped down into a corn field (not ideal) and finished 90 metres short of the circle. Bugger!

To add insult to injury (actually the other way round) I then ripped a back muscle carrying the glider wings out to the road . From previous experience I am now going to be in pain for a week.

Oh and before the start three separate gliders did their level best to clean me up in thermals.

Not 100% happy just at the moment.

Graham

Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 2


A bit of a tough day, not just for the Aussies but for nearly everyone. Weather forecast was for "better than yesterday.." We ended up doing the whole flight under heavy cirrus cover, with thunderstorms approaching from the west; the best climb I had was 3kts, most were under 1kt.

Only about 20 or so gliders out of a fleet of 150 managed to complete the task. I staggered around about 245km, David not quite as far.

Disappointing not to get round the task. It probably puts a podium finish out of reach unless something weird happens. But who knows with the weather we are experiencing at this competition?

Graham

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Day 1

Well the good news is that all Aussie pilots are back at the airfield and are alive and well. The bad news is that Lars had a rather nasty landing accident on the airfield boundary; his glider is a mess but he walked away without a scratch.

More later, we are a bit busy to do a comprehensive report at the moment.

Graham

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Groundhog Day


Another dreary rainy day greeted us this morning. The day was cancelled at briefing, possibly a little early as it looked vaguely soarable locally for an hour or two this afternoon. Before the rain set in again.


The airfield is starting to turn into a bog.










This afternoon Mark and I went for a long walk through town looking at interesting things....



Forecast for tomorrow is better....

Graham.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Day 1... For some


The weather man was very dubious about flying prospects today, the task setters were more optimistic. Tasks were duly set, we all put our gliders out on the grid and at the appointed time we were launched into a fairly unappealing looking sky.

Things didn't really look much better from the air, and as we dodged rain showers while waiting for our start line to open we watched as the open class set off on what looked like a suicide mission.

It came as a bit of a surprise to find that our task in 18m class was cancelled just as the line was due to open. I thought they would send us off today no matter what. 15m class never even got off the ground.

With only two finishers in open class I guess the decision to cancel was probably correct.

Tom managed to keep his Nimbus afloat for as long as most of the pack for a reasonable result in open class.

Forecast for tomorrow is rain.

Funny old weather they have in Europe. We are so fortunate in Aus to have the gliding conditions that we do.

Graham.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Day 1... Almost








It was a pretty dismal looking day as we got to the glider this morning. It didn't really improve as the grid formed .
One by one the classes were cancelled until everyone was back in the tie down area.


But there are always things to do. Our base radio hasn't been getting incredibly good range so we sent Mark up on the roof to fix things


After a bit of climbing,


and a bit of tight rope walking




and a bit of invention....


Voila! a new aerial.

With a bit of luck we will be able to test it from long range tomorrow.


Graham

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Day 1

Or not. It rained pretty well all day and early on it was pretty obvious that we weren't going anywhere today.


Some things in this country are done very efficiently, others less so.







Swimming pool filling 10/10














Airfield mowing 1/10











Tomorrow's weather looks pretty dodgy. Disappointing, but that's gliding for you.

Graham

The Things You See


You see lots of interesting things as you stroll round the launch grid.
On the last practice day The LAK17b was llined up just behind us.
This was something interesting I had only a few weeks ago seen on the web.


We spoke to the pilot. The motor is very small and it fills the nose cone and to only a few centimetres behind. He pilot was eager to talk about it and showed us how it worked and how easy and quick it was to use.
The full instalation was about 40kg in cluding the batteries which was 25kg of the unit's payload.
He fired it up for a little demo so we could see it in action.
He stated the that it was a 4kw motor that returned 2m/s climb rate.

The whole installation was pretty impressive. In the cocpit there was only a small box about the size of a Volkslogger and very simple to use.

Yep the things you see at a big comp!

Mark

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Opening Ceremony


It was cloudy all day, with frequent showers and thunderstorms passing through. Mercifully they held off for the opening ceremony which was held in the centre of the city.






There were papparazzi and hordes of people.








A brass band of course









A flag bearer








And the odd speech or two.






And of course every flag bearer must have his punkawalla...



First competition day tomorrow, weather permitting, which is seriously doubtful.

Graham

Friday, July 23, 2010

Last chance to practice

And lucky we were that it was only a practice day. David and I had trouble getting height before the start; we ended up starting way too late and at low altitude. We then got separated and hardly saw each other after the start. Then the day died while I was still 100km out and it seemed to take forever to get home. Over 5 hours in the air today. It wouldn't have been a disaster if it was a competition day but it wouldn't have been great. I have heard that a few people outlanded trying to get home.


The weather has been really hot and humid since the day we arrived.

The French team has erected a swimming pool between their team hut and ours. They have been given a stern warning that with the pool placed in such a high traffic area it is exceedingly likely that some, or most even, of the Australian team could trip and fall into it at some stage. In fact I believe some already have, the more clumsy ones more than once.




Tomorrow is the opening ceremony so there is no flying. Storms are forecast anyway. The only things left to do to the glider are remove the transponder aerial (too much drag) and place some stick-on kangaroos on the fin. (makes it go faster)

Graham

Thursday, July 22, 2010

You want us to go...where?

A little bit of history was made today. For 20 years or so it has been an absolute no no for gliders to cross over the border from Hungary to Serbia. Given that the border is only 10km or so south of here this has been a bit inhibiting for the local pilots. Last year when David Jansen and I were here it was almost always the case that the weather looked better south of the border but we couldn't go there.

Anyway, this year it is allowed, as long as the task is set that way, so off we all went on a tour of Serbia today.

In the end it was a funny old day. Conditions were quite OK initially, but as soon as we got into Serbia they became appalling; stable blue with weak climbs to about 2500 feet. So much for Serbia. Then when we got back into Hungary we were confronted by a wall of storms which was impossible to penetrate and I don't think any gliders in any class were able to complete the task.

In any case for me it didn't matter as I had to return early to Szeged for technical inspection of my glider; with so many here it is done at allocated times.

The glider passed with flying colours; the only difference now is that due to there being another MP already registered, I am now MPI.

Last day of relaxed friendly flying tomorrow...

Graham.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bits Out, Bits In!

Early start Wednesday, Bernt from the Schempp factory was about the place so we hunted him down looking for the replacement engine pylon for "Mike Papa". Burnt's poor little car was loaded to the gunnals not only with all his tools but just about everything you could imagine bar a spare set of wings for a Nimbus!
Derigging again but this time to throw bits in rather than taking them out.
It was roach'in hot. Graham thought the little umberella would not do the job very well so a trip off to "Tesco" for a larger shade device.
No time for more happy snaps too much to get done so flying could be had this day.
Engine all in now, Graham was launched then had the opportunity to put on the feed bag, have a drink and sit down in the nice air conditioned donnga.

mark

Scenarios

There is always something.

Yesterday it was a logger failure for the second day in a row.. The sort of thing that sends shivers up the spine of a competition pilot. How could it be? We couldn't reproduce the problem on the ground; Taking the EW logger for a drive around the trailer park produced a perfectly good track on both days.

After much scratching of heads Mark and I had a really close look at all the glider's electrical connections and decided that the battery connection terminals were a little loose in their housings; not enough to turn the instruments off but combined with one of the bumpiest runways for takeoff I have ever used, the voltage through the system may have been a bit spiky at times. Some data loggers hate that.

Today we isolated the EW from the rest of the glider's electrical system, running it on its internal battery. Lo and behold, a perfectly good trace at the end.

Today we had a bit of fun playing with some thunderstorms near the Romanian border. Thoroughly good entertainment.

Graham

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

More of the same

Another day of threatened rain and storms which never eventuated. David had a rest day; Tom, Lars and I went flying. 2kts to 3500 feet seems to be the going rate here at the moment. I fear this is our lot for the competition period. We staggered round 150 km or so but didn't venture out to our last declared turn point as it would have been an inevitable outlanding. OK in competition but silly during the practice period.

1st day of official practice tomorrow; tasks will be set. It is gradually becoming more serious.

Graham

Monday, July 19, 2010

Rain?


Well the weather forecast was horrible so Mark
and I decided today would be the day to pull the engine out. A couple of hours later there it was, lying on the grass.


Photo below shows that the engine pylon was more than just "cracked."

New one should arrive tomorrow....

By the time we had finished the promised bad weather was still nowhere to be seen so we put the glider back together and went flying.

Thermals were about 2kts to 3500 feet; David and I set a task of about 170km which we got round without any problems.

The glider seems to be flying nicely; just one or two minor instrument issues to sort out...

Then out to dinner again.

Here is Lesley about to tuck into a small snack.

The weather is still forecast to be awful tomorrow but who knows?

Graham







Sunday, July 18, 2010

Went flying again. Conditions fairly mediocre with rain forecast. Floated around between 2-3000 feet for a couple of hours and I think everything is working OK







Pilot view

Szeged from the air

Ron Sanders arrived with a box of stuff fron the guys in Slovakia.




Good time was had by all later in the day.



Graham

Saturday, July 17, 2010

At Least He's Flying

The decision was made not to pull the engine out this morning. The word is the weather will deteriorate over the next 2 days with today being the best. So we've decided to dig the donk out when the weather is less appealing.
Uli Schwenk will hopefully be bringing the replacement hardware we need on Wednesday to make the wanger work safe enough so it doesn't try to jump out the back of the aircraft.

After some mucking about with electrical issues, mounts and wiring we managed to get the glider to a launch position. Seems that's the way it is at the moment, just put your glider close-ish to the tugs, point it in the general direct and get in!

Finally he's off so I can get some tucker into me and a few litres of fluid. ( no!, not beer!), ( not yet, anyway)

More later and hopefully with some worthy pics.
Mark

Flying at last

Finally got into the air today. The glider feels nice; it seems to keep up with David's glider so we should be able to team up again reasonably effectively.

We have had hot humid conditions since the day we arrived and from the air it is easy to see why the humidity is there. Last year the countryside was basically brown and dry; this year it is lush green and half the paddocks have standing water in them. Given that the last significant rain here was a month ago it means that there was a lot of it and the soil doesn't drain very quickly around these parts. I suspect from the amount of water still around it will stay soggy for the duration of the competition, with weak thermals, lots of bugs and poor visibility.

Oh well, it is the same for everyone, but it is a pity that the comps aren't held more often in places with proper weather. Like Australia!

Graham

Friday, July 16, 2010

Mr Fixit


We spent most of the day fixing things. Here is Mark taking to Tom's Nimbus 4M with a hacksaw. I reckon a bigger hacksaw might be better for such a big glider but eventually it got fixed and Tom went off flying.

Lars' glider also had issues which required tools from Mark's kit; eventually he went off flying as well.

My glider was handed over late afternoon and Mr Fixit immediately found a nasty problem in the engine system; a completely broken engine pylon. Tomorrow morning we will completely remove the engine so that can get sorted out then I will go flying also.

Graham.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Waiting




I found my glider today. Problem is I can't fly it until Saturday as it is competing in the Flatland Cup which has its last day tomorrow. Anyway it looks nice and shiny; Mark and I can't see any major problems with it.

Lars and David went flying today. They reckon conditions were fairly mediocre, with lots of water still lying around in the paddocks from all the rain they had here a month or so ago.

Tom was planning to fly but by the time he was ready he was too exhausted to even close the airbrakes.. we think some weight training is in order.

Other girlie efforts today were by Mark and TeamCaptain Greg who left half their pizza on the plate. Lars, David and I will be out to toughen all these people up a bit.


David has disappeared off to Budapest airport to pick up Lesley, so by late tonight the team will be complete.

All pretty relaxed so far. Hope we can say the same this time next week.

Graham

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Are we there yet?



Yes, finally. They say getting there is half the fun... not sure if that is entirely true. We got off to a pretty rugged start when Qantas' brand new A380 broke down in Melbourne. I dunno, maybe the espresso machine in 1st class wouldn't work or something, but whatever the cause it took 5 hours to fix, which meant we missed our connection to Frankfurt from Singapore. So they threw us back on the same A380 and sent us to London where we had to wait around for half the day and finally on to Frankfurt.

Now why Frankfurt you may ask, when we are meant to be going to Hungary. Well one of the things you need (which is almost impossible to hire) is a car with tow bar, so we are obliged to beg and borrow from friends. In our case Uli Schwenk was kind enough to lend us his car, so having arrived at Frankfurt we caught the train to his place, some 50km SE of Stuttgart.

Now here is where things started to improve. Uli and his family are truly some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. They picked us up from the station; we had a BBQ and stayed the night with them. The following day we had a look around the Jaxida factory (Uli now owns this business) and went for an aerial tour of the picture post card setting in the local gliding club's tow plane/ultralight. (an Ikarus C42)

Finally it was time to tear ourselves away and head towards our destination, so into the Merc and off we went. Overnight in a small B and B near Munich, then we spent most of today getting to Szeged. David was already entrenched in his apartment when we arrived and
we heard that TeamCaptain was in the Novatel, keen to go out for a feed.

So a pleasant evening was had.

Apparently Tom and Lars have just arrived but we will catch up with them tomorrow. Now it is time to crash out.

More tomorrow.

Graham.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Almost ready

Well, just two days to go before we leave; last day of work today. Most of the team has left already and we will all converge on Szeged on about Wed 14 July.

Mark and I will put stuff on this blog mainly about our own experiences; see the links for more team stuff and results.