17th EGC (Club, Standard, 20m) coverage

Today the meteo forecast was predicting an afternoon storm over the airfield, so the (AAT) tasks were shorter. As usual, English language briefing for the Day 5 is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-j2klbYPlQ

Looks like the winning pilots in all 3 classes had chosen to fly about the same distance. I will have to have someone explain it to me, maybe just a coincidence.

Those who know polish language could listen (live) to various heroic exploits as told by the guests of the reporters getting a bit bored waiting for the arrivals. I liked the story of harvesting the young apple trees saplings (15m swath - not many harvesters can do that :-) ).

The current competition leaders (after day 5), unofficial. Full results at http://www.soaringspot.com/17egc2013/results/
Club: Roman Mracek of Czech Republic flying STD Cirrus G
Std: Sebastian Kawa of Poland, Discus 2a
20m: Wolfgang Janowitsch and Andreas Lutz of Austria, Arcus M

There are still many days ahead.

No tasks today. Officially due to a low-pressure system right over Poland, but perhaps the "International Day" celebrated last night had something to do with it :-)

Yesterday the meteo forecast was calling for a storm over the airfield around 1600 local, with mediocre conditions before. This time (as opposed to previous days) seems the reality turned better. Matthew Scutter describes in his blog how the forecast affected the race of this day.

Four (safe) outlandings near the airfield (inside the finish circle), one (of several) low energy final recorded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXdkURfcSY4

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTVKP3BNzI there is another video of the same final, shot from the cockpit, with the external (ground) shot video inserted and synchronized. Worth looking at the panel and listening to the instrument audio.

Another cancelled day (Jul 12). At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_Un_V904M there is an English language (from 31:27 on) commentary on Day 5 and current competition status. For those who know Polish (you all do, don't you?), at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3wbX1dyU8 �ukasz Błaszczyk gives a rather detailed inside story of Day 5 race in Clubs.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huufZhT23t8 one can see the grid being set up, from a different perspective.

Tasks cancelled (Jul 14) for all classes. The gliders were waiting on the grid for 3+ hours, with the tasks down-moding through A, B and C variants. Cloud base obstinately at approx 700m, with the news from meteo office "base in Poznań is 1000m now" and the pilots commenting "we are not in Poznań".

Today's (eventually cancelled) day briefing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfkWlz68as
You can see the contestants in high spirits despite three in a row cancelled days before. Perhaps the kart racing championship contested the previous day helped. The awards handed out at the briefing this time were for kart racing, but it was still racing!

A low-key interview with Sebastian Kawa (in English) at 31:52 of http://www..youtube.com/watch?v=mkiIUl6HaUo
Also, at 32:23 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMaKDT5Be4 Sport Disrector Artur Rutkowski tells (in English) about his job, and at 41:10 of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMaKDT5Be4 the Competiton Director (Maciej Całaka) talks about some organizational aspects of the competition and the next year events in Ostrów (in English).

Finally (Jul 16) a flying day (Day 6). The day briefing (English) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvm8BVwnAzQ , the interview with task setter (English from 1:47) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrm009SXt8

Apparently the weather forecast for the day was again unduly pessimistic, more on how it affected the race can be read in task recaps by Matthew Scutter http://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding, Sebastian Kawa (use e.g. Google translate) http://www.sebastiankawa.pl/4132/dobry-polski-dzien/
and in the British team blog http://www.glidingteam.co.uk/?q=blog...-are-brilliant

The day was an interesting one for a Polish team, at the moment all 7 Polish crews are at the medal positions (after Day 6th).

Adam Czeladzki (flying 20m Multi-Seat with Krzysztof Trzewik) took first place today. Adam talks about his experience as a handicapped pilot in an (Polish language) interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGH2p3iWU2Q (9:00). We will try to add English captions - Adam's story is an inspiring one.


At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ouFnC0Ekw Artur Rutkowski comments (English) on the decisions of setting and/or cancelling the tasks due to weather in the past days.

For Day 8, according to Sebastian (http://www.sebastiankawa.pl/4149/wre...obie-polatac/), the pilots had a wide array of weather forecasts to choose from, to best suit individual weather preferences.

Winners of the day - Club: Roman Mracek, Standard: �ukasz Wójcik, 20m: Janusz Centka and �ukasz Grabowski.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xrDLQ61474 you may see Discus 2a and Arcus T racing each other on final (cockpit take).