Maddog

PHOTOS Etc.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:04:00 GMT

I am putting together a 2 DVD set of photos, tasks, weather and traces. If anyone would like copies let me know at maddogs1@optusnet.com.au There are over 1000 photos and some of the maggot races are interesting. Maps for See You at naviter.

Home at last

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:57:00 GMT

Well it is all over and we have finally made it home. The trip home was almost as confusing as the trip up. All went well as far as Hong Kong where the flight home was cancelled. This meant an extra day there. Luckily there are a bunch of boy toy shops to be seen. The next day there was no connection to Brisbane so we had to go to Sydney. Of course World Youth day is happening and the Pope is coming. This meant no seats available to Brisbane. We were able to get a couple on different flights and all arrived home mid afternoon. Thank you all for your comments and Hero mail. The boys really appreciated it as it gave them some connection with home. Tune in again next year starting mid June.

Day 8 Photos

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:46:00 GMT

Web Cam

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:17:00 GMT

Please have a look at the Rayskala web cams !!!!

GPS

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:55:00 GMT

Well thanks to Andy outlanding again we at least have an interesting retrieve story. More on that later. Congratulations to Johno for third place on the day and third overall. The closing and prize giving is at 11am. I will probably not get to post photos or blog until I get home as we are getting on a plane this afternoon. I will try to get Johno to write something when he recovers (last night party last night) The party went till well after dark and in Finlnd that means fairly late. I probably should have said until well after light. A live band was playing. They were great. It was interesting that there seemed to be a couple of the local gliding types in it and I was told the band were all in the local fire department. They did set the place on fire. ( I am sorry for that but this is afterall my last post). Back to the retrieve. Andy passed us the coordinates which were placed in the car GPS. The glider owner was here so he and I set off. All was well until about 2km to go. We ended up in what looked like a farm yard, passing a piggery and heading towards a forest. The GPS told us to keep going. We worked out that Andy was on the other side ot the trees with the GPS showing a "road " around them. I don't think so!!!! We ended up on track worse than any farm track I have ever seen in Australia. The grass was over the car and when the track became a swamp we decided it was time to turn around. This involved removing the trailer, a fair bit of pushing and jumping aboard a moving vehicle. Those of you with a GPS will have heard the term "Route Recalculation". We heard this many times until finally it did not have us heading back to the same forest. The rest of the retrieve went well as Andy had chosen a paddock where they were just loading the last of their hay bales. I'll try to do a wrap up when I get home or maybe next year. Maddog

Task Day 8

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:51:00 GMT

After a briefing Delay until 1130 a speed task of 266km was set. All juniors have started by 1330 local time.

Day 8 (Final day)

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:36:00 GMT

I have given up guessing what the weather will be. It is a bit windy with some cloud. I do not think it will rain but other than that it is anyones guess. The boys learnt a lot about flying in Europe yesterday. Four and a half hours to do 358km. They learnt not to get frustrated at only doing 80km/hr even though the day looks like 100. They came 7th and 8th after getting into a couple of holes each. Nathan 80.5km/hr, Andy 80.0km/hr, Winner 87.5km/hr. The Lithuanian was first in a Jantar until an airspace violation was detected. (max height was 6500').Todays briefing is at 10am. More then.

Day 7 Photos

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:39:00 GMT

Day 7

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:07:00 GMT

All have launched. The boys have both started (Andy 1252, Johno 1256) on a 348km speed task. Cloudbase 5700' at the start. The finishes are across the lake today so I am charging the camera and clearing the card. Hopefully some photo's in the morning.

Shadows?

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:35:00 GMT

Well something unusual this morning. As you can see on the webcam there are actually shadows on the ground. Yes the sun is shining and the sky is blue. However there is still time and we do not want to get overconfident. The predictions are all good with NO RAIN predicted and possible 4-6 knotters to 7000'. I would expext a decent length task today. Yesterday the junior pilots went to Helsinki for gokart racing. Team Aussie came third after a couple if Finns. They forgot to mention one of them had been racing for 7 years.