Pribina Sailplane Grand Prix 2008
Sailplane Grand Prix Quallification
September 7-13 2008 NITRA, SLOVAKIA

Training week - 7th Sep 2008

2008-09-07 01:02:07

There was a lot of arrivals during the night before and during this morning as well. Therefore tha day started later than we expected. The weather patterns was in favor for a good flight that has been confirmed by the flights. The first briefing started at 12:00. here we explained all local matters for the day and weather forecast for the pilots. After that we have set the task of 284km along mountain ridges with first course to NE. Take off at 13:30 was a bit early for some pilots, probably because of the late arrivals. Despite this we launched 12 gliders in 30 minutes and therefore we were able to opent the Start Line at 14:15. Shotly after that moment all gliders passed the line located exactly over the middle of runway and set the course to the first turn point Velka Luka. According to pilots reports (Online Tracking was unfortunately unavailable) the fist leg of the task was fine. The key decision point was to fly straight along the ridges of Mala Fatra mountain range already before TP Velka Luka further on to TP Dolny Kubin. Those who spent some time by circling togain extra altitude were not so fast in the end. Later there was tricky area from second TP to the third, where all gliders have to fly lower and therefore closer to the ridges. This changed at the TP Banovce where nice CU clouds appeared. From there pilots had a good chance to use the "cloud street" almost to the final mandatory reporting point close to the goal. There were three glider arrivals separated by some 10 minutes. After the flight pilots set up their equipment ready for the race in order to avoid future problems. Later at 20:00 we had evening briefing covering experience from the day. We have reffered all not correct behavior to the rules and then went through the rules of the Grand Prix race and Local Procedures. The day finished by evening gliding disscussions in front of the local bar. All the pilots were looking forward to the beginning of the race strating from tomorrow.