Bassano, Comp day 1-3
Finally the weather demons have left Bassano. The first day was great, good clouds and sun. It overdeveloped early, but the rain went into the Alps and did not affect us. The task was from Bassano to Vittorio Veneto and back to goal at RAASM, 96 km total length. I made it, so did lots of other pilots, I flew way too slow and did not get any time points.

Second day arrived with higher pressure, inversion at 1600 m, and quite blue conditions. The task was from Mt. Cesen to Avaiano and back to RAASM, a total of 118 km. It was difficult, with blue and turbulent lee thermals. I had to land near the turnpoint after loosing all my altitude flying the wrong route over from Vittorio Veneto over the mountain. The GPS fell out and I lost track of the direction to the turnpoint, Erik also landed nearby. Johnny came to pick us up, but the car got hit by a girl on a scooter and the steering broke. We had to wait for Nils-Åge to come from Bassano, so we did not get to bed until 2:30. The weather demons now have wheels.

Today was good, still high pressure and blue conditions. The task was Mt. Cesen to Vittorio, Masrostika, and to goal. 88 km. I got off early and flew fast and good to the turnpoint, but I made a mistake gliding towards a gaggle of pilots and came in 15 meters too low to catch the thermal they were climbing in. I spent the next hour getting kicked around low in lee thermals. Had to land on the turnpoint in Vittorio, only 22 km out. Not many points for that flight.

We dont’s have the combined results but Gerolf Heinrichs is probably leading Class I, and Kristoph Kratzner Class II. Tomorrow is the last day before the final on Monday where only the 30 best pilots fly. I’ll get some time to check out he fair then.

Sorry but no pictures as this is updated by GSM. The Italian GSM network here is unstable at its best, and unusable most of the time, only SMS messages get through with some reliability. I’ll upload the pictures when I get back home.