The contest has ended

The 2nd FAI Pan American Gliding Championship is over.  Congratulations to the new Champions, Claudio Schmidt of Brazil in the Standard Class, and Martin Bossart of Argentina in the 15 Meter Class.

The last landing of the contest occurred somewhere around 5pm on December 15, 2017. Retrieves were involved, so we had to wait a few hours for the final scores to appear. Then the results of the entire competition were presented to the FAI Officials for review.

Chief Steward Alfonso Soto and Jury President Angel Casado

Finally, at about 9:30 pm, Director Eduardo Toselli convened the prizegiving ceremony, and Jury President Angel Casado declared that the results were final. The winners took their places on and around the podium as pictures were taken and the FAI flag was lowered.

Our best results were achieved by Ryszard Krolikowski (7th in the Standard Class) and Fernando Silva (5th in the 15 Metre Class). Fernando says that his first international competition was very valuable as he prepares for his second one, the World Gliding Championships in Poland this coming July.

In keeping with the Argentine tradition, the farewell dinner started up right on time at about 10:30 pm. A jovial crowd of pilots, crews, and organisers assembled in the hangar and partied until who knows when.

Today we begin the journey back to winter and to our homes in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Vermont. We take with us memories of a happy, well run competition, and we look forward to seeing all of our friends again at the next PAGC, in Ontario, Canada in 2019.

Last race day

The day started with loud cheers for Fernando as he went to the podium to be recognized for winning the day yesterday. He has made a lot of friends here, and he took a moment to thank Martin Bossart for helping the US Team throughout the competition.

At every contest there seems to be one day on which the weather forecast completely misses the mark.  Today was that day. We were told to expect thin cirrus, 20 kph winds, and 3 m/sec climbs to 2000 meters. They gave us a 3-hour AAT and no Task B.

The reality was thickening cirrus, slow heating and 40 kph wind.  The day was barely flyable.

After a 1.5 hour delay on the grid, they shortened the Tasks to 2 hours and launched both classes. The Standard Class start gate opened at 1415, and a few minutes after that the 15 Meter Class Task was cancelled.

Al was not able to get away. He landed back home and took over the base station radio and tracking computer in order to help his partner around the course. For the rest of the day Ryszard chased the sunny areas and touched all the cylinders. He was one of two finishers, coming in 30 minutes overtime.

The contest is over, but we don't yet have the final scores. There will be a prize-giving ceremony at 8:30 pm, followed by the farewell party.

It was a safe and happy contest, without a scratch on any glider. The worst mishap was probably Ryszard's flat tire yesterday.

This is all I've got today. We are frantically breaking camp, returning equipment, packing gear, and climbing the power pole to retrieve the antenna

A mixed bag

Our penultimate day at Chaves was both frustrating and rewarding.

The weather gods gave us sunshine and reasonable wind speeds, and the Task Setter gave us 3-circle AATs and reasonable minimum times. The delay in the launch was only 50 minutes, which we've come to expect.

Today, none of the guys managed to fly together, not even our pair flying experts Ryszard and Al.

Fernando bounced through an armadillo hole on takeoff, which flapped his wings violently enough to lose his wingrunner before he had aileron control. He released and landed straight ahead. This caused a small delay in the launch and caused Fernando to go to the back of the grid. By the time he got back in the air, he was unable to join his teammates.

Before the start, the thermals were inconsistent, topping out at different altitudes. Most pilots waited around for them to get organized, but this never happened, and you couldn't really trust them all day. The Standard Class went through the gate around 2:30, and the 15 Meter Class about ten minutes later. The first leg was into the cirrus area and mostly into the wind. Average speeds for the leg were around 50 kph.

Ryszard and Al just touched the first and second circles. Al was later than Ryszard and decided to skip the last one, giving him an incomplete Task. Ryszard made it all the way around and was rewarded with a flat tire when he landed.

Phil, who got up to 2100 meters for his start, got in trouble immediately, and by the time the rest of the team was alerted to his plight, they were too far away to help. He landed in a field only half an hour on Task.

Juan joined the fast gaggle, and by going a little deeper in each assigned area, managed to beat them around the course. Robin struggled at first but climbed high in the second assigned area, allowing him to glide all the way to the back of the third one and then home.

Like the others, Fernando spent the day without the company of his teammates. He did make use of information from Juan, who was about 30 km ahead of him, and from the ground, where we were monitoring the OGN tracking. He got high on his way out of the first area and didn't circle again until just before the second. One more climb near the center of that one, and he glided all the way home. His credited distance was just about the nominal distance for the Task, and that turned out to be the longest distance of all, good for the win and 1000 points!

Tomorrow is the last day, and if it's anything like the 2013 WGC, the closing ceremony will begin at around 8pm, and the farewell party will be just getting going at 10pm.

Slow news day

It rained all day today, and the team dispersed to engage in "independent activities." I don't have much to report since my independent activity consisted of taking a nap.

The highlight of the day was a presentation of the Open Glider Network (OGN) by one of its founders, Angel Casado, who is here serving as Jury President.  OGN is the hugely successful online glider tracking system, based largely on FLARM, that is deployed all over Europe. It is also catching on in Australia and South Africa, and we are using it here in Argentina. Angel made a point of saying that there is a "great hole in the coverage" in USA.

The day before yesterday, Juan's film "A Fine Week of Soaring" was presented in the Briefing room, to great acclaim.  The same crowd is expected to show up tonight for a screening of "The Sun Ship Game."  It is clear that the domination of the film industry by our country includes gliding movies.

Here is a nice picture from a nicer day (photo by Evelyn):

Low in the blue

After a day off yesterday, the team was ready to go back at it today.

The forecast was for a manageable north wind and weak low thermals without cumulus. This is exactly what we got. The Tasks were both bowtie-shaped AATs (i.e. three circular areas, instead of the usual two), and the minimum times were 2.5 hours.

The only thing the Organisers never get right is the trigger time.  The Director is a pretty busy guy each morning, and I suspect that he chooses the time of first launch before the weatherman completes his forecast.  Anyway, after an hour of sniffer flights, the launch got underway, and almost all the gliders made their starts by 2pm. The pre-start climbs were slow, and with maximum altitudes of only 1000 meters, everyone dumped their water.

Our team flew well together, and did a good job helping each other around the course. But the truth is that we stumbled strategically today. The 15 Meter guys bit off more than they could chew and came home 30 - 45 minutes overtime. The Standards were similarly late, but they did much better in a relative sense, because there were only four finishers in that class. Ryszard made it home for third place, and Al, who flew the greatest distance of all, landed only 9 km short of the finish line.

Fernando's crew, Gabriel Anzil, is also the team chef. He planned to cook a team dinner at US Base this evening, contingent upon everyone making it back. It was such a close call, that Gabi (the crew) refused to say whether Gabi (the chef) was available until shortly after 6pm. At that point he started cooking and only two hours later produced a feast for the team and our guests, about 25 people in all. If it weren't for the fact that tomorrow is a flying day, that party would probably still be going.

Late to the party

It was relatively easy to get started today. Our gliders were already assembled at their tiedowns, full of water. The only thing easier would have been to tie them out on the grid last night, which probably would have been allowed.

We've had a temporary change of accommodations. Five of us have been staying at a ranch house 5 km north of the field. At the time of our original reservation, we were told that it had been booked by another group for this weekend.  No problem. I am typing this report in a very familiar place, the Hotel Paris cafe, in downtown Chaves. The last time we were here we held morning team meetings over coffee and evening team debriefings (okay, story telling sessions) over beer and pizza.

The day started, yet again, with a weather briefing that featured the possibility of storms.  This time it was airmass thunderstorms, not a squall line, but who's keeping track? Trigger temperature was to be 27 degrees, and if it reached 33, the sky would blow up. The time of first launch was optimistically set at 1100. We have not seen 27 degrees at such an early hour since we've been here.

For the second day in a row the Tasks for the two classes were the same, except for the different start points. This is allegedly done to separate traffic, but as was the case yesterday, the start lines touched each other.  The Tasks were 2-hour AATs, with the first leg into wind.

The grid squat lasted until 1300, and the 15 Meter Class was first to go. Our guys started early, before the Standard Class had finished launching. There was a problem with towplanes, and the Standard Class gate opening was finally set for 1438. With eight minutes to go, their Task was cancelled, for reasons that have not yet been officially stated. Ryszard and Al landed and got their planes into the trailers.

The 15 Meter Class could not be recalled, of course. Juan, Robin, Fernando and Phil fought their way upwind to the first circle, which they barely touched. While they were deciding what to do next, they blew all the way back to Chaves, and the path across the wind to the second Area looked hopelessly blue. All four landed back home, with several others.

The Argentine team took a run at the second Assigned Area and disappeared. At least that's what our friend Sergio Reinaudo said when he came by our camp while we were submitting flight log files.

We assume that they've been located by now, and that crews are on the way. This will definitely delay the "International Night" party this evening.

The scores still aren't posted, so we don't know if we have a valid day. Some have suggested that the Scorer went on a retrieve.

Dud

We knew we were in trouble this morning at Briefing when the met man showed us the sounding. A strong inversion up to 1000 meters AGL would require at least 27 degrees to break through.

The Task Setter gave us 2 hour AATs, which were identical, except for the Start points. The first launch was set for 1330, but nobody took that seriously.

After the first sniffer flight at 1415, the Director cancelled the Standard Class Task. After the second one, a half hour later, the 15 meter Task was also called off.

After putting the gliders away, our crews completed the move to our new base camp, and a few of us went to the beach.

The preliminary outlook for tomorrow is for a hot and windy day. There will be plenty of sunshine. The only question is whether it will get hot enough. Fernando says that it will.

Complicated weather

If yesterday's weather was "very good," we learned from the met man this morning that it would be "very complicated" today. He told us that we would probably want to be back on the ground by 1500, ahead of a fast-moving cold front coming up from the southwest. The word "hail" was mentioned. The rest of the forecast described good soaring conditions ahead of the show-stopping front.

The Task Setter gave us a pair of short, identical triangles to the north, and the Director set the time of first launch at 1100. This sounded reasonable at the time, and it seemed plausible that we would be able to follow the meteorologist's recommendation to be back in the trailers by 3pm.

Unfortunately, that's not how it turned out.

There was a big delay on the grid due to insufficient heating. The sniffer fell down twice, and at one point, the temperature went down by almost a degree. The cause was the usual - unforecast bands of altostratus over the airport at just the wrong time:

They tried to distract us with a flyby of an IA-63 Pampa, but you could tell that the pilots were looking mostly at the sky and their watches, and not so much at the jet.

Finally, at 1219, the Director started the launch, to the surprise of the pilots and crews. Everyone left as soon as the gate was open, from an altitude of about 1700 meters. It seemed like a hopeless mission.

At 1430, when the pilots were arriving at the first turnpoint (53 km upwind from home), the Team Captains were summoned to a special weather briefing.  We learned that the arrival time of the front had been moved back to 1600 (good), but its associated weather had been downgraded to "dangerous" (not so good). They mentioned hail again. They also gave us permission to move the trailers out on the taxiways to expedite disassembly, and they waived the flight documentation interval.

I calculated that the fast guys would make it home ahead of the front, maybe. But, you know, maybe not.

We were still in communication with the team, and after describing the situation to the pilots and consulting with John, I decided to give the guys the option of abandoning the Task.

Robin, Ryszard, and Al elected to turn around and come home. It wasn't clear what the other three intended to do because that was the time that the tree fell on us and took out our base station radio. There was nothing left to do but walk out on the taxiway and watch gliders landing into a very strong wind and against an ever-darkening backdrop.

Fernando arrived first, followed by Juan and Phil. They had completed the task, with just minutes to spare. It was dry when they landed, but the ensuing downpour sent everyone running for shelter.

So, yeah, the day's weather was indeed "very complicated."

It never did hail.

Very very good

This morning at Briefing, our meteorologist told us that the conditions would be good to very good, and then he corrected himself and said "very very good."  The only hazard was the possibility of cirrus encroaching from the northwest. In fact, that didn't happen, and the conditions were indeed very very good.

They assigned two Racing Tasks of 360 and 404 km. The 15 Meter Class went first, and Fernando (W) was the first glider to launch. Our ASW-20 pilots departed together at 1245. As was true yesterday, Phil and Fernando stayed together for the whole flight, while Robin and Juan flew independently. The tracking system was working, and we were able to follow the team for all but a very brief portion of the Task, near the first turnpoint. On the second leg, Phil found a 5 m/sec thermal to 2100 meters.

Going into the second turnpoint, Fernando was the first to spot the Atlantic coast, and a few minutes later, Juan took a picture.

Robin's avionics battery died at around 4pm, but fortunately, his flight log was intact. A lot of the AC power around here comes from generators that get turned on and off during the day. Robin promises to be more selective of the places he charges his batteries from now on.

Meanwhile, in the Standard Class, Al and Ryszard started together, but Ryszard got low and turned back to have another go. He was able to rejoin his partner on the third leg of the Task late in the day. It turned out to be too late for Al. After a heroic struggle on the last leg, Al landed in a grassy field that was actually within the city limits of Chaves. So close!

All in all, it was a pretty good day for the team, despite a couple of warnings for landing on the wrong runway.

First contest day

Enthusiasm was high at breakfast this morning, the first sunny morning in several days. In fact, it was sunny all day long, and those of us stuck on the ground at Chaves thought the weatherman got it wrong when he predicted 3/8 cumulus in the task area. But it turned out he was right on the money, as the pilots reported good cloud streets on the first leg of the 2.5 hour Assigned Area Tasks (the two classes got essentially the same Task).

The teams were gridded together, so both our Standard and 15 meter class pilots were able to form up before the start without much trouble.  All six started around 1500, which turned out to be just a bit late to catch the best climbs of the day.

Our 15 meter guys stayed together and made good progress on the first leg, directly upwind. As the first Assigned Area was reached, first Robin and then Juan led out on a lines that didn't pan out, and soon our quad became a pair and two solos.  The leading pair, Fernando and Phil, enjoyed a nice run on the second leg, with climbs of 2 m/sec to 1900 meters.

Meanwhile, Al and Ryszard stayed together for the whole Task and came home within a few minutes of each other.

The scoresheet revealed that the right time to start was a fair bit earlier than our start times, and our team coach will have something to say about that at the team meeting tomorrow.

Saturday report

Today was the last training day, but we did not fly.

It was cloudy all day, and after the rain last night there were some seriously muddy patches on the taxiway between our trailer parking area and the main hangar. To complicate matters, we had a mandatory pilot briefing at 1030, right in the middle of the scheduled scrutineering.  So while the pilots attended the meeting, the crews maneuvered the fully ballasted gliders around the mud holes to the hangar threshold where they were washed again and lined up for weighing.  Good crews!

One of the things we're getting used to is last-minute schedule changes. Today's Briefing was scheduled for 1030, but it was changed to a half hour later with an announcement on the low fidelity PA system, an announcement that we completely missed. Now we have learned to run toward the clubhouse when we hear an announcement starting up. By the time they finish the Spanish version and begin the English version, we are close enough to the speaker's booth to hear his voice directly.

Tomorrow is a no-fly day, and the Opening Ceremony will take place in the evening, much later than we would like.

Monday morning it gets real.

Paperwork Day

Today dawned drizzly, but it cleared up after breakfast and turned into a pleasant, if non-soarable day.

We completed the process of getting temporary Argentine pilot certificates from the government guys.  They issued six beautiful certificates that are good for only a month. The next stop was the registration desk, and that went fairly smoothly. The hard part was pre-paying for 10 aerotows at the contest rate, which is about twice the price we've been paying for tows during the practice period. We have been issued our name tag necklaces, and as usual, there is a 50% chance that the name tag of anyone you meet will be flipped over to the blank back side.

The inspection of the gliders, which was scheduled to start six days ago, got underway this afternoon. Half of our guys elected to assemble, load waterballast, and stand in line for an hour or more to get weighed. The other half will do this first thing tomorrow.

They may have to stand in line in the rain, however. The forecast is not terrific for our last official training day.

Six in the air

Today is the first official training day, and a pair of AATs were set.

There was no morning Briefing, and it doesn't appear we will have them on the practice days, which strikes us as a bit unusual.

Juan, Phil, Fernando and Robin queued up on the runway at about 1300, and waited for the single towplane to show up. They launched, rendezvoused, and were finally able to make a Start at about 1500.  Al and  Ryszard came out late and got stuck behind the Canadians on the grid. But they eventually got going and seem to be having a good time getting used to their gliders. The conditions are good and at this moment they're all on final glide.