Hi Everyone,
I wonder if some of you remember that old song "I am fixin' to die?" Well, it is that hot. The Texans among you may question this assessment of the heat. I mean, we are talking about FRANCE, not Houston, for goodness sake! But you have to trust me...I think I have melted a sizable section of my brain due to desert-like temps and although it is sort of dry, I am always sweating. I found Dottie Pin yesterday in the hangar waqtching the VPOS tracking of the World Class and resting her head on her frozen bottle of water. I would have taken a picture, but she was so hot, it didn't seem fair to subject her to that (although she still looked good - how do you do it, Dottie?) Oh, and to clarify, I am not complaining - at least it is not raining and we are having lots of good flying WX.
Anyway, back to the flying. Today's tasks are:
Club Class - Assigned Area triangle Task 2:45:00 hrs min distance 223.32 km, max 426.8 kmStart 123 Greoux, 073 Pre Md Carl with radius of 35 km (Darned abbreviations), 027 Chatillon radius of 30 km, and 125 finish 20
World Class - Assigned Area "bowtie" Task 2:30 hrs, min distance 211.5, max 463.8 kmStart 124 Pont de Manosque, 029 Col De Cabre (our fave) radius 20, 064 Moustiers radius 20, 086 Serre Poncon radius 25, 125 finish 20.
So they are out there now and I am seeking shelter from the sun in my air conditioned hotel room for a few minutes.
Wrapup of yesterday - We seem to be taking turns having good and bad days in club class. Tim W put together a good flight for 19th place on the day, and David S. was 30th. The winner, France's inimitqble (ask me and I will tell you why) Olivier Darroze won the day with a smoking 115kph speed. Tim McA had a tough day, making it home, but winding up dog slow back in 35th on the day. Oh well!
In World Class, at least a Pole won the day instead of a French pilot.
Francois placed 6th and Pat was 9th on the day. Now Pat is having radio probs instead of battery probs, urgh!
Latest controversy: sunflower picking on final. There's a field of sunflowers at the appreach end of runway 20, so of course, some pilots cut their margin pretty fine on final glide...sometimes even disappearing under the blooms for a moment. I have not yet seen a glider hop out of the cockpit with an armload of sunflowers, or tournesols, in French, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened. Well, it would surprise me to receive flowers from a glider pilot, but I think you know what I mean...So Regis the CD made a new ruling that low approaches will not be tolerated. How low "low" is will be determined by a video camera at the finish line. So it remains to be seen who will have an example made of them. It seems like half of the finishers are sunflower picking from my vantage point. I will keep you posted on that one.
Weirdly enough, after three weeks in the French desert, I am having a hankering for the following: Mi Cocina food and a Mambo Taxi, a Dr. Pepper slurpee, a selection of current English magazines, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Weather Channel (I know, I can't believe it either) because there seems to be no Weather on French TV except a super cool guy who kind of waves at a graphic with little suns on it), and of course a long phone chat with my friends & family. Other than that, everything is cool here. Anyone who wants to send along some of the above mentioned items will find our physical address on the official website http://www.wgc2006.fr/. Be sure to pack that slurpee in dry ice.
Here are pics...
You have got to love a language that calls a sports goal a 'but'.
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