World Gliding Championship 2008 Rieti, Italy- Final News 6
21st July 2008
18 July, Contest Day 11
It was a coolish and pleasant morning with some high cirrus clouds. The planes gridded for a 3 hr AAT with a launch at 12:30. At 11am after briefing, clouds started to form rapidly, and by 1:30 the day was cancelled as rain drops began to fall. The afternoon remained cool and lazy with trips into town, walks, and talks. After the rain shower the sun came out, and we found ourselves at our favourite restaurant in Cantalice and a meal of pasta, meat and gelati.
19 July, Contest Day 12
We awoke to a fog covered Rieti Valley, but as we rigged and cleaned the gliders, it lifted into small cumulus clouds. By launch time at 1p the cloud base was 6,500 ft and there appeared to be excellent convection. The boys were through the start gate at 2:20 and off on a 400 km task, which was shaped like a boomerang with Rieti in the middle. This meant that we could listen to them as they passed overhead on their southbound leg of the task. Unfortunately, the news was not good: average speed on the northern leg was about 75 kph and both were scratching for lift at 3000 ft (about 1500 ft above the ground). Although the sky looked good, the high humidity meant that finding lift was tricky. Ben continued towards a sunny southwest facing ridge, which looked to be a sure bet for lift but was not, at least at low level. Dane continued to climb in a 1kt thermal southeast of Rieti. Soon Ben was looking for a paddock from a very low level. In the contest area, many paddocks look good from 3-4000 ft above the ground giving you a false sense of security. Ben had 2-3 paddocks picked out but had to abandon them due to a variety of obstructions in them. Getting lower and with limited options, he radioed he was going to have to crash land, which gave the ground crew some concern. In the end, he was able to set his plane down in a 100m long paddock with hay bales and power lines on either side. When Tony and Sue found him, only 10km from the airfield, the nose of the glider was stuck into a tall hedge and there were deep skid marks in the paddock. Miraculously, there was no damage other than a few scratches and Ben’s slightly bruised bum from a hard landing. It was his ‘dodgiest’ landing in 3500hrs. Meanwhile, Dane had climbed away a little un-nerved from listening to Ben and managed to continue on task. He returned to the finish line about 1.5 hrs later for a speed of 97 kph and 26th for the day.
That night, the farewell dinner was outdoors on the lawn of the sports pool complex. Sometimes these dinners work and sometimes they don’t. With 300 tickets ( 15 each) sold and seats for 150, this one was bound for problems. With queues for drinks and food at maximum tolerance, Ben did the only thing a true Kiwi could do; went out and brought back 8 pizzas for us and the Brits! However, by 11pm, the desert plates (melon, cheese prosciutto) were numerous, and we sat back and watched the award winning Rieti fireworks going up from the end of the airfield across the street. This was the only consolation for Ben’s overall 27th finish, the worst of his World Competitions and Dane’s 23rd finish, the first world competition for him.
20 July Farewell March and Ceremony
After most gliding contests the weather really comes right, and this day was no exception. By noon when the march of the teams started through the streets of Rieti, it was hot, dry, and the plentiful cu’s had 8-9000ft bases in the valley and mountains. As the closing speeches were given, we sat in the hot sun under flags and umbrellas watching tow planes and gliders circling above. The French and German national anthems played for the first place winners in each class. We were then left with a few assorted prizes to honour before we could escape the heat. A surprise came to us with the announcement that New Zealand was to receive a prize for the team which traveled the furthest to get to the contest. True to their heritage, the Aussies groused that they should have had the prize because they had a larger team. However, true to the Italian way, we remain confused as to the name of the prize, because the trophy given to Dane was that for the Club Class champion, Matthias Sturm whose name was engraved on it. Dane gave the trophy to Matthias, who now has two club class champion trophies, and remarked, ‘well at least we don’t have to send it to Slovenia for the 2010 World Competitions’.
Warren Dickinson, 20 July Rieti