We awakened to another bright blue sky day without any showers expected in the task area. Unfortunately, showers and thunderstorms showed up in the last couple of turn points which were not discussed during the weather briefing.

 

The weather briefing expected another good day with the task squeezed between the approaching weak cold front coming in from the west and the blob of clouds moving in from the east:

At a WGC, a Safety Committee is appointed comprised of a pilot from each class (from left to right: 18m: Arne Boye-Møller 20m: Antti Lehto  Open: Andy Davis). After the briefing today, they discussed some important issues: gaggle flying, cruising with others, and keeping your head outside of the cockpit looking outside. When you see someone, giving them a wave to the pilots around you to let them know you see them. In the case of cruising with your competitors, they showed an example where someone was following another pilot within 5 feet for 300 km which is extremely dangerous, not an acceptable approach. You need to provide another space to allow the other pilot to maneuver:

Here’s an overhead view of the Hison Airfield where the “X” marks the locations of the US Team’s tie down area and the team camp with the end of runway is 06:

The CD and Launch Boss Tomas Rendla sitting on the tail gate with part of the launch crew waiting for the soaring to begin.  There would be no contests without volunteers:

Today was the first day we have launched on the grass runway 06.  It took a while for the day to get going as you can see without any clouds in the sky at 11:30 am. Usually, we start seeing cu’s before 11 am on good soaring days.
The view from the front of the grid of 93 sailplanes from 27 countries in three classes:
A few photos from around the grid today during our 1 hour and 15 minute grid squat:
Bryan Reigal (ARC crew), Garret Willat (back seat of PWR), Mike Robison (PWR), Larry Timpson (PWR crew):
Paul Weeden (5E crew) and Sarah Nelson (5E crew):
Still waiting for the cu’s to pop:
Watch Mike Robison video recap of Day #4(on our FB page)  for insights and thoughts of the day.. and good stuff from Team ARC with a 5th place in 20M for Day 4.
This photo’s from the contest site of ARC