Day 2: task 1

Team leaders meetings start each morning at 8:30 so after last nights party a few were feeling the after-effects today :) We hold the meetings in the gondola station offices so looking out of the window gives a great panorama of the valley. In my early morning pre-coffee dozy state after glancing at the cloudscape outside I nearly fell out of the chair as a cow, complete with clanging Alpine cowbell strolled past the side window. It may not seem anything unusual, except that we are on the 2nd floor!!

The chances for tasking today were slim but that was all we needed!
As we drove to launch the wind seemed strong from the north but the protected area around the Bischling take-off was living up to its reputation and pretty wind free. Unfortunately cloud base was typically English for a while ( though the scenery is definitely not!! ) and then the weather became even more English as the rain arrived and we all dived to get gliders and ourselves under cover. A few coffees later and some small blue patches appeared and finally we could see the mountain peaks. The provisional 53km task from the morning was binned and a 45km straight line Speed Run to goal started at 15:35.
It was always going to be a race against the weather but finally at 17:13 the task was stopped as pilots called level 3 conditions. 2 reserves were thrown, one Finnish pilot breaking a finger while a Croatian pilot walked away with no injuries but a very damaged glider after a hard reinflation from a frontal collapse. A combination of strong headwind, developing clouds and rain made for a predictable decision. Under the rules a stopped elapsed time task cannot score.
Big credit to the all the guys and just Elisa for the girls, who made goal. Its not a happy situation to learn that your efforts lead to no score but the safety of pilots still on course has to be considered first.
As we left goal some 40 minutes after the task was stopped the storms started doing their thing with massive lightening strikes and more rain than is needed in this damp and green country. It was good to see how accurately the local meteo chaps in Salzburg can predict over-development - lets hope they can find us another opportunity very soon.
The weather forecast isn't pretty for the next 5 days but as always we remain optimistic that the Tegelberg curse won't bite us - if it becomes imminent then maybe Kurt and the chicken hat will have to be sacrificed to the weather gods! ;-)