Today is the first training day for the competitors and it was kicked off with the briefing at 10:00. The official members of the Arboga Club were introduced and the Local Rules and sections of the International rules reviewed. There were a few gremlins with the equipment in that the projector decided it had overheated and stopped projecting half way through the presentation. There have been a few teething problems on site; showers that are either boiling hot, or more commonly freezing cold, electricity that keeps going off (but that’s probably some of the teams overloading the capability of the system) and internet system that seems to have interfered with the local Saab company and therefore had to be turned off (this is why my blogs have been rather intermittent).
The meteorology forecast was given by a rather nervous looking lady who normally predicts the weather for Arlanda Airport (Stockholm) and it wasn’t particularly promising. The day had dawned with some rather ugly looking clouds; in the UK these would be typically indicative of thunderstorms, but before briefing, these cleared completely and the sky was blue. It was extremely hot and very humid. Charlotte, the weather presenter simply stated there would be large cumulo-nimbus (thunderstorm clouds) and basically the weather would be no good all day. With this, the Director declared that there would not be a task set for the day, but that the competitors could fly if they wished.
We elected to finish off the remaining check-in process whereby I would have to demonstrate my Nationality, show many documents relating to the glider and sign a statement that I had read and understood the WADA Anti-doping code (the drugs policy). So that was all the necessary paperwork completed – phew!
As I emerged from registration, the sky was filled with ominous storm clouds. We returned back to the camp site and helped the others fix and erect the radio mast (complete with the Union jack flag). The aerial will assist us hopefully, with good communications between the pilots and crew. The Team Captain (Mel) had also now arrived complete with boyfriend (Swedish, which might be helpful) and dog (name unknown as yet). We just managed to get the mast erected (after having to complete some repair work) in advance of a huge storm that was heading in the direction of the airfield. Steve was concerned about the Mosquito which remained rigged out on the airfield and we decided to de-ri g it sharpish. We completed this and just managed to get to the airfield as the storm hit. Fortunately, there weren’t the strong winds commonly associated with such squalls, but there was some heavy rain in short bursts, drenching everything around.
At some point whilst we were de-rigging the glider, John, the crew for Fran was quite badly bitten by Mel’s dog on his right forearm. I wondered what had happened as his arm had a bandage on it. Not a good start..
In my registration package, I had finally received an air-map of Sweden (I:800,000 which is a rather strange and unusual scale, so I also elected to purchase a 1:500,000 map too). Because these were just paper maps, I decided to fablon the necessary areas so that the tasks could be easily marked in pen on a daily basis and also in the hope of them lasting the length of the competition.
Once the storms had gone through, it had chilled down slightly, but the temperature began to rise again and we were invited to have a swim in the local lake – a very Swedish tradition that you mustn’t miss out on if you have the opportunity in Sweden. The lake was just down the road from the gliding club, probably half a mile and it was fantastic. Both Michael and I donned T-shirts and shorts (as we did not have our swim kit with us) and leapt in with Gill and Brian Spreckley and Helen amongst the other swimmers. It was great fun.
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