The final days…

What is there to say about the last days? We all didn’t achieve our goal (for Francois and me 150 kph and for Willem 120 kph), but we all set a new personal record. Beside that we had a nice pizza fundraising evening for the USA Junior team organized by Garret and Bret. I understood they were quite successful. Unfortunately Garret wasn’t successful with his flight on the second last day. Despite his enormous winglets (or because?) he couldn’t keep up with the newer ships and he has to skip the worlds next year. Too bad!

The last day was a beautiful day with high speeds. It looked like we were going to make the 150 kph for a long time. But at one point a was the first to became low. Some misunderstanding because of the bad radio, one or two mistakes and there you are at 1200 feet above ground trying to get a good thermal that of course isn’t that good at that altitude. You know you shouldn’t do that, especially in Texas where it is way too warm at those altitudes! Fortunately the thermal got very good (12kts = 6m/s), but nevertheless I got way behind Francois. Apparently some of the clouds just didn’t offer what that promised. They got Francois as well over the hills, so in the end we had more or less the same speed. Anyhow, it was a very nice last day of our Uvalde experience.

In the evening we had to clean up the gliders and get in the trailers. A quick snap from the dinner they had prepared for us at the price giving and off to our swimming pool too relax with a couple of beers… Next day we all went home after we got the Discus and Nimbus in the RV. Willem and me drove to Houston and the other guys back to California.

Once more I would like to thank Steve Dee, Bret and Garret Willat for making this unforgettable vacation possible!!

Jeroen

Some pictures with thanks to Jeppe: