Stress 7-22

So, we waited for a long time to get the launch going. We were towards the back of the line so we knew that it would be a while. When the launch finally started, the first two gliders weren't able to make it stick, and came back to land. This was our first indication that the day was weak. The launch was paused for a while longer before the first gliders were able to stay up. Let me just add here that it's been over 40 degrees C (over 100 or so) the last few days. Its hotter and dryer than most of the soaring sites that I have flown at in the western united states. It's hot -- to add to that, we don't have a cooler, tent, air conditioning, etc that we would normally have if we were flying a US contest. The heat sucks the energy and patience out of everyone. In fact, Gunella, the office manager at San Pastore, told me just tonight that it's been hotter the past few days in Italy than it's been in the past 200 years.
Anyway, they keep launching, and somehow we find out that the conditions are weak enough that it's not worth flying with water. While water (increased glider weight) increases the speeds at which the highest performance occurs, the penalty is that the glider is coming down faster, so you need stronger conditions to balance this out. So everyone is dumping their water. I had heard that it took a long time for my glider to dump, but I timed it on the grid, and it took 12 minutes to fully dump. Other gliders took approximately 2... This shouldn't be a huge problem, I just need to make sure that I've given it enough time to dump, or take note of the higher weight of the glider, and the associated increased landing speeds and intertia.
I also want to add something here -- Mike Westbrook is not my boyfriend. I am not crew (although crew are wonderful and I couldn't survive a contest with out crew), and yes I am flying this contest! I've been ignored, asked or assumed more times than I can count now, and it's driving me nuts. Out of 58 pilots, there are 2 women registered to fly, so I can understand that it might not be expected -- but seriously, I'm done.
It's my turn to launch. The tow pilot keeps pulling me forward, and I'm totally not ready to go. The tower is talking to me in some sort of garbled english (all airports are supposed to speak english -- world wide) and I haven't even closed my canopy. I don't know if the tow pilot is going to take off or not, and by the second time he pulls me forward, I'm so pissed that I yell an explitive and pull the release. (being pissed isn't always the best way to start a flight in a new glider)
I finally get settled, and take off. The glider is nice a light and responsive. Due to the high temperatures and tailwind, the takeoff is unusually long, and I tried to get the glider to fly earlier than it wanted to. Not a big deal, just not a really pretty takeoff. As soon as I take off, my PDA with my moving map, turnpoints, final glide info, special use airspace etc, quits. Chalk it up to the list of crap that has broken, not worked on this glider...
Oh I forgot to mention that Mike had to pull out of the line due to a faulty radio. It's really hard to hear what the tower is saying and people on the line were telling him that he had to talk to the tower before he took off, but he had tired and nothing worked.
I'm able to climb up to about 1000m, and then Giorgio calls, and we get ready to head off. Normally flights go to the south, so that's where we headed. It was pretty weak, and we were flying awfully close to the mountains. Girogio kept out climbing me, and it was driving me nuts. My stress level was steadily rising, and it only got worse as we headed south. We got into the valley south of Reiti, and I had a really hard time connecting with lift. Then Giorgio and I misunderstood eachother while annoucing our altitudes, and the stress level only got higher. We spent a lot of time in this valley being low, and I had the feeling that flying here could be very tricky. It seems that when you are high in the mountains that you can bail into one of the valleys, but many times you can bail into a bowl or into a valley where there just aren't any places to land. I started to get more and more nervous, uncomfortable and worked up. Mike finally was up and flying, using a handheld radio, and met up with us as we headed north. At one point, Giorgio was directing me to some lift, and I got pretty slow quite close to a hill. I got pushed in by the wind, and pushing the nose over for more airspeed only got me closer, and I swear I could have seen individual blades of grass. At this point, shaking and quite uncomfortable, I decided to head away from the mountains and take a few moments to relax. This was the best thing I could have done. Giorgio came over and joined me, and we headed to the north. I was still quite scared and stressed, but the conditions were better towards the north. Also we moved into a very large valley with lots of landing places.
At this point I feel I have to tell you about the screws that I had just begun to notice. I don't know who did the design, but I have screw heads that stick into the back of my calves. I get terrible cramps and hot spots from these, so at about this time I decided that it was time to head home. Giorgio wanted to show me the way home -- it's ridge soaring (using wind perpendicular to a ridge to gain altitude) on the something like Valkerie in Italian ridge, and it's really scary since you are quite low, and you can't see the valley where you will eventually land. I'm afraid to use this lift consistently, because I think the resutls could be quite drastic if I didn't estimate the wind correcty. Giorgio begs me to trust him, and I do, and it works. (although I freaked out about crossing the powerlines on the last ridge and started to shake again, before I realized I could make it). I made a safe and very long landing at Reiti and was very happy to be on the ground again. Although i have no idea what the tower said to me or if I landed on the correct runway. (supposedly theres 4 laid out in the grass).
We packed everything up, and headed to the pizzaria near to our house, exhausted.
I have always known that this contest would be stressful, but flying today was nearly terrifying. I was very stressed and uncomfortable, and I'm hoping and expecting this to go away as I get more experience flying here. It's a known fact that the best pilots are the ones that remain calm and relaxed, and I'm aware this is something that I really need to work on.
We've discussed the fact that we really should have brought more people to help out. 3 plus 1 hired crew just isn't enough. We have been so busy getting the gliders ready to go and getting situated, that we forget things like buying food for the next meal, because the grocery stores will be closed. Or figuring out when we will be doing laundry. Also, Reiti is totally not ready for the worlds. We've been kicked out of bathrooms, stating that they were private, but the next closest bathrooms were half a mile away. There's not a place where it is cool to sit, or relax. All of these things make it hard. I do have to say that I'm very happy to have Richard as our captian/crew. He's been doing a great job and is very level headed, even when most would have lost it.
On the upside -- the country side is beautiful -- even if I can see it eating my glider...
Signing off for now -- exhausted.
Kathy