7/8/04 Klix and Far Beyond

After this we were packing up to go and Benno, who had his ASH25 (D-KHOL) at Klix for the last few days offered to take me along (to where ever he was going) to help with trailers and stuff. Sounds like an adventure to me, in I get. Everyone else was to finish up and meet us tonight where we land. So off we went, leaving the ground at about 14:00. After a flight of 3:44 and 430 km we come to a stop and both of us climb out. Fliegerheim Ummern looks a bit deserted. Benno rings Helge to find that they haven't even left Klix yet due to Sabine being stung by a wasp and needing to go to the hospital. So, we decide to go and get Benno’s trailer, car and caravan without the others. They equipment is at Lusse, about 160km as the crow flies, back where we came from. There doesn't appear to be anyone at the clubhouse. Benno wanders off to the other end of the airfield to see who he can find while I wait by the glider.
The world is a small place(2). While I wait a younger lady with two small children pulls up. Me being the consummate communicator, point to my tee shirt (which has kangaroos on it) and proudly announce “ich bin Australianer”. To which she replies, “hello, my name’s Molly and I’m from Perth”. Very deflating. It turns out she is married to an Italian friend of Bennos who is down at the other end of the field. We go to their caravan where Benno gets some coffee or similar. I tend not to drink hot drinks so I don’t have any. Eventually Benno manages to borrow his friend’s car and we head off back to Lusse. It is an Audi Quattro and we manage to get to 250 (!!) kph on the autobahn. At Lusse we have to clean up Benno’s camp site and rearrange the trailer and caravan loading. Benno gets the Audi and the glider trailer, I get Benno’s Volkswagen and his caravan. After taking our farewells we head off the airfield, me following Benno, but before we have gone a few km, Benno pulls over to a pension he knows where we get tea. I don’t argue as it’s been a long day and I haven’t had anything substantial yet. As we sit in the courtyard and have a pleasant three course meal the sun goes down. 22:00 and another 160km to get back to Ummern. Before we head off Benno comments about us towing the trailers so we will use less fuel. The statement seems illogical to an Australian driver. When you tow something the fuel consumption always goes up, however, Benno is right from his German perspective. With trailers on we can’t exceed 100 kph which means we use less fuel as we are forced to go slow. This is just as well as the Volksy is a bit low on petrol and the fuel light comes on while I am out on the Autobahn. Eventually after a missed stop I get to a convenient fuel station and we are able to top it up. A new and crazy experience driving alone, late at night through Germany, no real idea where I am and my only clue is Benno’s trailer. Sometimes in front in the little country roads, sometimes behind on the Autobahn. Benno only has one tape in his car, which is a badly done copy of gliding songs. Humourous the first time but after listening to it three times over I have had enough. Trying to get radio stations to listen to on the radio I am amazed at just how like they are to Australian stations, even to the same promo slogans in English. Long, long past midnight we get back to Ummern. No crew here either. I find an old ragged blanket, kick my shoes off and curl up on a mattress in my clothes.
A long day that one.

7/8/04 Klix and Freda

7/8/04 Klix and Far Beyond.

Prize giving today and pack up. I got my flight in a Wilga at last, the comp directors wouldn’t let us fly in them during the comp. Freda the tow pilot took me for a flight so I got Matthias and Gunnar to sit in the back as well. Matt and Gunnar had been helping crew for us for the latter part of the competition. Anyway, we flew over to Bautzen and had a look from the air. The Wilga is a workmanlike piece of equipment, I really like it, in an ugly sort of way. While more complex than a Pawnee and has some visibility draw backs, I think the Wilga would be more comfortable after a long days flying. D-EWBN 0.4 hours.

4/8/04 Klix and Beyond.

Got to fly a cross country in the DG1000 today. Whacko. 360km in 5:27 D-1073. Ended in an outlanding past (!) the airfield.

2/8/04 Klix 19:30

Aircraft are still finishing but trailers are leaving the airfield. After a good start to the day both Lisas outland about 80km away after being on task for about 1 hour. We are a bit worried out Lisa Trotter as Lisa Turner said she thought she might have seen a ground loop. When we get Lisa Trotter back, there is some damage to the belly of the glider due to an undercarriage collapsing, but it is minor and she can keep on flying. Ralf and Helge are working on sashimi for Akemi’s birthday (actually Ralf really). Akemi is the one Japanese pilot here, she also outlanded today. Swaantje won her day.

2/8/04 Klix and Gliding

The competition is going along well, today's standard class task is 400km. We have had 5 consecutive task days now and it looks as though the weather will continue fair for the next few days.
Apparently this is unusual here as they can have weather changes quite rapidly and their weather systems are small. Yesterday (Sunday 1st), the launch of the competition was delayed as a thunderstorm was building over the first leg, even though the sky above and to the north of Klix looked perfect.
At Klix private flying is allowed during the competition except when launching or in the heaviest part of the finish. If you can get up and stay away during the finish, this is OK. The only restrictions applied is that team members of competing gliders (like me) must take a logger so the organisers can ensure there has been no collusion between us and the competitors.
Over the weekend a number of motor gliders turned up to stay overnight. Of the self launch glider types there was a Ventus and an ASH25. As for tourer motor gliders I have seen a Dimona, G109B and a Motorfalke, all with tow hooks. The Motorfalke is really swish. It has a tricycle undercarriage and the instrument panel is chock full of stuff. The canopy actually takes a little bit of the side walls up with it, lowering the cockpit sill and making it easier to get into. I don't know if this is a mod or something from the factory. The fabric finish is immaculate. Both the Motorfalke and the G109B had a little bit taken off the bottom of the ridder, for rope clearance I assume. While the Motorfalke uses a fixed Tost release the 109 appeared to have a retractable rope.

1/8/04 Klix 12:00

Sitting on the start line (as always) there is a phone call from home. The launches have been delayed to 12:30/13:00. Yesterday was probably the best day for weather in the competition but I wasn’t thinking clearly enough and didn’t rig. I took a bike ride with Cathy through Sacshen and Klix instead. Later in the day after the gliders are all back I get the chance to go for a flight in a Zlin 42. Some of the German pilots here are a bit disparaging of the Zlin, but I found it to be quite a nice machine. The pilot sits relatively high and the inline six gives a narrow nose. The combination of this gives good forward and down visibility. Cockpit is laid out quite reasonably and it uses a real stick (none of this crummy yoke business thanks). One feature which made me do a double take was the spinner, as we climbed out it looked to me as though it was going at a different speed to the propellor. That couldn’t be right I thought, it must be some sort of strobing effect from the prop, but sure enough, when we got to cruising level the spinner pretty much stopped altogether. Something to do with the automatic pitch change mechanism. Anyway, the 42 is a light crisp response and quite nice to fly, even cruises at a sensible speed. Zlin 42 D-EWNO, 0.5 hours.

29/7 – 31/7 Klix

The days blur together. Get up, fill the water bottles. Rig the gliders, fill their tanks. Grid the aircraft, catch the briefing if I can. Wait on the grid to launch the glider. Wait at the camp for the glider to get back. Derig. Tea. No bad weather to break the cycle as I had hoped there would be. Little chance of sightseeing, at least not very far from the airfield.

The world is a small place (1). After the briefing, I was walking out to the grid. The others all took the cars and are out there waiting. For some reason I had waited at the camp, but was on my way when a straggler car with two ladies in stops and offers me a lift in German. In my broken German I try to start talking to them. After a while the penny drops with one of them and she turns to me and says “You’re not German are you?”. It turns out they are the Italians. The pilot is Margot. We then drop into a more comfortable English conversation. “Where are you from” etc. When they find out I am from Adelaide Margot says, “say hello to Gabby for me”. I have known Gabby on and off for almost 20 years. Margot has stayed with Gabby and his wife when she was in Australia a few years ago.

30/7/04 Klix Airfield

Another typical day in the life of a Sailplane Crew Union Member. Got up at 0630, a bit later than normal, to have a shower before the crowd starts. Usually I would then fill the water containers for both teams, but Keith did it last night. The facilities for filling the gliders are a bit limited here. There are about 10 taps along the south fence of the club house but it is a tight squeeze to get more than about three gliders in there. Since there are 17 in standard class and 14 in 15m it can become a little conjested. Then I headed back to the Geyer encampment and help with their gliders.
After the Swaantje camp gliders have been assembled, we normally sit down to a good breakfast and wait till the two Lisas turn up around 08:00. Everyone is getting into their routines now and we can usually have both LS4s on the grid by around 10:00. Briefing is at 10:15.
Today some advertising material was handed out by the sponsors. This comp is sponsored by a number of industrial/engineering organisations, some well known like Seimens and others less so.
I was a little slow getting out to the grid after the briefing because I was talking winches with a young chap from the Klix club. Their winches are excellent pieces of machinery, even club built ones like this one. Anyway, because standard class was at the back of the grid I knew it would be an hour after first launch, even with 5 tugs, that the two Lisas would be getting away.
Today is a blue day with no cloud to help with thermal locating. The Germans generally don't like this as it makes the days a little harder and people tend to gaggle more when they see other gliders turning. The standard class had about a 270 km triangle for their task.

In the evening everyone at the comp has been invited to a cook up by the aeromodellers club in the south west corner of the field. Last night we had a barbeque, with the all our German friends and the Australians. Sabine, Ralf and myself did the shopping for it, while the pilots were away and then we rushed back at the expected ETA but the day died earlier than everyone expected. Our pilots were left scratching along the last leg. They got home though they were the last finishers in standard class. To add insult to injury as the two Lisas were debriefing with Cathy over the slow flight, Hanno the comp director appeared. Very apologetic to be the bearer of bad news, the girls had infringed Berlin airspace and had been given a technical outlanding at that point. In truth this didn't really affect the days outcome and it was a salutory lesson. Germany is a high traffic environment and we have to be sure where we are and that it is the right place.
Anyway, back to the cooking, I was thinking about a noodle salad, but do you think the Germans sell Thousand Island Dressing? Not on your life. So I made do with a savoury tomato sauce. Also if you want pork in this part of Germany, no problem, any concievable cut. You want it, you can have it. For poultry there is a pretty fair selection of turkey too. But other meats are either rare, expensive or both. These are the details which really highlight the differences between Australia and here. Ralf did most of the cooking on something which looked like the cross between a round gas barbeque and a wok and we continued to socialise till late. I then took the opportunity to go to the briefing room to send some emails. This kept me up till after midnight They were playing “Pirates of the Caribbean” on the big projector screens used during the briefing with the volume turned up full bore. In German of course.
There are a number of traditions at Klix. One is the presentation of garden gnomes to contestants who almost make it home. I think it signifies the notion of arriving in the garden but not actually getting through the front door! Swaantje won one of these on Thursday morning for her Wednesday flight. She fell short by 3.8km (not 15 as I wrote in some earlier emails). The gnome now sits tied to the top of the caravan annexe underneath Swaantje's pirate flag. Her mascot from previous comps, nothing to do with the movie of last night.

28/7/04 Klix

This morning I did my washing in the GDR washing machine. And what a unique device it is too. Bloomi, the tug pilot gave me a briefing in its use.
Unfortunately last night the TE probe on Lisa Trotters LS4 got broken off when we put the fuselage away in the trailer without removing it. A stupid slip, and horroe this morning when we opened up the trailer to see the probe bent right down. Ralf helped us run around to drill out the broken bit so we could use it again. At Klix they appear to have an old chap who is a full time mechanic or something. His name is Siefried. The aerodrome has two workshops, a white one for clean work on the gliders and a black one for heavy machinery work. We couldn’t find the right size drill so Siegfried went home and got his good set. They were mounted in a thick perspex block. I was impressed, it was the front windscreen of a Mig15. Anyway, by increasing the drill sizes in steps of 0.1 mm we were able to remove the offending damaged brass tube. This still left enough original material to mount back on the fin. We then got Lisa away for the task.

Ater doing that, Ralf helped me get the LS1 out. First off I flew to the south of Klix (to stay away from the competition gliders). There was a big blue hole and I was back on the ground in what seemed no time. The LS1 is more difficult on the tow than the Pirat was. Occasionally I run out of rudder or aileron when bouncing around. The short ropes make it unnecessarily difficult too, I think. They use about 35m ropes here which is just a bit more than half what we are allowed to use in Australia. Also from my seating position and in high tow I lose sight of the Wilga every now and then due to the instrument panel. I got off at 600m and chased some big birds of prey up to cloudbase (1500m). There are a few strands of straw bent over my leading edge still from the airfield. A bit of yawing sees them whipped away. The two birds do some sort of mating flight where the top bird rolls under the lower bird and they clasp claws. They then tumble for a while until they separate. Then they do it again, losing height all the time. I follow them down. The first comp gliders are due to finish at 16:00 so I zip down to land at 15:58. Not a long flight but very unique. LS1 D-3133, 10 and 35 minutes.

27/7 Klix Competition

This morning by around 10:30 all the fleet were gridded, about seventy gliders approximately in the three classes. We sit and wait for thunderstorms to pass.
And wait.
And wait.
The task is called off at 15:30.

26/7 Klix First Official Day

Today is the first official contest day. Briefing is set for 10:15. The organizers explain all the intricacies of the competition like start and finish point procedures rules of the airfield and so forth, all in German. We are given colour codes for gridding the aircraft. Our Standard glass gliders will be blue, so we have to look for the blue signs and basically position the aircraft anywhere along that line of five.

25/7 (Klix) Official Practice Day.

A good day for flying but not a competition day. The grid is 4 gliders wide by about 12 deep. Nearly 50 gliders, all flown by women. The two Lisas got away and Cathy took a flight in Helge’s LS1 to follow them around. While they were away a cadged a flight from Dieter M in the Klix club’s Pirat. I hadn’t flown a Pirat before and Dieter gave me a pretty thorough briefing. I think he is a bit wary of us. I didn’t go out of glide distance but stayed local and did a bit of a circumnavigation of the field about 10 km out. Heights 1000-1500m normally. The last climb was to 1700m to the south east of the field where I out thermalled a motor glider, a Dimona, I think. Not much lift to the south of the field and worked my way back home being wary of the model flyers who sometimes operate on the southern edge of the field. Pirat D-1376, 80 minutes.
During the afternoon Sonia has arrived to be part of Trotts crew. Helge has made a wasp trap. The wasps here are pretty annoying. Like Australian flies when they get bad, except these ones can sting too. The trap is just a plastic bottle with little entry holes. It has a bit of liquid in the bottom. Water, vinegar, apfelschorle and sugar. It seems to work quite well.
There is a get together party going on in the tug hangar, it is now 21:30. Helge has taken Benno’s trailer to another competition and he won’t be back till Friday. It is dusk. There are clouds and I can’t see any stars yet. There are bats in the trees by the airfield.

24/7 (Klix) Technical Day

Not a flying day but a “technical” day for weighing, registration etc. Trotts water pump didn’t have a decent hose so we went back into Bautzen and spent a while in the hardware shop. Also put my first lot of films in to be processed. Everyone else has digital cameras. While we were away Turns test flew her glider after changing the TE probe and plumbing. She says its OK now. Spent a good part of the afternoon driving around looking at crops for potential landing sites. There is a big mix here, wheat, corn, rye, spuds, canola, clover, lucerne and oats. The Germans land in all sorts of crops generally the green ones, but not the canola and not the yellow ones (a bit opposite to Australia).
They tell me the old East Germany is not as wealthy as the west and I can believe it. Although Bautzen appears to be like any modern town, the small hamlets around Klix are in various states of repair. I also found out that the storage sheds near the airfield and another demolished site near one of the outlanding fields were actually communal farm machinery shed before reunification.

Today is also the final competition day at an airfield called Neuhausen. It was about 80km away so we (Cathy, Sabine, Swaantje, Helge and I) went there for a late tea. On the way there we got a close look at some lakes. These lakes are all coal open cuts I think. We saw the new power station at Schwarze Pumpe, which the Germans don’t like. It’s too efficient and its cooling towers do not produce worthwhile thermals. Another interesting thing (to me) was the type of construction of some apartment blocks. Helge called it Platten Bolten (panel and bolt?). Neuhausen is a large sport aviation site with very good buildings thanks to the previous government. First time I have seen an AN2 in the flesh. I would really like to have a go in one of these. During the calm of the evening a hot air ballon dropped in. I don’t know where he came from. I met some members of Sabine’s home club, Frankfurt Akaflieg. They were Christoph Maul, Christopher Rogos and Tobias Haas. The guys tried to get me to drink some of the German beer, “best beer in the world”. Tasted like any other beer to me. Tobias tried to point out Ursa Major and Polaris, I think I saw them but even in the “country” the light pollution is really bad. I also met Benno Beesten who was one of the German team at Gawler in 2001 where I was verifier. At the end of the night we took Benno’s trailer back to Klix.

23/7 (Klix) Early Practice Days

It is light here even a bit longer than in South Australian summer, from about 05:00 till after 22:00, which means the days can be long. My first morning in Klix and the weather is raining and misty till around 09:00. Not a hugely encouraging start for my expectations of summer. I missed the weather briefing but it was forecast to be a flyable day with thunderstorms later. We all sat around and had breakfast with the Germans (Swaantje, Helge and Sabine) till the mist cleared. It was a late breakfast as we had to wait for Helge to get the bread. We rigged the gliders for both of the Lisas and towed them out to the grid. The thermometer in Trott’s car said 26 degrees but it seems a bit hotter, due to the humidity I suppose.

There is a club Bocian and a foreign club K13 being launched by winch for ab initio training. All the lady pilots here for the contest are sitting waiting for an aerotow behind the Wilga, but the twins aren’t staying up so no one wants to spend the money. I think the tug pilot’s name is Bloomi. Eventually it gets the better of Trotts so we push her to the front and she takes a launch. She was able to stay up, then everyone wanted a launch. Keith got a flight in the Wilga, Cathy and I got a promise for one tomorrow. Turns is having vario problems. During the afternoon Cathy manages to get a check flight with the contest director, Dieter Mihelin. He must be sick of the mad Australians as he lets Cathy give me a check. But the day is nearly done and the flights are a lot shorter. I scare her a bit trying to scratch out a longer flight by going down to about 800’ agl before breaking off. 20 minutes in Bocian D-8370.
Cathy, Sabine and I go shopping in Bautzen about 19:00. Apparently the shops in Germany stay open 07:30-20:00 weekdays and a half (or full) day on Saturday.I always forget one thing when I go away, it’s a towel! Bought one in Bautzen. We had a “barby” for tea. The thing they use is a little firepot arrangement with charcoal in it.

22/7 (Klix) Late

Finally got to Klix, I took over the last bit of the driving from Cathy and got a little run on the Autobahn before heading off to the smaller roads. The girls waiting for us were a bit grumpy as we were pretty late and they wanted their tea. We went to a little pub and I had spiegel ei. I am beginning to work out German cuisine. It’s fried.