The last day was a bit of a rush because it was only a 2hr 30min task and by the time they left officially and I got lunch, did a few quick jobs the boys started to come back in club class. It looked spectacular seeing groups of gliders cruise over the field and back through the finish line. There was no way that Silver (CD) was going to make it a 12 finishline for the last day. That finishline is over the lake. The day was way better than was expected at takeoff and Andy kept his place in the top 10 which we are so proud of.

The party was great and a supurb local band played for us. There was a mad scramble by the team captains this morning as there were bodies all over the place and the opening ceremony was at 10 am. A team captain meeting was announced at the party for 8:30 am. As only 4 turned up I guess the rest didn’t believe it or didn’t wake up. We were all so proud to see our boy up there being presented with his 10th place certificate. Once again the ceremony covered all that had to be done and was short and sweet.

We will be home soon and will enjoy a well earned rest. I will put a few more pictures on the site when we get home.

Thanks everyone for your support and interest along the way. The final night dinner was a success based on the number of people that slept on the floor of Nathan’s caravan! We’re just packing bags etc before the closing ceremony at 10am then we head off to Helsinki airport.

Interesting day yesterday. The weather looked a challenge - Nathan was first on the grid for the day and spent some time in weak shear wave prior to the start. His strategy was to start early and get around which he did. The tasks were completed with very few outlandings and speeds were pretty good - it will be interesting to get home and look at some of the tracks and tactics in SeeYou.

Signing off for now.

Weather looked miserable. 2 1/2 hour AAT. Both started. Julie will post more shortly after she finishes cooking my lunch

This is the last day of the competition and the sun is shining at the moment but the forecast is not.

It may be a flying day but the forecast is for rain all day. We are on the grid and we will wait until briefing to find out what will happen.

The Dutch invited us to dinner to try their traditional dishes. I wasn’t too keen on the herring but the profiteers (?) or tiny pancakes were lovely. Once again we had a lovely time. Patrick, one of the Dutch pilots, is next to us in the tiedown area. He is a KLM pilot (We won’t hold that against him ) and a lovely person.

Yes I was a bit remiss about the blog today but the boys had a well earned rest day today and so did the crews. Andy has gone to do some go carting and Nathan went with his family to Tampere sight seeing. They came home early so Nathan and his dad could go for a fly only to discover that Nathan has lost track of time and booked them in for Saturday!!!!!!

Last night after we got back from the retrieve we went to the Karaoke Night. Ali, the Brit, sang and entertained us with a rendition of Lady in Red and Hero. He was trying to get the Aussies up as well as his countrymen but he had not succeeded by the time the oldies had left. I believe he was successful later on because in briefing Teemu played an extract from the night before and I definitely recognised Andy’s attempt at singing. I think I could hear Nathan as well but I am not too familiar with his voice.

The day started with rain and ended with cu and sunshine in the sky but the cu didn’t appear until about 4 pm and is still here at 7 pm.

Well it is nearly midnight. We finally got to see the sun go down. Andy did his longest (duration) flight ever at just under 7 hours covering 500km of the 557km task. Two thirds of the standard class landed out with some flying 9  1/2 hours. Some are still not back from retrieves. As they are still planning to fly tomorrow we are off to bed. More details when we wake up.

The day has started and the boys said they have never been so over flying before ever. I suppose you cannot blame them as their flights have been usually 6hrs and constant gaggle flying and very intense for 10 out of the 11 days. I think the shortest flight has been 4.5 hrs.

Today Nathan said to Andy that he knew he chose club class for a reason seeing Nathan is doing 344km while Andy is doing 557 km.

The day is not very good (not as good as the beginning of the competition) but I suppose the scores are still close and we will see who can handle it.

Last night we had a BBQ with the Danes, Norwegians and the Italians just out the back of the motel area. It was a lovely night and we introduced them to Bundy Rum.

Retrieve from where????

Well is it a retrieve when you do it from the airfield at Raskala?????

Andy landed today and on the way back from the landing point we got a flat tyre and had to put it in the box. We then had to proceed with all the other gliders along the taxiway. It was the shortest retrieve I have ever done. Mike is at the glider fixing it at the moment and I though all you at home would love to see how the Aussies do it. Many thanks to, all those who helped lift the glider off the taxi-way, the English team for offers of spare tire and tubes and a full wheel with tire and tube ready to go, the Dutch team for offers of spares, Teemu who was on the phone and managed to get onto the Schleicher  agent to get a spare tube which was waiting for us when we got back to the tiedown area. In the end the Aus team captain had the new tire on and the fuse back in the trailed in 30 min. Fingers crossed the Australian team has had all its bad luck and the next 3 days will go without a hitch.

Flat tyre on tow back

Our retrieves are getting more memorable.

Towed into the gaggle

Well today’s briefing was delayed until 10.30 am and launch was not until 12 noon. The overcast cleared for a moment and we saw a puff of cu in the sky which disappeared quickly but that was enough for the boys to be launched. they are hanging around in not much. The gaggle at start was scary to see. The task was another AAT and only 2 hr 30min for both classes. Task areas were 420 and 375 but we think is will be minimum distance of 183 and 175 will be achieved if that.

Is it a good day!!!!

oh yes!!!

The boys Keeping Cool

The Brits and us are on the grid together every day and today was a long wait. At 25C the Brits were getting hot.

Good news both boys made it home safely even though there were a number of outlandings. Hopefully it is the end of Nathan’s bad luck.

Andy looks like he had another 900 point day. His father rode on every spot point today and was asking me the same question all day “why, on such a bad day, did the boy go into the second circle so far when it was only a 31/2 hr task???”.  As it turned out Andy was travelling with the gaggle and ended coming home an hour late but in front of the pack. A relieved and happy mum and dad jumped for joy.

Michael has worked out the hire cost of the glider and at the start of the comp was worried that it was going to cost $1,200 per hr but after all these 6 hr days it is back to $75 per hr. Everyone knows how that would please Michael.

Tonight is the Heavy Metal night which the Aussies are to perform an AC DC song in the air-guitar competition!!!!! Hope I get some good photos!!! Andy is on a high at the moment and should perform well.

I will try to put some more photos on tomorrow.