World Championships 2010 - The last days

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Yesterday, we finally had a task. The sky was already blue in the morning, the sun was out. I could not believe it. One day before the Worlds - good weather. One day after - good weather. Who on earth made the weather gods so angry?

As it would not have been a valid World Championship with only one task, but the pilots were of course eager to fly, the organisers decided to set a fun task for the women and rigids. The tasks were up and down the ridge, around 50 km for the women and 90 km for the rigids. It took us a while to get all the pilots off the mountain because the wind kept on changing. And the ground is still very wet, so clouds built up quickly, and conditions were, according to the pilots, very bumpy and tricky.

But the most exciting thing of the day was Mike Harker flying off Tegelberg. He wanted to do the last flight in a hangglider in his life from Tegelberg. He flew Reinhard’s beginner glider and flew around Neuschwanstein Castle. Olli filmed him, hopefully the movie will be on TV or in the internet soon. I’ll let you know. Mike was all happy with his flight. I’m just wondering whether it will really be his last one because he seems to love flying so much 😉.

In the evening, there was the official prize giving ceremony, so of course the winners of Class 2 got their medals. And there was also a little prize giving for the champions of the day: As for the women, Natalia Petrova from Russia was the only one to make goal and thus won the day. Second and third were Corinna Schwiegershausen from Germany and Kathleen Rigg from Great Britain. As for the rigids, Itagaki Naoki from Japan won the day, followed by Tim Grabowski and Norbert Kirchner, both from Germany. There was a party, of course. And one more short night. The day before, we had also been out partying, and I danced so much that I had sore muscles the next day. Oh, and I should not forget the brewery tour that we did on Thursday. After it, we had to try the beer, of course! My goodness, it is always so much fun to hang out with the hanggliding family!

I only just arrived back home. This morning, we said goodbye to everyone (which usually takes a while). I had lunch with Claudia (who will fly back home to Colombia tomorrow, just to come back for the Europeans and the Pre Worlds in five weeks), Christa and Reinhard, then Reinhard dropped me off at the airport in Munich. My flight was delayed, but finally, I made it home. Might have an early night tonight...

By the way, the official results of the Worlds can be found here.

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Photos

Yesterday
The comp was over, and suddenly, the weather was just so beautiful!

Mike Harker & Katha
... before Mike took off for his flight off Tegelberg

Mike is ready to go
... in Reinhard's glider, well assisted by Olli and Dieter

Shovelling snow off the ramp
Klaus worked hard!

Regina & Natalia
... keeping their spirits up although conditions looked horrible on Friday.

Rebi
We had set up her glider in order to let it dry, and Rebi had tried out her harness.

Brewery tour
Kurt, Jury Member from Guatemala, Olli, Safety Officer, lives in Australia, and Peter, German Team Leader, in the room where all the beer is stored.

Trying the beer...
... here with Chisato and Yoko from Japan, Manfred, and Peter.

The Japanese team
I think they liked the Bavarian food and beer ;-)

Class 2 winners
Manfred Ruhmer (Austria), Steve Cox (Switzerland), Bob Baier (Germany); left: Brian Porter (USA)