The heavy 28

How do I summarise today? One very heavy bird, 5000' cumulus, 4-6 knot climbs and glorious streets. I had an absolute ball! I am so happy that I am making progress with this glider. being so heavy did make for some interesting times. The aerotow was a little bit scary to start with. They had to swap planes to get me off the ground because I was the only glider using water ballast and the big plane  was still tied down. The first minute of tow I had zero options if something were to have gone bad. As we crossed the end of the runway we would not have been a wingspan clear of the winch.  I really hope the planes that will come over for the competition have some more guts to launch the standard class fleet. Once we turned back toward the airfield and were slowly gaining more height I felt much more comfortable. Again the tuggie centered a thermal for me and I released even though I did want more height for the fact that I did not really know what to expect from the climb performance.  I was actually quite ok from what I felt. I really need to fly with another ballasted glider to compare but I should get plenty of practice like that for fine tuning when Matthew arrives.

I launched quite late after picking up Ailsa from the train station but that was ok because I had more than my fill landing only after 18:30. The task from the European championships was a five hundred and something km fixed racing task. I don't think I'm quite up for that over this terrain just yet but soon. And tomorrow  morning I pick up Andrew from Posznan so crew will be one less this thing to worry about. I flew past Ostrow and it was starting to turn weaker. Turned around an jumped across to a super highway of a cloud street and with all the water still on board blasted down there at warp speed. I met up with another glider along there and together we flew back to Leszno and further west.

Lots of things to take out if today. Find the sweet spot where the 28 climbs and is still a rocket in the cruise. I still need to work on my comfort in the glider and don't forget to bring food up there! I can really notice when I get mentally fatigued that a bit of food will bring me right back. This is what I did yesterday and it really brought back my focus but in the rush of this morning I forgot a few things. I'm working on that too