Gliding in Liberec: Closing slope 2002
We had to reschedule the closing from Saturday 2.11.2002 to Sunday 3.11.2002 due to very bad weather. The situation on Saturday, fog, rain, freezing cold and God knows what else, wasn’t very promising.
Although I found out on Sunday, that even this kind of weather didn’t keep some serious enthusiasts and maniacs from hitting for the slope (I consider myself an enthusiast but lets use common sense here). The official closing took place on Sunday then. The weather got much better, the fog disappeared, rain stopped and even the sun came out for a while.
We got to the slope around 11 AM and the fresh South-East got us confused as we did not know if to stay on the Big or Little Zaskali. Common sense and Little Zaskali won. The temperature wasn’t exactly for sunbathing so the first important thing for us scouts to do was making the fire. The air testing followed and of course beer and sausages. But some of us were waiting for Victor, the fearless pilot whos new tactics were promising a new style combat machine. Yes, Windstar! (approx. 2m span balsa model). After his arrival, numerous attempts and mild collisions tooks place (once his rudder was knocked off but the pilot kept cool and landed safely and coldblooded. Few drops of CA glued fixed it) when four to five EPP Tornados were trying to put Windstar out of his misery. But the end was near.
Not knowing yet that in a short while he´s gonna need more than a few drops of CA glue.
At approx. 13:02 Mid Eastern time, 73 sec after takeoff a fast moving Tornado got in his flight path. This caused the geometry of the right wing to change substantially resulting in a unrecoverable spin followed by a crash (debris flying everywhere). The pilot tried to repeat his sharp reflexes and land but was unable to gain control of his aircraft.
Although we have exclusive footage on camera, this particular part is missing, naturally. After recovering the black box, servos, receiver and batteries the remains were cremated accompanied by the tones of the Imperial march (Star Wars).
Prior to this incident another crash occured where the pilot didn’t notice a bush (missing leaves at this time of year) and....well the elevator took a hell of a beating. The third crash that we witnessed was caused by a broken wing, which the pilot did not notice after a hard landing. This became fatal right after a new take off.
However, none of the pilots allowed this to take their good mood away from them. We had fun, grilled sausages, did a little combat, regular flying, etc.
And of course we had to gather up and pose for the memorable annual photo where we would like to that the main photographer of this scene for his patience and a job well done. THANK YOU!
We look forward to meeting on New Years day flying!
Galerie
