Gliding in Liberec: Rana rally 2001
New adventures at a new location.
Oh, how time flies. Another year of our traditional 'rally' of slope modelers from the entire Czech Republic is behind us.
Due to unpredicted circumstances we had to change the location of the camp. This time we moved to the east side right next to the dome. The area was pretty tight so the tents were squeezed one to another. At least you got to enjoy your neighbors more (without trying to find out what they're having for lunch or what's all that noise they're making...probably nailing down something or repairing their model...whatever). But most of the time we were nailing down flies, lot of them. We also had to declare war on the local ants since their periodic night conquests of entire colonies on our breakfasts were inexcusable.
Weather was great. Immediately after arriving on Saturday a huge thunderstorm hit us. It looked like blinking light bulbs all around us.
We spent first week spent on the eastern slope - either on the top or we were flying at the paragliders landing area just a few steps from our tents. Sometimes we had to walk all the way around the hill to the south side.
Summer finally came the next week and it got seriously hot. To our surprise the wind was blowing from the north which is not very common (north winds + hot weather). Therefore, we were flying on the spot were the camp was for the last five years and sometimes we got the chance to check out the western slope facing the airport.
Also, the number of tents was doubled the second week - Prague arrived. Combat competitions started immediately. The outcome of a strong western wind in the saddle was about 20 combat pilots. Heavy dogfighting action took place. I'm rally not sure which job is worse - being a pilot or the referee trying to keep his eye on one model for a half hour in the finals and keeping track of shot downs.
The weather did not change till the end so everything was packed neat and dry.
At first we weren't very excited about the new camping area but on the other hand we got a different view of the landscape than in the past years. The sun was, however, setting a bit earlier behind the hill and we had no warning in case of a storm coming our way since they usually come from the south west (behind the hill).
Galerie
