Wednesday August 6
    "People belong in cities and pubs, the hills and mountains are for animals", someone evaluates the situation as just before 11 a.m. the racers trudge beneath the hot sun along the walk leading up to the starting ground. The air has completely changed overnight, visibility is excellent and the temperature at the upper station of Lukova has dropped to 11°C. Juraj Kleja and Peter Vrabec use the thermal elevator again today and make it up before some of the young gentlemen walking up.



    A slight northwest wind is blowing at the starting ground and the air is noticeably cooler than yesterday. In expectation of excellent thermal conditions a 78 kilometer long discipline is announced at the briefing, with a starting point near the lower stop of the cable car, Otupné (a small lake), and, to the surprise of all, with only one turning point at Králova Hola. The goal line will be laid today at the small airfield of letišti Rohozná u Brezna and the start window open from 12:30 to 14:30. A "Speed Run" will be flown, so that each pilot will have his individual time clocked.





    First up as usual is Juraj Kleja, this time closely followed by Jaroslav Jandúch, who yesterday, due to recording problems with his Track Log on his GPS eMap (overwrite when full), lost the record of his take off and therefore his points for yesterday, despite having successfully reached the goal. Twenty minutes after taking off a group of 11 pilots are trying to get up by the crest of the nearby Ďumbier. Two of them are having a hard time of it and following a long battle finally land on the steep slope below the crest. As will be seen later, they are not the first nor the last who will have to down into the valley.

    Ten racers fly into the area around the turning point at Králova hola. They're in the right place at the wrong time. Five o'clock has come and gone and the broad shading of the entire area doesn't allow reaching the requisite altitude to fly around the point successfully. This means that most of them have no choice but to land near the village of Šumiac on the southern side of the crest of the Low Tatras. Even leading racer Mirek "Radar" Stěhula doesn't fare as well as he imagined he would. In the attempt to get as close to the turning point at Králova hola he is forced to land on the norhtern side of the crest and trek down to Liptovska Teplička. Pavel Dohnálek, Jaroslav Jandúch and Peter Hvôrka fare similarly.




    Only Juraj Kleja makes it to the goal after 3 hours and 36 minutes, having flown over the turning point at Králova hola more than half an hour before the others, and so he becomes the winner of today's task.

    Collecting the scattered pilots from both sides of the Low Tatras isn't at all easy and the transport bus arrives just before ten this evening. Mirek "Radar" Stěhula get to the Björnson chalet around 11 p.m. and Pavel Dohnálek not until twenty minutes after midnight. Not one racer has brought news of bears today, only several groundhogs were sighted high Iin the mountains. Those, however, are not dangerous to people as human flesh doesn't sit well with them and they tend to throw up after eating it. Only one change took place today in the overall placing of the race - Juraj Kleja pushed up to third place and so is back in the competition.