Thursday 2000-8-17
    Because at the morning briefing the meteorologist of the Podbrezove Cup 2000 threatened with the possibility of more rainstorms, the entire racing group headed up to Karlova Hola early. He who paused at the village of Sumiac to look up towards the majestic peak of Kralova Hola had to admit that the meteorologist was, evidently, correct again.



    No one puttered around during the setting up of the wings and by noon about 100 hanggliders were nicely arranged along the sides of the three runways.



    An even of 78 km distance with on turning point, which today was the chateau in the village of Slovenska Lupca, was announced at the briefing. The goal became the usual landing strip by the village of Predajna, just several kilometers from our lodging at Lopej.



    A relatively quick soutwesterly wind indicated the possibility of easy holding on the hill and the first kick-off flyers, including several local paragliders only confirmed this possibility.




    The clouds behind the crest began to grow upward quickly and darken considerably, the wind intensified and at times unpleasantly turning to the West and the sunshine gradually lessened.



    Clearly visible concern began to form on the faces of some of the favorites, in regards to the rapid development of cloudiness and because northwest of the starting ground the first signs of an oncoming storm appeared, the runways filled with wings five minutes before the opening of the Start window.

    At the stroke of 30 minutes past 12 o'clock Jozo Kunik hurled into the air and in the intensifying wind immediately headed West. Other pilots quickly followed him while thunder sounded in the distance.



    The well-known peal of thunderbolts greatly increased the frequency of take offs and at times more than 5 pilots a minute were leaving the runway. It's a wonder that in such dense traffic other than a broken trapeze, whose owner was quickly pulled aside along with his wing, no collisions at all occurred.



    "No, the storm is more North. This side is safe", answered Juraj Sladky, who was already on course and had a good picture of the situation, by radio to the flight manager Michal Oravec's question regarding the possibility of cancelling today's event. So other pilots started quickly in sequence from all three runways and gradually disappeared in the West under darkening clouds.



    Approximately 15 minutes before 13:00 a well audible crackling and spitting of electrical charges began to sound from the pole at the top of the crest and grew continuously louder. Several minutes later the meteorologist, whose daily responsibility was the safe conduct of the race, with a decisive gesture indicated the closing of the window. By then electrical charges were crackling from the antenna of the flight director's radio, and the window was closed. At that moment only a handful of pilots were left on the runway and even these quickly flew off.

    On the 12th kilometer Vlada Koretz literally packed it in and decided to spend time with his family from tomorrow. Only 3km further did Honza Matejovsky make it and after today dropped from the top ten, in the overall placing of the Czech Republic Championship, by about 88 points. The same went for most racers running from the rain who were landing in the vicinity of Helpa and Zavadky. Some, however, were cleverly able to jump over to the other side of the wide valley and after a successful catch, continue West.

    "If you don't hear from me in 10 minutes, I'm sitting at the turning point", said the voice of Dan Vyhnalik over the radio at 16:50. Only four pilots were able to get all the way to the 64 km distant turning point, and of those only Dan Vyhnalik photographed the chateau in Slovenska Lupci, and still had enough altitude for about 4 km of flight back. Petr Nedoma was forced to land in the photo sector of the turning point and Juarj Sladky was lacking 1300 m to reach it. The 4th, Bohous Kolesar, landed 9 km before the turning point. And since Fero Nizner concluded his flight today by landing already at the 39th kilometer, he fell in the Podbrezova Placing by 37 points behind Bohumir Kolesara, who thus moved on into the vacated 4th position, behind the third place Petr "Pedro" Nedoma. Dan Vyhnalik and Juraj Sladky held on to the first two positions, just like yesterday, only with a gain of 34 points by Dan Vyhnalik.




    Today even the Hungarians battled, for whom the strenuous conditions on the course were seemingly helpful. Ujhelyi Balasz, with a landing at 30 km, immediately moved to 8th place, and his team colleague, Koacs Endre, to the 11th position in the overall race positioning.

    Petr Tucek, who, due to health problems, had to be taken to the hospital, unfortunately could not participate in today's competition round. Hopefully it'll prove to be nothing serious, up until yesterday he was second, and 5th after today in the overall Czech Republic Championship placing, and tomorrow he'll return to flying. Milan Mikulasek also hasn't been flying since Wednesday, for a change, he broke his glider so thoroughly that it certainly wasn't fit for flying, during Tuesday's start into a weak wind on Kralova Hola. On the other hand, Jirka Kocian who signed up for the Podbrezove Cup on its second day of running, moved right off into 63th place overall with his flight.