Saturday, 27 September 2003
    The morning temperature falls to 4°C and just one minute after the start window opens, at 6:31, the 190cc engine in Pavel Březina's backpack rumbles as he takes off for today's navigational discipline in gloves warmed by a resistance cable. He is followed by Ján Polák, Stanislav Vojtek and Jožka Káčer. Vlado Tranžík has troubles starting today and doesn't manage to get his Trabant off the ground until just before the start window closes. As usual, there are concealed markers scattered along the 50-meter course with three turning points and two timing gates that the pilots have to fly through.



    Today all the symbols are placed and drawn on the map correctly. Only the changing direction and strength of the wind makes it difficult for the pilots to fly through the timing gates at precisely the right time. It's not even 8 a.m. and Pavel Březina is already puffing on his pipe and signing autographs at the goal. Still, he landed 7 seconds after the arrival time he had announced before the discipline began. But Ján Polák lands at the goal with a much greater delay, while Jožka Káčer touches down on the deck twenty minutes later at the exact second he predicted before taking off. Unfortunately he can't avoid losing points for flying through the first timing gate 15 seconds late.



    The afternoon activities for today are precision landings and a task with the odd name "Mini - Maxi". In the latter, the competitors have to fly down a 20-m wide and 300-m long corridor at a maximum height of 2 meters above the ground once as fast as possible and the second time as slow as possible. The difference between the two measured times is then given a point value. The first contender is Ladislav Smrek but he ends up on the ground during the second flight, as does Matúš Škvarka.

    "The thermals were really nasty in there!" grumbles Vlado Tranžík after finishing the discipline. During the slow flight he also fell to the ground several times and thus ended with zero points. After the two flights, Pavel Březina has the best time difference and so another bunch of points is added to the handsome pile he's already accumulated. One would almost think he wants to win …

    After some very spicy pepper sausage, excellent blood sausage, the mandatory afternoon rest and a short Delfin turbo-jet aircraft show, the economizing discipline with flying in the thermals is announced for the afternoon. Today's contest will be somewhat more difficult as the pilots have to touch the ground at two pre-determined places and must kick two flexible poles during flight. Fuel consumption for these maneuvers is remarkably low and after just fifteen minutes of flight Stanislav Vojtek lands with no fuel, with Ladislav Smrek following him seven minutes later. At 3:31 p.m. Matúš Škvarka lands, followed by Ján Polák and Jožka Káčer. High above the airport only Gabriel Kaňuch and Pavel Březina are the only ones battling it out to remain in the air, as Vlado Tranžík didn't start today because of a fresh crack in his frame. Attempting to stay in the air as long as possible, Gabriel Kaňuch ends with no fuel in a field beyond the railway tracks, which means zero points and sends the signal to Pavel Březina to launch into a victorious spiral above the airport.

    So the motors in the harnesses don't cool down too much, there's a slalom discipline with kicking flexible 2-meter poles scheduled for later in the afternoon. And because Pavel Březina, a.k.a. Bříza, always kicks well for his own team, he is naturally the winner of this discipline. A clear winner is starting to take shape in the overall ranking. And he probably wouldn't even lose if he decided to oversleep tomorrow morning.





    "I have a date with my town today, we're not going to the bar," the singer of the Slovak hard rock band Laxké Féčko sings at the hangar after dark. And the airport bar first runs out of rum and later even beer.



    "So I'm finishing the last Pilsner Urquell, I'm already pretty soaked," some unnamed pilots with guitars bleat from behind the hangar for a change. From the amount of ham, head-cheese, homemade bacon and all the various kinds of alcohol consumed, it's impossible to rule out that some favorites won't - to put it politely - blow off the opening of tomorrow's start window at 7 a.m.