Balloon Competition in Estonia, Friday Evening August 22

 

Flight 4, August 22

Wind speed for Friday evening was forecasted to be 27 km/h at 300 m height, so we did our own wind reading and supplementary briefing at the edge of competition area, 14 km from the football field. Wind had almost died. We moved to another field only 5.5 km from the football field. After asking the Tallinn weather radar about possible thunder clouds near enough to be a hazard we raised the green flag, which means that pilots can start filling their balloons. Calling radar from launch field was our standard practice.

BALLOONS ARE WAITING FOR THE LIGHT BLUE FLAG. [79 kb, not same]

The task was Hare and Hounds, a task in which the pilots must follow a moving target. Hare balloon takes off first and other balloons must wait for five minutes before they can follow. Pilots can ask permission to take off only after a light blue flag is raised at signals point.
HOUND BALLOONS GO AFTER HARE IN TIGHT PACK. LAUNCHMASTER DARIUS GIVES HANDS UP SIGN TO ONE MORE PILOT. [66 kb, not same]

They ask for permission by showing a white flag outside their basket. A launch master first points his both hands towards the balloon he is directing and then gives the permission by raising both hands up.
HARE BALLOON IN HORIZON HAS A FIVE MINUTE LEAD.

I made Hound balloons to follow the Hare in close formation by ordering that they must be flying within ten minutes from light blue flag. Late take-off carried penalty of 100 points per minute.
COMPETITION OFFICIALS AT EMPTY FIELD. DEIVIDAS PACKS AWAY THE FLAG POLE, DAINA THE FLAGS.

Viktor Usanov helped me by being the Hare pilot even I made his task difficult. I told other pilots what I had asked Viktor to do: to fly over town and land along the highway. The element of surprise was taken away.
HARE BALLOON LANDS. TOWNSPEOPLE ARE EXCITED.

Balloons reach Keila and fly in slow wind leisurely over town, almost at the chimney level. Dogs bark everywhere at the strange noise the burners make. I am afraid they have hoarse voice to-morrow, or no voice at all. Kids on foot and bike follow the balloons, adults do it by car.
ALL BALLOONS LAND AT SUNSET. [75 kb, not same]

Hare escaped so slowly that some Hounds had passed it. It spelled trouble to them as balloons do not have a reverse gear. Viktor had no time to lay the target cross 10 m upwind from his basket. In such case the Hound pilots aim at Hare's basket.
BIG WHITE PIECES OF CLOTH IN HARE'S BASKET ARE ARMS OF THE TARGET THAT VIKTOR HAD NO TIME TO LAY ON GROUND. PILOTS AIMED AT BASKET, AND VALERIJ DROPPED HIS MARKER RIGHT ON TOP OF IT. -- THE STICKS WITH RED AND WHITE FLAGS ARE NECESSARY FOR POINTING MARKERS IN HIGH WEED.

Valerij is at his best when he has something box-like as a target. Now he dropped his marker on top of Hare's basket, 0.38 m from its center point. Tarmo Lievonen was second with result 4.50 m. The Hare would have won if no Hound got inside 100 m radius from Hare. Now Viktor's result was 99.62 m, 100 m minus the best result. That gave him rank 8 in the task. [RESULTS]


The center of low pressure was getting close. Weather forecast for the morning was awful: poor visibility (1000 m), rain, low ceiling (clouds 150 m from ground!). At 23 I canceled the morning briefing. We all were dead tired after  flying two days (Was it only two days?), we needed sleep. -- It rained heavily at 8 next morning. [FLIGHT 5] [ALL DAYS]