Olympus Cup 2008 in Estonia, first flight
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First flight August 21, Thursday morning

Fire alarm goes off at 2 o'clock in our dormitory but I do not wake up because I had not yet fallen asleep. The alarm turned out to be false, fortunately. At 4:30 Valdur and I are the first coffee drinkers in Väimela Bistroo, where Kattrin Puksa was packing balloonists' breakfasts in stryrofoam boxes.

Spordikeskus at 5 o'clock: the forecast. During the four hour insomnia it had occurred to me that the three tasks that I had planned for one and same intersection were too close to Karellioja target. I scrapped them and sent Darius and Daina to read winds at the launch field while we proceeded to have task briefing at 6:00.



LAUNCH FIELD IN TSIRGUPALU AT 6:32. FOREST GIVES SHELTER FROM WIND. RED FLAG FORBIDS INFLATION AND TAKE-OFF.

Fresh windreadings at launch field show that wind has changed. Above treetops it blows from 259°  instead of the forecasted 230° and at 338 meters from 269°, not from 230°.  (We must add 4° to magnetic wind directions when drawing the directions on our map. Darius gives heights in meters and speed in meters per second.)

Direction from Karelli­oja target to launch field is 233°. I am ready to scrap the task but Darius stops me. "Let them try", he says, "they are good pilots and the wind may change again". At supple­mentary briefing I replace the northernmost Hesi­ta­tion Waltz goal with one in wind direction 250°. I had called Jaanus Väljamäe and had told him to set the target at the coordinates.

Clouds are scattered and  their base is higher than forecasted. Green flag goes up at 7:10. Ilkka Korhonen is the first in the air at 7:22.


GINTAUTAS MOCKAITIS LOOKS VERY DETERMINED AFTER SUPPLEMENTARY BRIEFING. WINDREADING RESULTS AND NEW TARGET ON FLIPCHART.


ZYDRUNAS KAZLAUSKAS WANTS HIS BALLOON PULLED TO OPEN SPACE FOR TAKE-OFF. BIGGER IMAGE


AURIMAS VENGRYS NUMBER 3 HAS A CAMERAMAN ONBOARD. I BET HE GETS GREAT FOOTAGE. BIGGER.


BALLOONS STAY AT LOW LEVEL FOR THE FIRST TARGET AT KARELLI­OJA. PILOTS STEER TO LEFT BY FLYING LOW, TO RIGHT BY FLYING HIGH.


AFTER FLYING 8 KM IN 30 MINUTES THE BALLOONS APPROACH LAKE TAMULA IN ORDER TO SCORE AT KARELLIOJA ON THE NORTH EAST EDGE OF TOWN.

Only Tarmo Lievonen manages to drop his marker inside Karel­li­oja's two scoring areas. His result is 87.70 meters. Markku Män­tylä drops his marker outside of the SE corner of the scoring area. Close, but not close enough.

My directions to Jaanus had some leeway and Jaanus was not quite familiar with GPS. He had placed the target cross almost one km to South from the coordinates. Couple of balloons were approaching in distance when Valdur and I reached Jaanus. We rushed the target to the right place, the field where harvesting was stopped on Wednesday because of harvester failure. Ilkka Kor­ho­nen passed high and we did not see him drop any marker. Gintautas threw a 28 m result and Mindaugas Lycius 186 meters. No results at the two other Hesitation Waltz targets.


GINTAUTAS MOCKAITIS AND MINDAUGAS LYCIUS INSIDE THE SCORING AREA.


GINTAUTAS FLINGS HIS MARKER . . .


AND IT FLIES HIGH! BEST RESULT, TOO.
map of flight 1
RESULTS ONLY  IN KARELLIOJA AND JASSI. SOME COMPETITORS FLEW PAST THE OTHER TWO HWZ  TARGETS BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH.  [BIGGER MAP]
The tasks were very demanding in the available winds but the competitors showed great patience and persistence. Every pilot and passenger was rewarded with a long and beautifull flight.