Competition Day 6 and July Fourth celebration

WGC2014 – Räyskälä, Finland

4 July   (next-to-last day of this contest)

by John Good

USA Fourth of July Slide in Daily Briefing (above)

 

Another good-weather day: warm (at least by Finland standards) and with plenty of sun.  Today’s tasks were long, but all pilots who started were able to get home - the first time that has happened.  And no pilot found any need to fly through, or even near, rain – another first for WGC2014.

To be fair, the conditions weren’t really as good as they looked (and were predicted to be), so speeds were well below what was confidently expected by those looking at the cumulus-filled skies of late afternoon.  Fortunately, the lift lasted late into the evening (as you might hope at latitude 61 north, in early July): the last contest landing was after 7pm (the pilot had been on task nearly 6 hours).

By that time, the US Team was hard at work grilling various meats and veggies for our celebration of Independence Day.  It was a fine feast, enjoyed by all.  One treat worth special mention was Finnish strawberries.  Finland’s strawberry plants seem to make up for a short growing season (and no doubt rather low yields of fruit) by packing remarkable taste into each berry.  Those who haven’t encountered one will surely be thinking the taste can’t be much different from fine strawberries elsewhere; those who have will think otherwise.