WGC2014 – Räyskälä, Finland
27 June (Third
actual competition day)
by John Good
This morning offered the most promising sky we’ve yet seen:
nearly clear (which in Finland means crystal clear), with some high clouds
receding to the southeast. It looked as
if it could be the start of a classic soaring day (a species rather rare in
Finland this year).
But it didn’t really work out that way. By launch time cumulus clouds filled the sky
and several were towering to heights that portended problems. All pilots found some good (occasionally
excellent) lift, but all had to pick their way around rain showers, wet areas,
and spreadout cloud. A memorable radio
transmission from Garret Willat to Sean Franke illustrates some of the complexities
of flying in these conditions: “Maybe we should try to stay above the freezing
level, so we can fly in snow rather than rain” (the point being that dry snow
readily slides off wings and thus doesn’t degrade glide performance as much as
rain).
Some very good speeds were recorded, especially in Standard
class. This apparently involved running
a shelf of cloud close to a line of towering cumulus clouds. Such a shelf can offer terrific lift, but
also severe gusts, lightning and possibly dangerous hail. Today, it worked well
for those whose timing allowed them to find it in the right state of
development.
The more conservative approach was to detour away from the
approaching rain. This was the strategy
employed by the Finnish pilots, who tend to be very savvy about the vagaries of
Räyskälä weather (some of them are professional meteorologists). The US Team followed their lead, but it
didn’t prove to be the right way to bet today.
Three of our pilots got home, though not with impressive speeds. Phil Gaisford wasn’t able to climb away from
1200’ in rain, and landed in a good field.
Heinz and Karen flew through extensive rain and eventually had to use
the “iron thermal” (their glider’s sustainer engine) to get home.
Continuing the theme of things that are different in
Finland, I’ll mention towropes. In the
US these are typically polypropylene of 3/8” or 5/16” diameter, generally held
to have a breaking strength around 1200 lbs.
Here at Räyskälä, the material is the same, but the diameter is around
an inch, yielding a rope that would serve to moor a fair-sized cruise ship –
I’d be surprised if the strength when new is less than 15,000 lbs. (A mechanical weak link at both ends protects
towplane and glider in case of problems.)
A towrope like this weighs a good 20 pounds or so, which yields an
evident “sag” in level flight.
The Finnish language is a major curiosity for visitors. It has an interesting and not unpleasant
sound, but bears no detectable relationship to any other language. (Linguists are said to discern similarities
with Hungarian, but native speakers of these two languages apparently don’t see
any.) For most visitors, this makes
problems: Finnish words have nothing in common with any word you can recognize
– indeed, if you find any connection at all, it’s probably because the word is
one that Finnish has borrowed from another language (e.g. “kahvi” is that drink
you enjoy with breakfast).
An example of the possible confusion came during a broadcast
of one of the World Cup games: early in the second half the Finnish announcers
were frequently heard to refer to “Ooksi Ooksi” which sounded as if it might be
the name of one of the players (later on, his brother “Cocksi Ooksi” was
apparently on the field). But no – this
was the score: Ooksi was actualy “yksi” (one) and Cocksi was “kaksi” (two). (The first five numbers are: yksi, kaksi,
kolme, nelja, viisi.)
To be fair, Finnish pronunciation is regular and reasonably
familiar – an English-speaking visitor can say place names without much
embarrassment after only a little practice (try that in Polish – or better yet,
don’t, if you wish to avoid confusing both Poles and English speakers). A helpful rule is that the accent invariably
goes on the first syllable. The sounds
don’t precisely match, as we guessed from a sign on a Rayskala water tap that
said “Do not trink”.
Smoking seems to be tolerably common but declining in
popularity. Just a few years ago rules
changed such that smoking is no longer allowed in restaurants and public
buildings – so the sight of smokers huddled outdoors is as commonplace as in
the US. Finland smokers unfortunately seem
to share the view of those elsewhere, that “the world is my ashtray”: cigarette
butts are a common form of litter in a country that is otherwise notably spic
and span. I haven’t checked the price of cigarettes, but I expect it is quite
high: Finland is not shy about taxing what are perceived as vices (the cost of
beer here is evidence of this).
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