July 9, 2008--Competition Day 3

For those of you reading this blog I apologize for not writing yesterday. We're all a bit tired from the activities of the last several days, and I didn't feel that I had a lot to say about yesterday afternoon. By the time I sat down to write the news we did have, I started getting reports of landouts, and that made it quite difficult to write.

After the short tasks of Day 2, we had much longer assigned speed tasks for Day 3. And unfortunately, the weather did not work out as predicted. It was quite a bit weaker and also a lot more blue. Jonathan and Manfred landed out--both very safely. Chip, Francois and Pat abandoned the task and landed back here, and Mark completed the task with a very respectable speed.

We had to make a trailer change for Gigi for insurance reasons, which entailed license plate changes. As it turned out, Alessandro Brutini, who has assisted us throughout the contest in many different ways, decided to ride with Gigi to help with the retrieve. Carolyn was pretty much ready to go and I programmed Manfred's coordinates into my Streetpilot and loaned it to her. Jacob--Pat's crew--went with Carolyn to assist. I am very appreciative of the assistance all the crew members have given to the other pilots and crew when neeed. It has made things much easier.

Crew and pilots were together by 9pm or so and returned to the field around 11pm. A long day for everyone, even the ones who landed back at the airport.

A couple of nights ago, Francois and Dottie came into the campsite and Francois immediately comandeered the entire office table--he said it was only a quarter of the table--and began assembling his newly purchased electric grill! It seems he just wanted some grilled meat. No pasta. After assembly he looked for a place to use the grill. Dottie told him he couldn't use our plastic table, and that the grass was a little too dry for it. Finally finding a suitable table, Francois plugged it in--and promptly blew our only circuit breaker. So after removing all the load on the breaker he was able to cook for about 2 minutes before the breaker went out again. He stationed Dottie by the breaker and just kept cooking.

Five of us drove to Cantalice for dinner and we all wondered if Francois and Dottie would have their meal cooked before we got home. I guess they must have, since they weren't here when we arrived.

More soon

Richard