Day 1 – Cancelled on the grid.  FLAT TIRE DRILLS

…A bit of fire smoke, a bit of 30kph SW wind (which here just W of Hamilton and just N of Lake Erie which will eventually wash out the SOSA area of thermals so the launch window is time limited), and an approaching strong line of frontal storms described as a “squall line” by weather services, resulted in a fairly early call of the day by our expert past champion CD (Contest Director) Ed Hollestelle.  The sniffer (single pilot launched before the full launch is opened to check the soaring conditions) was seeing 30kph at 2000 AGL and was struggling to find 2 knot climbs and not be blown into the Kitchener class C airspace which guards the NW (and Toronto the NE).

To make matters worse, we had flatted our trusty main tire 🛞 (original I believe) as we pushed the glider its final few inches into our grid position creating a high pressure race against time for an expected noon launch time (around 11:15am).  We had to move the glider in front of us on the grid forward, and get our trailer positioned in order to use our trailers cradle-jack to lift the main wheel off the ground and begin the replacement process.  The German engineers who designed the ASG29 wheel and brake system received several course words from team 7T as we learned under pressure how to disassemble the main wheel/brake assembly.  Huge thanks to Jerzy S (XG) for lending us his spare complete main wheel assembly and saving us from having to change our tire and tube.  We would not have made the launch without that kind gesture.

We got very wet in our “wing water puddle” which we were forced to dump in order to get the glider up on the trailer.  Some muscle from the other pilots helped this process.  Most of the process was easy, but getting the brake assembly and axle lined up and back onto the wheel fork is extremely tedious.  It’s a rubics cube of positioning 5 parts in sequence and is NOT in the manual.  Fing Germans.  😂

After the task cancel meeting we got to do it all over again.  We had to change the tire and tube on our hub so we could return the spare the XG.  That process was far easier with the experience of the grid change.  Huge thanks to TF for the help on all of this!

Todays weather looks like another cancel, and it’s already wet, and the misquotes are vast.  Hopefully it will dry out now.  More as soon as I have something to report.

Follow the contest “officially” here on SOARING SPOT – https://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/canadian-nationals-2023-rockton-2023/

(Great to see the Canadians (thanks Dave!) adopting the global standard for contest scoring and reporting rather than creating an obscure, unusable, and unfindable outdated website for scoring and reporting like the Soaring Society or America defiantly does… 🤦‍♂️)