More drama

It seems neither the competitors nor the organisers are having much luck. With great weather conditions this morning the flexwing classes set off on a navigation task, the marshals and helpers doing a fine job of handing out task sheets, collecting groundspeed declarations and then seeing the crews off one by one.

Then, a bit of unwanted drama. The German crew of Alfons Feldmeier and Stephan Wanner took off well inside the 100m deck and started their climb out until their engine coughed and lost power. The pilot elected to turn back but then the engine coughed again and the trike descended rapidly before hitting the ground. We watched from the quarantine area as people rushed across the airfield to the scene and called for medical help but soon the word came back that they were OK, though battered and injured. They won't fly again this week. 

Flying was suspended with the fixed wing and autogyro classes ready to go and waiting in quarantine.  Then the wind has got up while the local authorities have been conducting their investigations so we have seen no further action. 

The good news is that the flexwing classes will return valid scores from the morning's task but we need more flying in the other classes. We have two further days of flying after today and we need to put more completed tasks on the official scoreboard. 

A briefing is planned for later today and we may well fly an economy task; fuel has been weighed, fuel tanks sealed and pilots are resting in the hope of springing into action later.