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Prefecture of DRAMA – Municipality of PROSOTSANI
Day 1, Task 1 52km
After a week of unstable conditions and thunderstorms finally the weather become more stable as expected so the 110 registered pilots in the competition was going to fly their first task in the first day of the competition. The task committee sets a relatively easy task along the mountain ridge in order to have many pilots at goal. The flying conditions were not very strong and some pilots had troubles at the beginning of the task, 28 pilots at goal and a very promising beginning for the competition.
Day 2, Task 2 63km
The conditions were stable with almost no wind, over 2000m there was light North to North-West wind the task committee was wandering to set a task for the pilots involving a crossing of the Valley or just stay at the safety of the mountain and make the spectators happy because they will have the opportunity to watch the whole task. Finally the task was along the mountain ridge. At the window opening the conditions were too weak and pilots were waiting for each other to take off after 15minutes the braver ones began to take off. After almost 4 hours of flying the first pilots were at the goal line, 6 pilots reached the goal.
Day 3, Task 3 53km
The temperature was rising in the previous days so in the third day of the competition it was to hot and stable pilots got up at the take of early there was nil wind and it was to hot. All pilots were thinking if it is going to be a flyable day or not because of the overheating. For a moment the task committee was joking about to set a 4 km task from start to finish. After some thinking the task committee decided to set a 53km task with a crossing of the valley at the last part. The window opened a little later than usual to get better flying conditions. For most of the pilots the first turnpoint was no problem most of them reached second turn point, far away to the north there was some over development but it was too far away for the moment, the meet director and the task safety committee was watching carefully the clouds. A group of 20 pilots was crossing the valley and some of them reached the third turn point and were to ready to goal but at this moment the over development started to reach the mountains behind the take off so the organization decided to stop the task for the safety of the pilots. 30 min after the task stopping the gust front came and there was a severe rain and hail. Every pilot was happy that is on the ground at this time. Despite the overheating if there was no over development many pilots would have reached the goal line. But every one was happy, organizers, pilots because in a three day competition they had three flyable days.
Hope to see you in Drama for next year’s competition
Safe landings
