Day 1, Sun 14 July
The ferry  was excellent, and had all the facilities... bar, casino, cinema. We arrrived in Cuxhaven (Hamburg) ok and found the first two hours slow going due to the number of villages we had to drive through. Once east of Hamburg, we speeded up and eventually arrived in Pasewalk at 5.30pm. The German National Aerobatic Contest was being officially closed and there were speeches and prizes galore. They had around 50 pilots in two classes flying, and a huge party last night. The facilities seem v good, the airfield is huge and flat, as is the countryside locally, but is quite hard and bumpy, though perfectly acceptable. The "Hotel Am Park" is where we are staying, it is nice with helpful staff.

There are hundreds of wind-turbines around, and the buildings are either immaculate German style, if lived-in, or very run-down and empty... perhaps people fled to the West when the wall came down.

After a quick breakfast, we rigged, and did a couple of training flights. The "Box" is well marked and we watched the Russians, Hungarians and Dutch fly too. The official opening is Tuesday, with first contest flights on Thursday. The weather is balmy with light winds... feels like it could thunder. Paul and I cheekily found a place in the hangar for for glider hoping that would save the need to de-rig.

Dick Happs and Judi Jones who are working on the Judging line, and part of the British team arrived from the airport in Berlin by road in the evening.

Day 2, Mon 15 July
Good weather, warm and light northerly wind. We unstacked the glider and made our way out to runway 27 and operated from there in the morning. The wind picked up and became a bit much for the Wilga's, so after a lunch break, we reset on runway 09. I flew a total of 3 practice runs, and so did Paul. I had problems keeping in the box with my free programme but otherwise flew ok. Paul is flying well. Dick helped with judging tips, and Judi gave moral support. Busier day with plenty of people...the two Makula's arrived with the Solo Fox, and the Austrians appeared later too.

Ate at a local Pizza restaurant, then saw the hotel owners horses.....I still cannot get on-line!

Day 3, Tue 16 July
I flew one practice, went ok. Registration went ok and I still failed to get on-line. We had the opening ceremony in the town at 6pm; the speeches were very short and the ceremony consisted of a fly-past and modern version of an oompah band. A glider (Cirrus B) was rigged in the square and several members of public appeared. After the opening briefing in the main tent...fairly informal as the tent was shared with the caterers, we ate at the hotel

Day 4, Wed 17th July
Early breakfast and thence to briefing. I was listed as the 3rd pilot to fly, so after untangling the glider from the tight hangar-stack, we got to the launch point. We launched on 09, and with the cross-wind from the left, I decided to try reversing the direction of my opening 1 1/4 spin... the second figure, the upline 1/4 roll was tricky but I got around; it felt strange, and I wished I was bi-directional in all figures. The main drama was the Wilga towing me, it left the ground and climbed at a speed of only 105 kph ! I struggled to maintain control and nurse the glider airborne... I nearly had to force-land in a field. The Wilga had lost power and the pilot decided to try and maintain his usual climb rate! The tow took 25 mins! Paul then flew 10th, and we stacked the glider tightly again. I had a flirt with the website and tried to put something of interest on it. The very helpful Stefan, webmaster showed me a few things, but without him there later, I found the site very unintuitive and tricky.

Dick and Judi settled into the judging role and had several briefings from the Chief judge who ironed out several queries. They had to hang around before a halt was caused by the approaching rain and winds.

I had a walk in the rain with Paul into town... not a lot to see, but we reccied the shops. I then snoozed for a couple of hours to pass the time. Will probably be a slow day tomorrow as the flying list only got just over half way through.

Day 5, Thurs 18th July
Weather prevented any flying... low cloud. Paul and I went to Peenemunde  and saw the museum; this was fantastic with much memorabilia from the experimental days of rockets, plus static displays of old Warsaw Pact Aircraft.

Ate at the hotel with Dick and Judi and went through the judges quiz they set... well worth it as we cleared up a few queries.

Day 6, Fri 19th July
Weather scrub again. Visited the nearby town of Prenzlau with it's large lake and lovely church. Ate at a restaurant on the lake edge and nosed around the local village of Roperdorf. Stopped to have a close look at some of the many wind-generators... they are huge. Things at the field very quiet when we dropped in later, I took a few photos of the site, then back to the hotel.

Day 7, Sat 20th July
Non flying day...weather.

Day 8, Sun 21st July
The training flights finished today, then we de-rigged the Swift due to forecast CB's. An impressive CB arrived mid-afternoon with a gust front.

Had discussions about the Unknown sequences today; there was a bit of a free-for-all with voting and excessive discussion. The French and Germans believed a sequence unsafe due to a low speed entry into a rolling turn; we agreed it was not ideal but felt it safe... the Jury should have put their foot down, but took a vote, then went against the vote, and went with the German/French proposal anyway!

Day 9, Mon 22nd July
Weather poor again, no chance of flying... Manfred called briefings at various times just in case. I went walking in Pasewalk with Kristina; she showed me the various places. The others in the team went to hotel Pasewalk to enjoy the pool, sauna and massage. It is starting to look worrying now as we are running out of days to get a contest in.

Ooops, Dick and Judi's car got hit by Charles Kalko who carelessly reversed at the airfield. Form filling at the police station etc.

A late night in the bar for some.

Day 10, Tue 23rd July
6am breakfast, 6:30 brief... cloud and wind... hang on, then rebrief, then rebrief. The wx is becoming better than expected which makes a scrub decision difficult. planning on tea and cakes at hotel at 3pm with Kristina for her birthday. After the lovely family session with tea and cakes, we rebriefed then actually flew! First contest launch was at 1750, I flew 4th and thought I had zeroed the slide... still had not seen the score sheet the next morning. Seems that I am 28th out of the 31 that flew. Steak for dinner !

Day 11, Wed 24th July
Rain! Went for brief at 1000. Manfred stood us down till 1330 whilst rain passed, so back to the hotel. I wrote the Unknown Programnme-1 on my black paper and queried the numbering on the master copy which had not been properly printed after the debate last Sunday.

The improvement came, and we flew. There were problems though with challenges about the wind... especially from the Poles. 10 m/sec is the limit, and a Team Chief conference was called to approve a Jury exemption to this... we increased it to 12m/s... it still blew stronger, so we scrubbed after just getting into programme 2. We staked our glider out and retired to the hotel. Paul's programme was spoiled by a zero for fig 2... he nailed things nicely on the up-line, then kicked rudder too early and fell out.... rest ok. Even Panfierov flew a sloppy slide.... almost as bad as mine.

Starting to become a session in the hotel with the Judges...... think I will go to bed, Paul will be second to fly tomorrow. If the weather, if the
Poles...if the cloud.... if if if... 

Day 12, Thurs 25th July
Put in a protest re the harmony marks from Programme-1... upheld! So my scores will improve. Paul and I both flew very well in the Programme-2. Showers later, plus numerous stops for wind limits. Ate Pike later, a very popular local dish. We may get a comp in yet, forecast good tomorrow. Paul and I are listed late to fly... may just make it.

Day 13, Fri 26th July
Cloud again. At 1130 Manfred declared the contest over and announced that it would not qualify as a European Champs due to the lack of flying. We de-rigged JZP and refunded unused tow tickets. Back to the hotel where Paul and I had moved into Kristina's flat! They needed the other rooms and asked us to move... it helped them out. We prepared for the closing ceremony in the town at 1800.

The ceremony was in an old Army stable building that had been renovated, there were numerous speeches in German; we could still get the gist though. Manfred the Contest Director apologised for implying in one briefing that a team may have been unsporting by applying the rules too literally..... Manfred had clearly been frustrated by the weather.

Food was fine and the live band good. I ended up with lipstick and eye shadow on, apparently. We Brits shared a table with the family who ran our hotel... we really had a good rapport with them.

Day 14, Sat 27th July
Paul and I set off from the field with the trailer at 0815. The club is getting back to normal with a T-21, Bocian, Puchacz, Foka 4, and Pirat
rigged. They were getting out their winch, plus numerous powered  aircraft were staked out... obviously there is a keen power club too. The members were having breakfast on their patio in sunshine and light winds!! Typical.

Journey ok, got to the port with bags of time to spare. Cabin ok. There were many women clearly on a hen-night marauding around... Paul and I had an early night.

Day 15, Sun 28th July.
Went from the ferry to the public roads in record time....Immigration waved us through, and no sign of anyone to check the trailer. Back at Bicester at 1230. Stopped to get a newspaper on the way to read of the tragic accident at the airshow in Lviv, Ukraine. A SU-27 killed 78 people.

Paul had a quickie in the Duo Discus after we washed the trailer, and dropped me at home.

That's it folks!

Jamie