With the airfield covered with snow, there was no chance for flying today and the day was officially "scrubbed". In gliding terms, this means "cancelled" or "bowling". However, with seven UK National pilots here, we decided to spend the day doing theory.
We all got together in Liz' tent and discussed "the process". Advanced gliding racing tends to be self taught and developed intuitively by individuals. There is no formal teaching or training process. So what we were aiming to do in formalize some of the thought and decision making processes and put structure around them so that 1. it can be taught and 2. we can practice it.
Decision making is at the heart of gliding racing and there will be a lot more on that later.
Top decision later on was to have a team pizza followed by late night shopping at Tesco.
Saturday, 30 March 2013
The Great Weather Game
Well, we traveled 1100 miles over two days through sunshine and lovely looking skies, all the way from Basingstoke UK to Vienna. As soon as we crossed the Austrian-Slovakian border the weather has changed dramatically from lovely blue to miserable grey and white, and we couldn't even see the tops of the hundreds of wind turbines. Then the one hour drive from the border to Nitra was in complete snow cover and very low cloud, very frustrating.
However, in gliding competition the weather is the same for everyone and rule number one of sport psychology is: there is no point getting upset about things you can't change.
Here are some pictures from the road and around the airfield.
On route
Nitra
However, in gliding competition the weather is the same for everyone and rule number one of sport psychology is: there is no point getting upset about things you can't change.
Here are some pictures from the road and around the airfield.
On route
Nitra
Thursday, 28 March 2013
2013 Gliding adventures
So this year I will be taking part in my third Women World Gliding championship and this time the training season starts early. I've been lucky in that my manager and my company has been extremely supportive and given me three months sabbatical which I intend to use to prepare.
Preparation starts today. Dave, my trusted crew, and I are in Belgium on route to Nitra in Slovakia, home to the Pribina cup, a prestigious early season European level competition, used by many top pilots as pre-season warm-up.
I'm writing this on my iPhone so more links and pictures to follow. In the meantime take a look at my other blogs from 2009 and 2011 championship, they contain a lot of information about gliding comps.
Arboga 2011 Blog
Szeged 2009 Blog
Preparation starts today. Dave, my trusted crew, and I are in Belgium on route to Nitra in Slovakia, home to the Pribina cup, a prestigious early season European level competition, used by many top pilots as pre-season warm-up.
I'm writing this on my iPhone so more links and pictures to follow. In the meantime take a look at my other blogs from 2009 and 2011 championship, they contain a lot of information about gliding comps.
Arboga 2011 Blog
Szeged 2009 Blog
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)