In a previous post, I indicated that ENAC was involved in a change to the towing procedures. This was not correct. ENAC had no involvement. I have edited the previous post to exclude the reference. Yesterday at the pilot's briefing it was announced that there had been a tug pilots meeting and today's tows are very much improved.
After my trip to San Gemini, and Mike and Kathy's to Gran Sasso, we met up here at camp and drove to Jane and Orlando's for dinner. The meal was excellent, and the company even better.
Orlando, who owns a Restaurante in Rieti, grilled both chicken and quail. That, with all the trimmings, including a little Vina Rosa, really ended the day on a high note. On a low note though, Jane told me this morning that her daughter had fallen and broken her jaw. They don't know if surgery will be required, but are headed to the hospital, which is a three hour drive.
And today is Giorgio's birthday! After the pilot's briefing I set off for downtown Rieti to find a Pasticceria (pastry shop) to get a cake. Since they appeared to be repaving half of the city, and traffic was like Los Angeles, I turned back without the cake. Which worked out quite well as Giorgio doesn't like cake. We'll find another way to celebrate.
And now the Rest Day--August 3--from a Captain's/Crew's perspective.
We gridded this morning as we normally do, with Giorgio filling Kathy's glider with water and towing it to the grid.(Mike's glider was still in the shop) We attended the Pilot's briefing at 10:30 where we got a pretty negative weather report. Likely thunderstorms from the North. But, we had a 12:30 launch time. At about 12:10 it was announced that the launch was postponed until further notice and that there would be
a Captains Meeting at 12:30. At this meeting the day was cancelled and declared a rest day. About 1:30 we had the glider back at the tie downs and secured. We ate lunch and Kathy and Mike headed off on a tour of some of the monasteries. This tour was arranged at the last minute and had a total of 8 participants--on a brand new monster motorcoach. I stayed back because I needed to catch up on some work. I removed the tailplane from Kathy's glider and carried it off to the campsite where Giorgio heated out the dimples from the previous day's incident.
I sat down to start writing some reports while Giorgio repaired the tailplane support in the trailer that had fallen apart on the previous retrieve. No sooner than this was done, you could see thunderstorms building in the north--quite close. The two of us hurried out to disassemble the glider and get it in the box. With that done, it was now well past time to get started on some necessary chores--filling with gas, getting cash and recharging our three TIM cards.This actually took until 7:00. And now it was time to go to dinner! Back in my room at 11:30, I laid down and reflected on our wonderful rest day that wasn't!
Richard Maleady
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