Shown here is one of the only photos taken that night and it is just before leaving for home--where I arrived at 3:30am. Mike's glider was damaged significantly, but has been repaired and is flying today. I believe that was August 1.
On August 2, after getting to bed at 3:30am I left for the airport @7:30 to turn in flight logs for both pilots. I had Kathy's SD card and turned it in. The scorer asked if I had Mike's card, and I told him I would get it as soon as I got the fuselage out of the trailer and the Colibri out. He said he needed it immediately. I think I may not have been polite. But I turned it in and apologized for being a little short with him. Then I walked back to the trailer to assemble Kathy's glider. Giorgio was at the trailer--he didn't get to bed till 2:30am, since he and Kathy had come to help Mike and I--and we rigged the glider. As I mentioned in an earlier post, lining up for the scales was a bit difficult because of the angle from which you approach.
I was determined to get it right this time in order to avoid having to take the glider off the car and moving it by hand, so I tracked a little farther to the right.
Giorgio and I were talking and he said to move a little to the left. Well about that time there was a loud noise, I hit the brakes, and saw the tail of the glider outside of the window on Giorgio's side. The wing had hit the fencepost and was slingshot forward. What happened then was absolutely impossible. The amazing thing is the extremely minor damage done to the glider. See before and after. And the tow bar has been untwisted and is completely fine. (Note from the editor: Following is a slide show of the wing mishap. If you don't believe what you see and want to see it again, keep watching. It's on a continuous loop.)
I am going to post this now and continue later. It appears as if both of our pilots are low and anticipating a landout. We need to get prepared.
Richard
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