Friday, 26 September 2003
    The sun is coming up and the churchbells ringing in the village have just struck six. The sleepy competitors donning harnesses on their backs start trickling into the airport with their breath visible in the cool morning air.

    "Somebody changed my sandals for smaller ones," complains the limping Jaroslav Oulický, whose right ankle is now swollen following his hard landing yesterday and therefore prevents him from participating in today's discipline. The first task today is the same navigational discipline as yesterday. Just ten minutes after the start window opens, the trio of Pavel Březina, Ján Polák and Josef Káčer disappear somewhere far beyond the western horizon. The others take off successively over the next twenty minutes.



    A very weak northeastern wind is blowing and even though most of the contestants are delayed by futile attempts to find the marker which is poorly drawn on the map, Jožka Káčer is back at the airport shortly after 8 a.m. with Pavel Březina immediately after him, both chilled by the air and thus frozen stiff.

    "Briza, that backpack motor isn't worth shit, it's cold in it!" complains the chilled Jožka Káčer, the first to make it back to the goal at the airport in today's navigational discipline. An hour later the last competitor lands at the goal, the chilled-to-the-bone Gabriel Kaňuch, who spent a full two and half an hours searching for the poorly demarcated marker.





    Because of the errors in demarcating the said marker on the map, today's navigational discipline is annulled and it's time for hot coffee, hot dogs and bathing in the hot waters of the local thermal spa. Goulash is served at noon. After lunch there's naturally an hour for rest. Powered paraglider pilots are a pretty laid-back bunch after all ...

    "Economizing in thermals," a.k.a. flying with a limited amount of fuel, is scheduled for the afternoon. Exactly 1.5 liters of fuel is poured into each pilot's empty fuel tank, and he is timed from start to finish, ending with landing on a 50x50-meter deck. The first up in the air are Ladislav Smrek and Pavel Březina. By 2 p.m. all the pilots are in the air including the new favorite Vlado Tranžík with the unmistakable sound of his Trabant motor with which he crossed the La Manche Channel last year. Only Ján Polák has trouble with the start and unfortunately doesn't get off the ground till after the start window has already closed.




    After about 30 minutes of flight, Stanislav Vojtek and Ladislav Smrek land on the deck with empty tanks. Moments later Vlado Tranžík appears from somewhere carrying the 34-kg Trabant motor on his back. Jožka Káčer lands just ten meters short of the deck, and while the wretched thermals curse the ground and ruin the afternoon the trio of Březina, Škvarka and Kaňuch are trying to use up the remains of their fuel at a dizzying height in the clear sky. At 2:35 Gabriel Kaňuch lands beyond the deck with almost a liter of fuel left in his tank. After soaring up to an elevation of 1600 meters, his motor cooled down so much that he couldn't restart it. Matúš Škvarka and Pavel Březina battle it out in the air for another half hour and then land precisely on the designated square with Škvarka first and Březina roughly five minutes later.




    After a long wait, the late afternoon navigational task is cancelled due to strong winds. Not long after that Vlado Tranžík is gallivanting about on a tricycle pulled by a kite. Pavel Březina is the winner of today's disciplines and the overall ranking doesn't change much either. Like last night, after dusk the hangar turns into a cinema with films about flying and mountain-climbing. The opening of tomorrow's start window is set for 6:30 again.