Good Morning America!

We have five pilots now who have passed the rigor of the required technical inspection.  The fully equipped and ballasted sailplane is weighed, pilot weighed, wingspan verified with a laser, electronics checked, and, naturally, "now we must see your paperwork."

Ron Tabery will be able to pick up his sailplane in Bremerhaven today.  Yesterday, he was standing on one side of the Customs fence looking at his trailer on the other side. He mentioned that, if he had his bolt cutter, he'd be outta there, but, alas, the tool is in the trailer.  So, at this moment, Ron is dealing with Customs and zee paperwork.  It will take 10-12 hours to make the drive from the port to Leszno today.  The whole Team is standing by to assist Ron upon his arrival.

We are pretty well set up.

Communications:  Individual phones, sim cards, voice, text, Team base station, antenna mast rigged, handheld radios, internet, and rented Euro Flarms installed in the gliders.  All OK, but still ironing out phone issues.  We have Ben Mayes on that. He's our best hope at understanding the required technology. And, our Team Interpreter, Greg Swiderski, is Ben's best hope at understanding Polish!

Tiedown area:  Set.  We got permission to extend the area 10 meters.  We will shuffle the Team slightly, compact the available parking and thereby accommodate Ron when he arrives.  It's important to have all Team gliders in the same area for various reasons and I think, with the extra space, we've accomplished that. Water ballast is set up and working fine in the USA tie-down area.

Team office:  It's a swank shipping container with a door and a window, electricity and air conditioning.  We have great neighbors with Kiwis on our right, Aussies to our left and France, Japan and South Africa immediately adjacent.  The Austrians have set up a large tent here, as well, and we welcome them to our little enclave!

Today's weather features a front coming from the west bringing rain.  DB, AL, 2XX and 7K are rigged and may fly today.  98 is tweaking his flight computer.

Our pilots have been practicing effectively with our hard-working crews supporting them perfectly.

Official Practice opens tomorrow and the US Team is ready.