Day 1 - Nörüyon

To our amazement, they were able not only to finish the bleachers they were still building last night, but completely fill them up with spectators!!  It was pretty cool to have a giant audience and tons of press.  They must find girls in hang gliding to be quite a strange thing because Maria, Noel and I were definitely the most interviewed by the TV reporters.  

The kids helping out on launch are the best.  They're teaching me the important Turkish phrases like Nörüyon, which is something like "Wassup?!"  They got quite a kick out of a dorky lady trying to be hip.  The younger people tend to speak a tiny bit of English, which is always fun for joking around with them.  On the way down from launch there was a group of about six teenage boys walking down the dusty road so we piled them all in the van and took them down to the goal field.  It always ends up with heaps of giggling and no one really understanding much of the conversation.

Task 1 today was a 90 km run with 3 turnpoints coming back here to the local goal field.  Unfortunately, no pilots made it in.  Rumor has it that Suan made it the furthest, with Jochen probably second and Primoz probably third.  But, no scores yet.

It looked like a difficult day from the ground.  The beautiful little cummies we had yesterday were replaced with a totally different, dryer airmass.  The thermals looked to be a bit small and punchy.  I guess Jochen will report on the quality of the flying here at his blog though.