Flying the Taurus and Trip to Novi Sad

It's been 3 days since my last post and a lot has happened...

Wednesday, July 2
The day started with a trip to LX Navigation in Celje, where I took my Colibri GPS logger for barograph calibration. Celje is about an hour's drive from Ljubljana and I made it there just after 8 am. While waiting for the calibration to be done, I spent an hour in a nice cafe with a patio, checking my email.
Next stop, back to Pipistrel in Ajdovscina. Today is my last opportunity to fly the Taurus motor glider, because I have to be in Novi Sad tomorrow in order to get everything ready for the Serbian nationals. The weather today looks much more promising, so I am hopeful it will all work out. By the end of the day, it did all work out...
I got to Pipistrel around 1:30 pm and, after waiting for a while (a potential customer from South Africa was test flying the Taurus when I arrived) I got the chance to do my three flights in it. I flew with Tine, the company chief test pilot, who was very skilled and knowledgeable (which I expected), and very pleasant and helpful. The whole experience was just fantastic. First of all, I found the Taurus to be very comfortable, which for my 192 cm (6'-4") height can never be taken for granted. It is also very pleasant to fly and easy to operate. After Tine did the fist take-off, I flew the rest of the time, including 45 minutes of some very nice ridge soaring and thermalling. During the second and the third flights I did all the flying, including the taxiing, take-off and landing and the the engine operation in flight. The whole experience was fantastic - well worth the long journey to Slovenia on its own. Many thanks to Ivo Boscarol and his excellent and highly professional crew at Pipistrel.

At the end, I said goodbye to Tine and Ivo and left Ajdovscina around 5 pm. I first drove back to Ljubljana where I picked up my luggage and said goodbye to Milan. I left Ljubljana around 7 PM and, after an uneventful 5 hour drive, made it to Novi Sad just after midnight. There I was greeted by my aunt Olga, uncle Vlada and my cousins Nena & Bojan. We stayed up chatting for an hour and I made it to bed around 1:30 am. Vlada was kind enough to set up an extension to my bed, so that my feet don't hang over the edge.

Thursday, July 3
The next morning, I woke up at 5, courtesy of jet lag and excitement to be here, unpacked my suitcase and went up to the 5th floor to Sasa and Bojan's for an early morning coffee on their balcony. This has been our ritual for the past couple of years and it is one of the things I really enjoy. Bojan has set up a wireless Internet, so after we finish the coffee and the chat, I set up my laptop on the balcony table and check the email and/or update my Blog.
The rest of the day I spent catching up on my sleep and visiting Cenej airfield to check the glider I will be flying in the nationals, which I found buried deep in the hangar. It appears to be in good shape, and I will only have to set up my GPS logger. While at Cenej, I spent an hour chatting with Momcilo, the director of the Aero Club Novi Sad.
In the evening, I went to Rica's for a nice friendly evening in his back yard. Rica will also be flying for Novi Sad in the nationals and we had a lot to talk about. Lidia, his wife made some great pizza (for me without cheese). Zoran and Bilja were also there, as well as Pera Erski, the well known local journalist and gliding enthusiast, who back in 1972 covered the World Gliding Championship in Vrsac (in the former Yugoslavia), during the golden years of gliding in this country. Since then, it has mostly been downhill, but that's a story for another time. Pera has remained very active in his support for the gliding sport and will again be organizing the press coverage for this year's nationals. He is also planning to get me local media exposure (and maybe some sponsors) with regards to my trip to the World's in August.

Friday, July 4
Back having a 6 am morning coffee at Bojan and Sasa's. Peca also dropped in before going to work. After I finish the Blog post, I need to check my company email and then I am again off to Cenej airfield to work on preparing my DG-101 glider for the competition.