Stalwarts and Unsung Heroes

International night

Ron Tabery and family

Uli Schwenk, jovial as ever!

Kerrie, Tom and David

Peter Carey

Tonight was "international night" in the large briefing hangar on the airfield. As usual, there was much guzzling of delicacies, washed down with alcohol in various guises. Pasta and Palinka, beer, bocconcini and bruschetta, wine and wodka........gateaux and grappa.........a fun mix of food and very sociable people made a great night.

The events of recent days have had a pretty profound effect on the Aussie team members who remain, as would be expected. At least this evening we all had the opportunity to mingle with our fellow competitors and teams in an atmosphere of friendly ambience.

Team Captain Greg has had some fraught and stressful times in recent days dealing with various police, officials and local "civil aviation authorities" and has done a sterling job in dealing with a situation that no team captain would ever want to find him/herself having to deal with, especially in a foreign country where one does not speak the local language, nor where English is widely understood. Thanks Greg for doing what needed to be done in "uncharted territory".

Thank you to Tom, Kerrie and Graham, Mark and Schmidty, who were there to de-rig Lars' glider, download traces from his logger, liaise, fetch and carry as was required, etc, etc.......... Truly, team support epitomised.

Thanks also to one of our Aussie team members who has to date not been mentioned in any of our blogs but to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude and whom we must congratulate for his invaluable help, intervention and proactivity and advice with Lars' predicament.

Our unsung hero is Peter Carey from Benalla. Peter is a Hungarian-born Australian. A quiet, unassuming gentleman who has really come into his own and been indispensable these past few days.

Peter has also been doing some "PR" with the locals and we all had an invitation to dinner with a local Hungarian family yesterday evening. Our host was a pilot with a local business and is friends with Hegedus Laslo. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality we were shown by "Willie" and "Kate" and it was delightful to experience local culture and family life rather than the restaurant atmosphere we've become accustomed to so far. We were also introduced to some fine old Tokaji (Tokay) and "home-grown" fruit Palinka, aka rocket fuel. The food was delicious and plentiful and Peter actually ate lamb, which he normally refuses to eat!

Serious business of flying tomorrow, and so to bed.............................