Pilots arrived early for the Forbes Flatlands which begin on
Sunday the 3rd of January 2010. Lukas Bader, Leroy, and Bobby Bailey flew
Dragonflies in from Rylstone. Lukas said that they had hoped to fly low along
the river course as Bobby had done last year, but it was too rough, too many
gusts. They had all the cameras set up to film the adventure. There are seven
Dragonflies here and seven tug pilots.

Pilots were getting towed up at the Forbes Airfield on the 31st, so the flying
has already begun. Lots of cu's and mixed clouds yesterday. Green fields and
standing water along the road side. It sure doesn't look like a drought here.
There is a light rain this morning with a gray sky.

The Russians (Julia, Evgeniya, Anton) are here in the Apex caravan park with Tim
Ettridge driving. He's driving for them at the Bogong Cup also. I'm trying to
talk him into flying there instead.

Lukas arrived the first of December (as did Evgeniya) knowing that his Moyes
Litespeed had been almost completely destroyed at the shipper's warehouse in
Germany. He has a new glider (and now a few spare parts - the carbon outboard
leading edges) out of which he still has to tune out the turn. He says that his
broken glider was perfect.

Julia is flying an Aeros Combat 12L, the "Barbie" glider. She said that she had
flown it in competition before.

Francisco Rinaldi, the 2011 World Organizer (along with Flavio), is here. He was
a very generous donor to our efforts in Ecuador. I hope to have news for you all
about the upcoming pre-Worlds soon.