Earlier this summer George Metcalfe and Alan Jacobs (pilot and crew respectively) entered Euroglide 2004, a 2000km gliding race starting and ending in Eindhoven in the Netherlands and en route reaching close to the four corners of Germany. George, who flies his ASW-28 from Lasham, started gliding in 1976, has some 4350 hours and has flown extensively in UK competitions and been on expeditions to France, Spain and Austria. This is his account of the race. The photos are by Alan

Unlike a standard gliding competition, when a different task is flown each day from the same airfield, during Euroglide the competitors are on the same task every day but flying from a number of airfields. Everyone starts from Eindhoven, but after that it’s the pilot’s choice how far he goes, where he lands and where he next takes-off. The ultimate aim is to complete the course and return to Eindhoven via the predefined turning points in the shortest time. Some make it back sooner than others (the differences counted in hours and in days) and some don’t at all. Pored over the maps till midnight. Each team has an allowance of distance which can be travelled by road (or by air for motorgliders and turbos) so that they can be sure to get to a launch site, or to a limited extent can make tactical moves to position best for the weather. There were 18 glider and 20 motorglider teams. Starting From The Back Euroglide started with a briefing the evening before the first contest day. Everything was very relaxed and friendly but as the briefing progressed it gradually dawned on me that I was inadequately prepared. Unlike a normal competition where the organisers brief you every day on the things you need to know, particularly weather and airspace, I suddenly realised that I had to do it all myself. I had acquired all the right maps (eight different 1:500 000s to cover the task area), but I hadn’t even started to draw the route and find out about the airspace and airfields. I must admit I felt very daunted by the prospect. Everyone else went off to the welcome party while I returned to the hotel to pore over the maps. I didn’t finish till after midnight, but by then I felt much better about it. The problem looks more manageable when broken into chunks than when you see the whole task on one page! The task area. I was on the first row of the grid and launched eager to get going - no held start line in this comp. Unfortunately, I was back on the ground 15 minutes later. Even more unfortunately I was not back on the airfield. Never before have I landed out in a field before the grid has even finished launching! But in this competition, while I couldn’t say it didn’t matter, at least I could just go back and start again. So, at 1400, two and a quarter hours after my first launch, I took off from Eindhoven again. This time it was 3.5m/s to cloudbase and I was on my way, with the sky all to myself. Objective Klippeneck. I never realised how much high ground there is in Germany, and how much relief. It makes for interesting scenery and flyin