Travel Day - Epiloge

Up at our usual time as we have arranged for a "coffee only" this morning. The bill is all settled for our meals and I am all packed up.  Henry and Michi departed at 5am as they wanted extra time to process the boxes etc. John was going home today as well.

I headed to the airport and after a quick fuel stop and 2 toll booths later, I arrived in 1:38 minutes.
The only issue I had was at the car rental return where it was pointed out that there was a long scratch on the room of the car. See picture.

Not sure how this would even get there.. :-(

Now I have always videoed the car when I pick them up but I never done the roof. I did not park the car anywhere that this could have happened and Kelly said the same so.... I could not prove that it didn't happen while it was in my possession :-(    So a €270 charge was added to my bill... lesson learned.. video the whole car!

I checked in for my flight and then blogged away... all in all a great experience for Team Canada as we all did our best to represent our country. The Italian hosts all did a great job and even though there were a few bumps along the way, they sorted these issues out quickly.  The last Final's day was loooooong... too long for most people and this will be fixed in future events as there are reducing the finals down to 3 flights! This will allow for a dinner to start at say.... 6 pm instead of 9 pm. I think everyone would prefer that... including the pilots.

The next chapter of our trip starts now.......

Chad and Agnes dropped the planes into storage and are off to Florence and the Rome for the balance of their stay.

Safe and sound in storage.

I caught my flight out of Malpensa airport for Amsterdam and then on to Glasgow Scotland.

Over the Sion area of the Alps

On arrival into Glasgow my bag was first off and I quickly grabbed a cab to the Caledonian  University where I was met by Kelly.

The next part of our adventure has a new blog here https://kellydavescotland2019.blogspot.com/

Greater Victoria Police Pipe Band at North Berwick on Sunday

Finals

Breakfast and then it's off to the field for the Finals. Chad had received a request late into the night to fly the demo flight for the judges.  Not 100% sure what happened to the 11th & 12th place finishers?

Both John and I accompanied Chad & Agnes and we were able to successfully bypass the security check point as "Demo Pilot":-)  Seems that there is a total ban on anyone but pilots... the Team Manager for Demo Pilot worked :-)

He set up his plane and waited for the 20 person judging panel to settle in to their respective chairs. 

Conditions are ideal

John, Chad, Harry and Agnes await the start.

Awaiting the judges breifing from Bob Skinner.

The F-19 was pretty solid although there was a lot of clicking sounds from the scoring system!

The pilots will fly two flights of F-19 and then 1 each of the two Unknown flights

Unknown #1

Unknown #2

I took a numerous pictures of the Finalist's planes and then we headed back to the AirBnB for the rest of the morning.

On arrival back at the house, Michi was busy packing his primary for the flight home tomorrow.  Henry has his all done.

I wanted to post a few pictures of our accommodations for the last two weeks. It was located a short 8 minute drive from the flying site so the location was perfect for us. Also close to shops and various eating establishments. It had four separate bedrooms with a full bathroom attached to each one. They were very spacious and the beds were very comfortable (mine anyway!) Our Canadian Flags made us feel right at home :-) Cost was reasonable as each room was only €85 per night with a €5 fee for each "salty breakfast".  Everyone enjoyed the large patio as well.

We headed back up to the field to watch the Unknown #1 sequence flown by the finalists. It was very nice to see this level of flying. All of them put up good flights with only a couple errors observed.

The scores that were once available to the public quickly dried up as the organizers kept the results to themselves. When the second F-19 started some of us headed back for a shower to prepare for the last Unknown #2 flights, closing ceremonies and the banquet.

The flights finished and the crowd milled around for a bit awaiting the announcement of the winners. I found out that the awards would commence at 7:30 PM. Chad & Agnes headed back to the car with his plane. 

No the plane did not crash into the bush... Chad is packing the plane down the side road.

The final placing was taped to the board and everyone quickly took pictures and sent out the results. Canada placed 13th in team scoring.

Top Ten

Team Ranking

The pilots all gathered together for a group shot and then individual ones. It was a very hard fought contest and the winner was CPLR. 

Group shot

A winning team!

Arron takes home his new (to him) plane! Thanks AJ!

Jason

Kal & Joseph

Christophe and Gernot

The crowd gathers for the awards presentation

Group pose. Congrats to USA!

The doors to the banquet open at 9:30 and the place was pretty much packed. The dinner was served in courses with several different cured meats, artichoke, mushroom risotto, pasta and, while dinner came, they also presented each judge with an award for their work over the last week.....  and that's about when I headed out... it was 10:40 and I was done! I said goodbyes to a few of my friends and headed home.  Chad said they came out with meats etc. but the crowd had thinned significantly. Everyone was tired and I think the long day couple with the late dinner took it's toll... it did me in and I was just watching in the heat along with most people. The food was very good though!

I suspect this is one area that will be better in future competitions as there are plans to have only three rounds for the finals in the next Worlds. This will be very welcome for organizers, competitors and spectators I think. 

John and Agnes enjoy the Banquet.

Yes he is as exhausted as he looks!

I will head to the airport in the morning and catch a flight to another "World's" event as Kelly's Pipe Band is playing in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

Off to bed....

Semi-finals

Up at our usual time for breakfast.  We didn’t see Michi until after we had finished. He is tired. 

Chad & Agnes loaded up and headed to the practice field for a couple flights. While Michi and Henry packed planes, I headed up to the practice site to check on progress.  Turns out Henry and Michi skipped packing and went to Verona for the morning.

On arrival, there was lots of activity in the pit area as guys got the planes ready for the contest. 

The organizers hoped to start early but Air Traffic Control had training flights low level in the area.  These jets flew right over the competition site. 

Jets right overhead in the morning.

 The demo flight didn’t get airborne until 09:17 and then things got under way for the most part. 

Lots of great flying ensued with few mistakes evident. Unfortunately one Italian went to fail safe and landed early. ( his second aborted flight here due to fail safe issues. ) 

Team Japan gets ready.

Had a big screen TV for live scoring.

Judging panel at work.

Chad started assembling his planes early to prepare for his flight. We watched the first group complete their F-19 then took his turn. 

Eye lid check.

It was a solidly flown F and he was scored. 533... we will take it!! He was overall happy so that’s a positive going into round 2. 

Looks like Chad is carrying 11th into round two. 

One last voltage test.

 We watched the remaining pilots and then it was time for his last F flight. He put in a solid round and came off the flight line with a smile.  Best he could do! 

Agnes's smile said it all.

We cleared the planes and packed them back to the car for him. We did a short debrief then went to check scores. He received a 525. 

A very short debrief from John.

Team Japan packs up

A good score on this panel... so we now wait for the rest of the pilots to finish up as it slowly gets dark. It’s 8:02 PM as I type this with only Aaron Garle and Christian Nicholas to go. Both worked hard to avoid the falling sun. 

The last pilot landed in failing light at 8:23 PM and within 10 minutes they posted the scores for all to see......

Semi Final results

Chad placed 14th and that is his very best placing after numerous World events. We all headed back to the house and then relaxed... Michi headed out for sushi again :-)

The organizers contacted Chad and asked if he would fly the F demo in the morning.... off to charge a set of packs!

FYI - Due to restrictions on tethering my laptop to my phone I am finding that updates for this Worlds will be better served via the team’s Facebook page. I will recap via this blog but for now I will do my best to report scores etc from the flight line in the morning. 

Off to the rack... i am done!