Round 1 - Preliminaries

Up and at it early this morning as we have our first competition day. 

Henry is up at 08:10 so he went up early to get his planes ready. John will meet him up at site B.

Kelly and I followed with the competitor bibs for both helper and pilot. On our arrival John was helping assemble the backup and I checked the flight line clock and general field setup. 

Bib numbers are as follows...

20  Chad

30  Henry 

41  Michi

Henry is ready for his first P-19 flight.

Henry has his battery voltage checked and then he was given a minute to check the radio. Then a 2 minute time period to hook up the batteries and get the airplane out to the runway. (The time limits are an  effort to stop delays.)

Battery check for Henry's back up.

Once the wheels touch the ground then the 8 minute timer is started. He must complete all required maneuvers within that time or be penalized a zero score for each one that is not completed. 

John calls Henry's first flight.

Henry’s flight went well but the winds took their toll as they grew stronger with altitude. Overall a good first effort! 

Post flight.

Michi’s turn, flight was good with some minor wing position issues. He was happy overall.

All set to go.

Michi in the ready box.

 We packed up and moved to site A for Chad's flight .

Battery check for Chad's back up.

Waiting on the flight line.

Chad and Agnes wait their turn.

Chad put in a solid P-19 round and  flight.  The scores have been updated and I copied a list below. computer shows a third place on this panel. Individual score sheets are here 

We stayed and had lunch at Casa Bianca and then headed back to the airBnB to get changed and then come up with a plan. I am thinking practice field :-) 

 Kelly played her pipes while we headed to the practice field. Henry is struggling to maintain the “practice schedule” so he is taking the afternoon off. Chad, Michi, John and myself headed to our not so secret field and found numerous teams there. Japan, Lichtenstein, Greece, Israel and of course the Czechs (they are camped out) 

John parks in the soy beans for effect... actually for shade from the hatchback!

Luckily they are all leaving so we were soon alone with the Czechs👍 who went silent. Numerous flights ensued and we decided to "group tune" Michi's airplane. We succeeded and he should be much happier now. We packed up and headed home. 

The gals found a super mall and have many bags loaded into the car....  these are the pictures I have been sent!

Mayday! lol 

We walked over to the food festival a block away and after figuring out how to order, enjoyed a nice meal of calamari, mussels and lasagna. Gellato for dessert!  It was a great authentic food experience. 

We left and headed home... and a huge fireworks display started! We enjoyed it from the roadway. For such a small little town it was amazing!

 

 Off to bed...  but before I go, a shout out to the Greater Victoria Police Pipe Band on their way to the World's in Glasgow.... safe travels! see you soon!

Official Flights, Practice Day 6 & Opening Ceremonies

Alarm 06:30, shower, breakfast and on the road... repeat!

I checked my email and received the following pdf from the organizing committee. It shows the official flight order for each of the four groups of pilots. It’s color coded for easy reference.  Yellow is Henry and Michi’s Group and Chad’s is blue. All pilots fly at different times so there will be no issues with manpower although we did prepare for that possibility.  Also we fly together either in the morning or afternoon. 

Today we headed up to Field B at the Worlds Site for our official flights. We have not flown here but have been following the reports of Marcelo Velez and Mark Atwood. 

Judges Station Line B

 We are the very first team to fly this morning and the conditions were near perfect with the exception of the sun. It infringed on the right side of the box. With the use of the sun evader it will work.

Plane Assembly

Michi preps his Excess Bip

Henry gets his primary ready.

Planes assembled and at 08:30 Chad took to the sky followed by Michi and finally Henry. All flew well under sunny skies and realatively calm conditions.

Agnes calls the P-19 manouvers for Chad.

John calls for Henry.

 With the flights complete, Kelly, Agnes and I headed over to local hotel that will host the managers meeting tonight. I wanted to check it out in the daylight 😄

We returned to the Airbnb and then left the gals (they are shopping today 😱) as we went to our practice field.  It is not the largest field by any stretch but it will certainly help with practice between official flights. There was only two teams there when we arrived, the Ukraine team was there along with the Czech’s who camped out overnight in a caravan.

 Frantisek Pokomy prepares for a flight.

We were soon joined by Gernot Bruckman and then the Japanese team. Looks like only one more flight today as time will be a factor.  Gernot's Pandora was popular with the fliers as this is the first time most non European competitors have had a chance to see it up close.

The Pandora is huge.

 And yes... Henry has one on order :-)

 We ate a lunch of sandwiches supplied by John Bently... best helper ever! 

We watched Chad, Gernot and Onda fly there F-19 sequences. All solid flying by each pilot. 

Front row seating for us.

With time winding down, we loaded up and headed back to the airbnb to prepare for the opening ceremonies this afternoon.  Of course we left Michi to practice another flight.

At Casa Bianca, the teams all gathered and then paraded around the field led by a flag waving band. It was followed by some speeches by dignitaries and a helicopter flight with flags flying and neat smoke show. The "Flag Band" then got going with a lengthy demonstration of various flag waving skills. It was interesting to see but seemed to stretch a tad long. All good though!

We then all went into the beautiful grounds and enjoyed a drink and a buffet appetizer while meeting up with old friends and making new ones as well.

Chad signs the new book on the history of F3A.

We then headed back and spent some time at the Airbnb. The open area at our place is very inviting and relaxing! I headed over to the Hotel Della Torre for the managers meeting.

Mario covered all the usual points and reviewed the procedures to follow at the two flight lines. Team Managers only need their ID to access the flight line. 

Back home... and into bed!

Practice Day 5

06:30 Alarm, shower, breakfast then off to the practice site. 

We chose a closer field that was only a 20 minute drive from our place on more rural roads... very pleasant after the A4! 

John was already there waiting for us... hey he is keen! We parked alongside the field and started flying. Unfortunately Henry cracked his right gear on his first landing and was out of commission for the time being. I tried to use my contacts to get a hold of Andrea Stockwell but no joy at this point. 

Henry prepped the gear leg while Chad put in several rounds. The Japanese team arrived and after the usual introductions they joined the flight order.  I was busy trying to contact Andrea Stockwell of the South Africa Team 🇿🇦  Once again Mark Atwood came through and after a bit of time we got chatting on WhatsApp. 

Another repair coming up.

The Japanese offered their advice on the gear repair.

 It was good to see these guys fly the P & F schedules as we had a front row seat to the action. 

The Czech team of Milan Valenta and Frantisek Pokomy also arrived and joined in the flying order. They had a super paint job on the Ultron. 

We had several flights and then the gals arrived and brought out a lunch for us. We had huge fresh made sandwiches stuffed with meat and cheese... all very good! 

Awesome service as lunch was delivered to the field! Thanks Kelly & Agnes.

More flights ensured and we had front row seats to the Japanese team members.  They all flew well under wind conditions. We even had a close look at the 32MZ.

The gals headed to the lake while John drove up to the contest site to retrieve the carbon fiber tow that Henry needed to make repairs. 

Who says Z bends don't work!

Weather is going to turn!!

Chad was done flying so Michi put in one more flight before we packed up under threatening skies. On the way home the skies opened up and the winds increased dramatically.

The drive home featured some major weather with wind & rain.

We finally communicated with Andrea Stockwell and arranged for the CF tow to be picked up at the contest site. Henry went and grabbed it. 

Repair number 2 underway.... Michi assists.

While sitting around the table we received a Facebook post containing the flight order for Sunday's flying. It did not show times but listed the contestants... Henry is up #2 on Flight Line B, Michi is #14 on the same line and Chad is #20 on Flight Line A.... all on Sunday morning. 

Seems odd to see this post before the Team Managers have even seen it... such is life in the cyber age.

We drove into town and had a nice dinner in the main square then to the gelatto shop for a desert.