Round 4 - finished the Preliminaries & Semifinals Draw

Up early as I drove Kelly to the airport for her flight London and on to Glasgow, Scotland.

We left at 7 am and arrived at Malpensa Airport's Terminal 1 at 08:42. This gave Kelly lots of time to check in and catch her flight.

While I was doing the driving, Chad was preparing to fly his final P-19 round under much nicer conditions that the evening before. The judging panel was brought back and the preliminaries were finally completed.

 Chad had a good round but the scores were not what he wanted. Life goes on.

I arrived back at the airBnB in time to relax and then head up to the Casa Bianca site for the Team Managers meeting. The results were announced and posted on a table as well as the website at http://fiam.ilpistone.com/wc19/2019/08/08/results-for-preliminary-flight/

The TM's all gathered for the draw to see who was flying when. The pilots will all fy from the A site from now on as the B site has been taken down... or it may have been washed away last night... not sure :-)

Team Manager's Meeting about to get underway.

Here is the draw for tomorrows flying.

Chad will not fly until mid afternoon so plenty of time for a few practice flights in the morning I suspect.  He did head to the practice field with Agnes and I joined them after the meeting for lunch at the site. The Japanese team were hard at it as well!

The Japanese team tries to stay cool in the man made shade.

They are a machine!

Chad and Agnes endure the heat.

We returned back to our place and prepped for the big dinner and raffle tonight at Casa Bianca... should be fun. Chad and Agnes went off exploring.

Michi started to take his backup air frame apart.

I drove Michi & Henry up to the flying site for the Spaghetti Dinner & Beauty Pageant... yep you read that correctly a Beauty Pageant!   The host family through a nice dinner for us including a beverage of choice. It was so good all of us, including John went for seconds. 

After dinner they started the show and we watched as they basically had a contest to determine the most qualified candidate to go compete for Miss Italy in local competitions.  I though it prudent, as Team Manager, to ensure the safety of my team by investigating further. We will be ok!

It's not difficult returning "home".

Round 3.9 - Preliminaries

Up at our usual time for breakfast. A few stragglers today as we have the morning off.  

Our pilots fly late in the afternoon and into the early evening so a quick trip to the practice field is in order.  Chad, Michi, Henry and I headed off while Kelly gets packed up as she leaves for Scotland in the morning. Agnes and her will head into town later this morning for some supplies ( read big spray!) and lunch.

On arrival at the practice site we met up with Gavanas Charalampos from Greece and Nicolas Georgiades from Cyprus who were just packing up to head to Flight Line A for Nicolas's flight.

John arrived at the practice site and the guys put in a several rounds. Henri was going to just relax and watch the flights today as he says he is as ready as he could be. More discussions ensued on setup, judging criteria etc as we try to coax the maximum points out of each maneuver. 

The Ukrainian team arrived and we exchanged pleasantries. They put in a flight each and then bolted to the main site for their rounds later.

Michi puts in a practice round under the watchful eyes of the de facto judging panel.

We packed up and drove back to the airBnB passing the Japanese entourage going the other way. We cleaned up and relaxed as Henry does not fly until 16:00 today at Line B. Michi will follow at 18:00 then we change venues to Line A for Chad at 19:20. 

Henry was up first at Line B and we reminisced about his last Worlds 34 years ago in 1985!! He laughed at how long ago that was. 

He had an OK flight but never really got into a rhythm with the wind. He scored a 396.50 after having his plane re-weighed.

We posed for the obligatory group shot after his World's competition ended.

We watched the flying and talked with many different pilots and friends. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere although the flight line was starting to push the pilots in an effort to get done before the rains arrived. Dark clouds filled the western horizon.

The crowd gathers for Michi's flight!

Michi was next up and had an OK flight. Strong winds made him work hard to maintain position and he did get behind the plane a few times. All in all he was happy.

Michi's planes in the pits.

CPLR watches Michi's flight

We packed up and moved over to the other flight line for Chad's final P-19 flight. the weather was off to the west but the radar was showing a large cell headed our way. Chad got his planes ready in the parking lot and we then waited for his turn. 

Chad gets ready.... planes are together.

Ominous clouds on the western horizon.

 At this point we had four pilots to fly at Line A and the rains started. We all moved the equipment under shelter as both rain and winds increased. Chad took his backup apart and loaded it into his van while John stood guard over the primary ship.

Dark skies turned ugly!

Chad takes the #1 air frame apart and stores it in the van... which btw is parked under the awning in the pits now!

Rain anyone?

Andrew is about to launch.

Andrew Jesky took his backup Proteus up for a ceiling check once the rains stopped while Chad reassembled his plane.... again! Unfortunately the skies opened up and he quickly landed in moderate rain. The folks on the field quickly took cover.

The Contest Director called the flying over for the day and the four pilots on Line A and three pilots on Line B would fly on Friday morning sometime. (nothing official as of yet but 9 am was mentioned... we are awaiting official notification of the times from the organizers)

Chad once again packs up his plane. He is getting good at it!

I planned on attending the Team Managers meeting to pull Chad's draw order for the Semi-finals that go on Friday but with the weather issue it has been postponed. Once the preliminaries are completed then the draw will take place.  I will also post the individual Round 4 score sheets once they are released after everyone has completed their respective flights.

As I am scheduled to drive Kelly to the airport in the morning, I have made arrangements with the officials to have John Bentley attend the TM meeting if I have not returned in time.  

We grabbed pizza on the way home and relaxed a bit. With everyone exhausted we all hit the rack. Day 4 continues tomorrow morning!

 Ciao from Italy

Round 3 - Preliminaries

Up at our usual time for breakfast and then off to watch Chad fly his third preliminary flight. As I have mentioned before, we are lucky to all fly together in the am or pm. We don't have to put in super long days like the US team. 😱

Chad was up at 08:50 on line B and the sun was hanging just inside the right box marker. Once again a solid, consistent flight with very few observable errors.  He was rewarded with a 439.70 score. 

Battery check for Chad.

 

 

 

We then moved back up to flight line A and watched the flying as we will wait for Henry’s flight. Both his planes were assembled and ready to go when we arrived. 

Henry and John await their turn to go.

Henry in action at Site A.

He had his best flight to date with solid elements & no major errors. When he came off the line he felt it was the best he could ever do. I couldn’t ask for anything more. 

Score: 416.50

 

 We watched various flyers as Michi put his planes together for his 3rd preliminary flight. 

Michi preps his primary plane.

Battery check

And away he goes on his 3rd preliminary sortie. Solid flight with a couple issues with baseline changes. He felt good after the flight but only scored a 403.90

 

Post flight pose.

 

 Lots of planes available for pictures....

 

We all headed back home to change and freshen up. Dave took the afternoon off and went sightseeing with Kelly. Chad and Michi headed to the practice field while Henry watched some flights. Agnes  and John chilled. 

A couple pics from Dave & Kelly's day at Lasize.....  very relaxing. Kelly loved the shops!

Round 2 - Preliminaries

Sleep in day as our team will all fly the afternoon sessions today.  Yahooo!

So for those attending the Worlds, we don’t necessarily know what day it is or what date it is as these particulars are lost on all of us... but we all know it’s Day 2 😄

Yesterday we discovered an issue with Michi’s stab alignment. Some residual paint had distorted the fuse tube causing the plane do things it shouldn’t. The guys teamed up and sanded out the tube, taped the tube to ensure a tight fit and then reassembled the stabs.  Looks correctly aligned now. 

Chad and Henry dissect the stab tube and resolve the alignment issue.

Michi is relieved after watching the guys work their magic.

Off to the practice field where Michi did some trim work. Much better now. 

Stefan Kaiser was there along with the Ukrainian & Czech teams. Timing was good as they all left and the field was ours. We took our time as we are only planning a few flights ourselves.  John provided us with a nice lunch with sandwiches, fruit, chips and mini doughnuts :-)

They all got in a couple of flights and then back to our Airbnb for some relaxation and prep time for our team's flights this afternoon.  Michi is up at 15:20 on line A,  Chad is up at 16:40 on line B and Henry is up at 18:40 back on line A.

Our batteries finally arrived. Special thanks to the Americans for the effort!

Michi gets his voltage check

 Michi had a good flight with some minor in and out issues and some geometry issues with his 1/2 Cuban 8 with full roll. He will do better in the morning I am sure. He scored a 403 for his efforts.

Chad preps for his afternoon session at line B

Voltage check.

What a team!

Chad had another solid flight and scored a 457 (I believe) and is in the mix for sure. Henry had a strong flight and was very happy with it. Some in/out issues but overall well flown.

We packed up, headed "home" and then went out for Sushi... Michi was happy with the choice.

Dinner

Home and in the rack.... AM flights tomorrow...