[NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC

[Derek Koopowitz]

Courtesy of Mark Atwood…

 

Saturday

SUN!!! We can see the SUN!!! Seriously, we woke up to not only a pretty day, but a warmer one. The highs were in the upper 60’s and with the sun out it was quite pleasant IF… ok, it’s a big if, IF the wind wasn’t blowing. But even the winds gave us a little break today, blowing in the low teen’s rather than the low 20’s. 

We left for another early start to the practice field today that was made all the better thanks to Leslie Hockhalter who with diligent searching managed to find us cheap insulated travel cups that actually hold more than a thimble full of coffee (or in my case tea). It’s the little things in life…

The practice sites were full today as everyone was getting in their final efforts. Even with an early start we were behind the Taiwanese who apparently must sleep at the field. The winds as I mentioned were less severe, but still not light. We traded obscene wind quartering out from the North East for merely heavy winds at a 90deg cross pushing in from the South. Better?? 

AC started with a few flights of F-17 before he retired that for the next 4 days and focused his remaining time on P-17. The noteworthy event of the morning came during Joseph’s flight when low and behold, we heard a full scale!! Now bare in mind, we have not seen ANY signs of general aviation here what so ever. So it was a bit of a shock to not only see a small private plane, but to see it at 1000’AGL coming straight through the center of the box. Joe had plenty of time to get down low while it passed. He resumed his sequence only to here Andrew yell “he just lowered his gear…”. Sure enough, Joe managed to land and clear the runway less than 30 seconds before a Bonanza touched down on our runway. We were told later that the airport isn’t actually closed. They just see very little traffic. NOW you tell us.

A few more flights and then we all packed up to go get ready for the opening ceremonies. For those that are unaware, the host country organizes an opening ceremony in the same vein as you see for the Olympics, albeit on a significantly smaller scale. But the idea is the same, with a parade of teams by country, and a little fanfare. We try to do our part to represent the US, dressing and working as a team. We arrived well in advance, were grouped behind a local representative holding our USA sign and proceeded to walk into the main area in a long parade among a surprisingly large crowd of spectators. Admittedly it’s fun to have a large crowd of people clapping for you as you’re introduced. 

After the opening statements and playing of the anthems, we were treated to a small airshow that included an RV-7 doing some low altitude aerobatics with smoke (lower and closer than would EVER be allowed in the USA I might add). They also performed a nice synchronized 3D heli demonstration (Also lower and closer than felt comfortable safe!). After that it was a nice party atmosphere with music playing, some food and beverages for the pilots and supporters, and a general meet and greet for all involved. A little social relaxation before the stress of the competition takes hold. 

Last event of the day was the team manager meeting for me, to learn the flight schedules and discuss any rules issues or procedural nuances to the venue. Mostly normal Q&A about various procedures along with some guidelines for how timing, scoring, weighing will be done. Most notable was a short lecture on the inappropriate use of some of the new gyro technology (it’s prohibited in any way, shape or form) and a reminder that this constitutes unsportsmanlike behavior which can result in disqualifying not only the offending individual, but their entire team. In other words, they take it very seriously.

We make a very concerted effort to have the whole team at every flight to support one another, which will make tomorrow a very very very early start as the guys will try to put up a practice flight in the morning and be back in time to see our first pilot, Joseph, put up his official contest flight at 9:09am. The others fly later in the day, AC @ 10:40am, Andrew @ 11:16am and Jason @ 2:24pm.

Fair warning, scores will NOT be posted real time. We will get our personal raw scores upon completing the flight, but a summary of scores will not be posted until the end of the day. On a plus side, with only 2 judge panels, we will get normalized, ranked scores after 2 days, rather than having to wait 4. I'm sure others will post, but I'll try to be sure to post the days scores here as well.

Update on the lost Russian canopy: It was never found, so they were up until 5am fabricating a new one, and successfully flew it today! When you’ve traveled 12,000 miles to compete, you find a way. Kudos to the Russian team for both ingenuity and perseverance. 

Photos:

- Random Beechcraft that arrived in the middle of Joe’s flight
- Sergio (flying) and Marcelo (Calling) from Columbia. I’m pretty sure they’ve been appointed the official translators of the US F3A team. Without them, we’d be surviving solely on McDonalds, Oreo’s and Pringles. 
- Local aerobatic pilot and his RV-7. 
- Team USA!
- A look at all the teams as they filed in and lined up near their respective flags
- Robin Trumpp and team Germany working on his new Karat biplane
- Team Canada: Xavier Mouraux, Michi Akimoto, John Bentley and his wife, and Hartley Hughson and his wife
- Team China – in an embarrassing twist of language diversity, Jenny, their helpful translator, had to help out the event director during the Team Manager meeting in explaining his English explanation, to other native English speaking TM’s. Say what??
- Collection of Team Managers from 27 countries
- Honey bee that decided the S in my hat was its soul mate. 
- Flight orders for all 4 days!

 

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