[NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC

Fri Nov 10 06:01:00 AKST 2017

Australian Facebook post 1hr ago shows Anemometer reading 13.8 m/sec.  That’s 30.87 mph. Absolutely insane! 

From: NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org> on behalf of Jon Bruml via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Reply-To: Jon Bruml <jon at techstyles.com>, General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Date: Friday, November 10, 2017 at 7:29 AM
To: Vicente Bortone <vincebrc at gmail.com>, General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>, George Kennie <geobet4evr at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC

Go Team USA 

thanks Mark !

Jonathan Bruml

Techstyles

www.techstyles.com

_____________________________
From: Vicente Bortone via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2017 4:47 AM
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC
To: General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>, George Kennie <geobet4evr at gmail.com>

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Derek Emmett!!!!!

- Thursday – Round 4   FINALLY

Previously on How the WC’s turn:  Kevin got cake, Joseph flew well, CPLR got high scores, wind blue, rain fell, dogs barked. 

Tonights Episode: Team USA flying strong!

We have Blue Sky!!! I even have a photo to prove it!   I think the organizers are finally learning what the weather is like here in Argentina.  From 5am – 9am it’s beautiful!  Then it turns to ... well, it turns bad.

We started earlier than normal in an effort to finish up the final round of the preliminaries and still leave time for some practice prior to the Semi-Finals.   First flights were at 7:45 with Demo flights starting at 7:15.   It was a pretty sky with puffy clouds.  But don’t get too attached to any cloud in particular because if you blinked, it was GONE.  Winds aloft were ripping, and the winds on the ground were doing their best to keep up.  Winds were from the WSW which is a new direction for us, left to right pushing in.  

AC and Andrew are both fans of the early morning practice flight, which with an early start to the contest means a über early trip to go practice.  AC and Chuck were on the road at 5:30am and Andrew not long after.  Minor issue though, if you recall from yesterday, we had major rain storms and the practice site was a mud bath.  One of the vans got stuck and thankfully there are enough other knuckleheads that get up early to practice to help push them out.

AC, Andrew and Jason all still needed to fly their final prelim round and like you’ve heard me say over and over…they all put up great flights.  Scores though were sort of meh, and as I mentioned yesterday, CPLR scored a 505 on his flight, so all but a few people dropped this final round as a throw away.  

We finished up round 4 by 11:50, but scores weren’t going to be posted until 3pm, so it was off to the practice field once again for a few rounds of F-17.  By now the winds were quite strong,  ranging between 10-14m/s (approx. 20-28mph) pretty much straight down the runway.  It’s survival flying.  There was definite concern that flying in these high winds could end the contest for someone. On the rough and muddy grass field, anything shy of a good landing could mean ripping out gear or worse. The practice site was packed (see the photo of the vans…) as a lot of people “on the bubble” were anxiously putting up F flights in hopes of making the finals cut. 

By now most of you have seen the results, but if not, check out the main WC home page for the preliminary results. The USA has ALL FOUR… let me repeat that,  ALL FOUR of our pilots currently in the top 10.  Jason – 4th, Andrew – 5th, Joseph – 9th, AC – 10th.  More over, with no other Junior making the cut for the Semi-Finals, Joseph has secured a repeat title of Jr. World Champion.  We’re all extremely proud of him, especially Don.  But he’s staying focused on the job ahead which is making the cut for the finals.  

I’ve been watching all of these guys fly for many many years, and have the fun and honor to get to fly with them and compete with them on many occasions.  I’m always impressed by their precision, consistency, and most of all, their ability to handle the wind.  Today though I sat with the team from the UK, and several others groups, all of whom are here competing at this world championship level, and watching them marvel at our team’s ability to not only fly in this wind, but execute precision geometry, maintain pace and rhythm, hold their line and center maneuvers in Extreme wind.  It’s a pretty neat thing to be part of.

After returning from practice, I attended the Team Manager meeting at 6pm to find out the standings and draw the flight order for the Semi’s.  The process is simple, 30 pilots (representing 15 countries) will fly 2 rounds of F-17.  They put all the names in a hat and had each country (in alphabetical order) draw a name for each subsequent position.  Argentina went first and pulled Stephan Kaiser to lead things off and we went on from there.  BJ Park (Of BJ Craft fame) from Korea pulled the first American pilot, Andrew, for the 16th slot.  Unfortunately with 30 pilots in the list, and only 2 rounds, they will rotate 15 pilots for the 2nd line, which means Andrew is up first on line 2    It happens.    The other guys all have good draws and fly mid pack.  I’ve added a photo of the flight order for both lines.  With luck we will be done by 1pm before the winds get too aggressive to even have the contest.  For those that are wondering, winds at 12meters/second, sustained for 60 seconds would require a delay in the contest.  That’s a high bar though, as “Sustained” above that threshold for that long is truly storm conditions. 

This evening we celebrated another birthday as Derek Emmett leveled up to 54.  We’ve decided we really like having cake though, so we may elect someone else to have a birthday tomorrow.  

FINALLY, our translator arrived!!!  My wife Linda, who is quite fluent in Spanish, arrive from Buenos Aires via bus this evening to stay with us for the rest of the contest.  She’s been in Argentina the entire time, but let’s just say Vacation and Model Airplanes are two terms that in her mind do NOT go together, so she’s been busy touring the rest of the country.  I’m hoping with her here that we’ll have substantially less trouble departing town than we had arriving since we’ll be able to communicate a little better.

Wish us luck tomorrow!  I don’t believe we’ve ever had a US team positioned this strongly in a World Championship before (I don’t really know to be honest, but not in my memory).  We will be working very hard to hold our positions and ideally improve them against a very competitive crowd.  

BTW, a very sincere thank you to everyone that has left a note thanking me for posting updates.  It’s very much appreciated.  I know there is a lot of info out there from other people so it feels good to know that someone is reading this and the effort has value.  A lot of people, LOT of people helped us get here $20 t-shirts and $10 raffle tickets at a time.  So the teams efforts, these updates, the guys early morning practices, and late night battery charging is a small thank you for that support.

Photos:

- Blue Skies over the Airport!!!  It eventually clouded over, but this was still one of the nicer and warmer days here thus far.

- Tim Jesky and Don Szczuzrz in our Wifi “nook” at the inn we are staying at.  There’s no wifi indoors (our rooms anyway) so we’re typically outside in this little courtyard trying to connect.

- Andrew getting ready for his final preliminary flight

- AC and Chuck in Ready Box 1.  Notice the clouds are a bit thicker, and everyone is pretty bundled up.

- Jason’s new look… Delta knit cap over bucket hat, with ear muffs.  Yes, this is what he actually flew in.  Not for warmth so much, but as a way to keep the bucket hat on in the high winds.  You’ll notice in many photos we have our hood’s tied over our caps for the same reason.

- Van’s Van’s and more Van’s.  All with hoods open and charging battery’s at the practice site.  Too expensive to consider shipping generators, especially when you have to drive one to the field.  

- A foam version of Gernot Bruckman’s Pandora.  We are ALL interested to see how the 2m version performs in the high crosswinds tomorrow and possibly Saturday.  Thus far though it has surprised everyone.  

- TEAM USA!!!  AC Glenn, Andrew Jesky, Jason Shulman, all posing for a photo at the practice site.  Derek lined them up for a photo and the next thing we knew there was 20 other people in line to snap a pic.   This was a promo photo for Team Futaba, so that’s why Joseph isn’t also in the photo.  No worries, we will not let the 2 time Jr. WC go un-promoted.

- Derek’s B-Day Cake!!  And yes, it was delicious.  No ham OR cheese was to be found.

- Semi Final’s Flight order!

On Wed, Nov 8, 2017 at 7:55 PM Vicente Bortone <vincebrc at gmail.com> wrote:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN YOUNG!!!!!

- Wednesday – Round 4   Sorta…

There appears to be only two ways to wake up in Villa Gesell.  To the sound of barking dogs, or the sound of pouring rain.  They are as reliable as they are mutually exclusive. Given the forecast for the day, I was fully expecting to be awakened by the rainwater hitting the sand and concrete outside our rooms which can be quite loud.  It was an ironic twist to enjoy waking to the sound of barking dogs at 5:45am… it meant no rain.   

Indeed the morning turned out to be reasonably nice and flyable. True, we’ve substantially lowered our standards for what constitutes a “nice day to fly” but none the less the wind was moderate from the North East and it wasn’t actively raining.   Yet.    

Our schedule for the day was fairly relaxed as Joseph was our first pilot up at 11am.  That meant the morning was free for everyone to get in some quick practice before we camped out the rest of the day at the competition site.  As the morning wore on, it became clear the rain wasn’t going to be the problem today as all were prepared to fly in it.  But the cloud ceiling was a different matter.  Each successive flight seemed to spend more and more time in the clouds.  If a maneuver was completely obscured such that ALL of the judges concurred that it was not observed, then the pilot was offered a reflight.  The rules around this are simple.  The reflight must take place inside of 30 mins (there are a few exceptions to this) and the pilot flies the entire flight, and the judges judge the entire flight, however only the missed manuever’s score is kept and replaced in the original flight.  

This happened several times and it became a bit of a game to see if you’re tall maneuvers would synchronize with the holes in the cloud cover.  Some light rain also began to fall but that didn’t seem to deter anyone (did I mention we lowered our definition of nice weather to fly in??).  Joe flew his flight on time, and the “now you see me, now you don’t” routine resulted in his best raw score of the contest with a 468.  The score was mellowed a bit upon learning that CPLR had previously put up a 505 on the same line, but it was a good flight and a good score none the less.    Unfortunately that would all but end the flying for the day.

Just a few flights later the clouds continued to drop in altitude and one of the Turkish pilots had their plane completely disappear.  It was seen again some long distance out, but too far to recover control and it crashed.  They found the plane FOUR KM away.  I’m not sure which part requires more emphasis… 4 Kilometers (2.4 Miles) or “Found”.  Given the terrain, I’m amazed that it was recovered.   We all know the pain of losing an aircraft, much less an Oxai Galactik at the world championships.  It had to hurt after traveling so far.

The crash made it clear that the ceiling was too low to continue and they suspended the contest for an hour.  Rain began to get heavy at times, and the clouds only lowered.  By 3pm, after almost a 3.5 hr break, they officially postponed flying until tomorrow.  We will complete round 4 in the morning, and have the remainder of the day off to practice for the semi finals.

You’ll see in some of the photos what a truly miserable day it was.  The temperatures weren’t particularly cold, at around 63 degree’s, but with wind and rain, it was cold to be outside in it all day.  

We all headed back to the inn to dry out and warm up.  We all decided that our dinner plan last night was a good choice so we opted to head there again.  Tonight we were joined by another USA Supporter, Peter Collinson!!  He flew down to Buenos Aires a few days ago and will be with us for the rest of the contest.  It’s great to have so many people come all this way to support the team.  

After dinner we had a little Happy Birthday celebration for Kevin who turned 34 today.  We were a little worried that the cake might be chocolate covered Ham and Cheese, but it was actually quite good.  Our singing left a little to be desired, but I think he got the message.  

Tomorrow will be another early start.  It’s thundering and raining hard outside now, but we’re hopeful for a clear, albeit windy morning.  The winds the next three days are supposed to be epic.  Shifting from the west to the South (so blowing straight IN) at 15mph tomorrow, 20mph on Friday, and 22-30mph on Saturday.  Were really hoping that there will be a rainbow after the rainstorm so we can find the end and make a wish…to be somewhere else. 

AC flies at 9:30, Andrew at 10:06 and Jason at 11:28.  I would expect to get standings sometime early in the afternoon.  They will take 30 people into the Semi-finals.

Photos!  

- The Brazilian Teams Motor Home which is right on the contest site.  They really have quite the nice set up.  It was a 29 hour drive though, comparable to what our beloved Nor-Cal group endures every Nats.  Originally we thought they had the easy, inexpensive route to get here… but then we noticed gas was 24 pesos a litre ($5.50/Gallon).  

- Picture of the lunch area on site.  A little barren and wet.

- A crowd of cold pilots waiting to hear what the plan for the day is going to be.

- Creative tenting between two cars.  The wind was not kind to this particular approach.

- More plastic covering planes.  With virtually no shelters on site, this was a common scene throughout

- A photo of pure sadness.  Parts reclamation on what was a beautiful airplane.

- SNAKES ON A PLANE…er… SNAKES UNDER A JUDGE!!!  A little surprise pet for one of the judges on line 2.  Hamish from NZ has another excellent photo of the snake attempting to wind correct its flight as it was hurled out into the weeds.  

- Welcome Pete!

- Kevin and his cake!!!  

- I may have mentioned the number of stray dogs here before.  They wake you in the morning, and accompany you all day.  Every day.  Every where.  Here were a few in the restaurant tonight.  One found a home in the booth next to us, and the other decided it would be best to lay at our feet.

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 8:01 PM George Kennie via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

Hey Jay,

Good performance my friend ! Keep takin' it to 'em buddy !!!!!  Ya know , that Frenchman

really ain't that good !

Is this the first Worlds that Gerhardt Mahr has missed ? I don't see his name among the 

regulars !

Thanks for doing a superlative job of representing the good 'ole USA along w/ the rest

of the gang ! Pass along my congratulations please.

Go Team USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Georgie

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 5:59 PM, Jas S via NSRCA-discussion<nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

Judges are the same groupings and on Site 1, almost all the scores are with-in 1 point of Day 1 scores.

Jas iP

On Nov 7, 2017, at 12:28 AM, Derek Koopowitz via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

Christophe flew his flight 2 yesterday...

Get Outlook for iOS

From: NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org> on behalf of Jeff Worsham via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 6:27:35 PM
To: John Gayer; General pattern discussion
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC 

Should have said Flight 2.  Maybe Christophe practices in the rain?  

Team USA is looking strong!  

On Nov 6, 2017, at 7:17 PM, Jeff Worsham <jeffryworsham at gmail.com> wrote:

Interesting results on Line 2.  

On Nov 6, 2017, at 7:09 PM, John Gayer via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

First 2 days results at:

http://www.f3argentina.com.ar/day2.pdf

On 11/5/2017 9:16 PM, Patrick Harris via NSRCA-discussion wrote:

https://www.facebook.com/USA-F3A-World-Championship-Team-541836459181879/

Virus-free. www.avg.com 

On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 8:15 PM, Peter Vogel via NSRCA-discussion<nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

Facebook. 

Get Outlook for iOS

From: NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org> on behalf of Robert L. Beaubien via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2017 8:13:36 PM
To: General pattern discussion 

Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC

Where is this being posted so I can see the pics?

Robert Beaubien 
Drone Plastics 

From: NSRCA-discussion [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Vicente Bortone via NSRCA-discussion
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2017 8:04 PM
To: Derek Koopowitz <derekkoopowitz at gmail.com>; General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Latest update from the WC

Sunday – It doesn’t seem like we’ve been here for a whole week already!  FINALLY the competition is upon us.  There are many advantages to getting here a bit early, not the least of which is that everyone knows there way around the area at this point.  Early in the week we are pretty strict about all staying together.  “no man left behind” so to speak. That usually means a lot of patience when trying to coordinate a group of 9-12 people caravanning with 5 vehicles.  Every destination takes about twice as long to get too (so as not to lose anyone) and every task and decision seems painfully slow.  But as we become more and more familiar with our routes, and the various destinations, it becomes easier and more reasonable to separate from time to time.

Such was the case when AC said he was leaving at 5:30am to go practice.  

“um, Yeah… go for it.  Let me know how that works out. We’ll meet you at the contest site”   

“Oh…and take Chuck”

The real surprise??  The Russians we’re already there and set up to practice.  

The reality is that’s how all these guys are wired.  Andrew and Kevin were also gone early while the rest of us to headed to the contest site with Joseph and Don who were scheduled to fly 2nd at 9:09am.  

Let me start by saying this was THE nicest day we have had BY FAR.  Sunny most of the day, moderate winds (7-10mph and even calmer in the afternoon) and around 70deg.  For the first time we were able to spend a good part of the day without coats and hoodies on.

The organizers were kind enough to put all our pilots on the same line so we all flew on line A today.  It’s nice because it saves a lot of driving back and forth between the two lines which are at opposite ends of a mile long runway.  At 8:30am they began warming up the judges with several demo flights from Argentinian F3A pilots all of whom did a really nice job.  Up first for the entire contest was Steve Underwood from the UK.  He put up a nice flight and tolerated a lot of ribbing about having flown the best flight of the contest and being in 1st place.  It didn’t last long though as Joseph was second up and really put up a smooth, well paced sequence.  He got pushed out a little more than planned in his spin and was forced to move the plane back in a bit aggressively in the next maneuver, but all in all a great effort.  He was rewarded with a raw score of 439.  More on where that puts him in a bit.

I want to digress slightly to mention that without asking, without being told, our entire team was in the ready box area to watch and support Joseph's flight.  That meant that the guys at the practice site 25 min away had to pack up early and get on the road long before their own contest slot would have warranted, just to make sure they watched their teammate fly.  It’s a good feeling when the whole team is focused on the whole team.  

I’ll cut to the chase a bit and just say that the entire team put up fantastic first flights.  If nerves were present, and I’m sure they were, it didn’t show in their performance.  AC's debut on the world stage was not only well executed, but well received, putting up an admirable 449.  

Andrew followed with a 465, and Jason batted clean up in the afternoon with a 462.  Some relative scores on Line A for comparison, Stephan Kaiser flew a 453, and CPLR flew a 484.  

Notables on the other line, Gernot (Austria) flew a 462, Robin Trump (Germany)  a 451, Lassie (Finland) a 447 and Onda (Japan) a 427.

We won’t be able to compare the two lines until after flying is done tomorrow.  I wish I could post ALL the scores, but they never listed them, and they’re not yet up on the web site.  These are all from memory and discussing them with the various pilots.  It’s like trading baseball cards, “I’ll tell you Andrew’s and Jason’s score if you tell me Robin's and Gernot's…”. 

The atmosphere was quite festive at the competition venue all day.  There were actually a lot of spectators, many with families of kids.  The nice weather certainly helped the turn out, but it was encouraging to see so many people in attendance.  It sort of proves that with the right marketing, there is some interest from the community.  

I think the organizers have to be very pleased with everything about the event.  It seems to be running very smoothly.  That’s not to say there weren’t a few issues.   The most alarming was the full scale plane that attempted to land (the airport is officially closed) in the middle of the morning.  It was a little dicey as line chief stood in the center of the runway trying to wave him off.  For a minute we were getting ready to make a mad dash to clear the runway of people and planes, but he eventually got the message and we heard him throttle up to continue on.  His flight path following implied that he was a little confused as to where to go from there, but he eventually went on his way.  I’m guessing he’ll start paying more attention to NOTAM’s in the future.

Kevin had a minor wardrobe malfunction as the ties on his contest bib tore off one by one, but some creative cutting and some shoe laces alleviated that issue.  At least for the day.   We also had a little entertainment at Linda Jesky’s expense as a bum knee decided to temporarily give way leading her to re-enact the public service announcement for Stop, Drop, and Roll.  She was ok, but more importantly, it was caught on camera :) 

After all our contest flights were finished, we headed back to the practice field for a few more flights.  This time is was Andrews turn to be in the air when a full scale jump plane came in for a landing, touching down almost on Andrew’s centerline, while he was still in the air.    The practice site is still an active airport, but with minimal traffic.  On this occasion there was a group skydiving over the airport and the full scale was coming in to take them back up again.

The day ended with some rain moving in, packing up, and heading back to the inn.  We stopped at a local grocery/Walmart style big box store called COTO for some suppies, only to learn that Sunday is clearly shopping day in this neck of the woods and we waited in long, slow lines to check out.  Urgency doesn’t not seem to translate into Spanish here.  Speaking of Spanish, I doubled my Spanish vocabulary today by adding the word puntuaciones???.  Scores???  The constant question I'm asking to get our score sheets and hope to see a list of scores. 

Tomorrows schedule has us flying on site B, with AC up around 9:40, followed by Andrew and Jason before the lunch break, and Joseph rounding out the day with a 3pm scheduled flight.

We’re hoping for another strong day!

Photos – 

- Leslie finds an interesting surprise outside her room.  Seafood raining from the skies. NO clue how this got there, but the ocean is about ¾ mile east of us.

- Close up of aforementioned surprise.

- Steve Underwood (kneeling) and his caller preparing to kick off the start of the 2017 World Championships!

-  Don and Joe, watching Steve and mentally prepping for their flight.

- Our judge panel.  If you look closely, you’ll see our very own Don Ramsey is 3rd from the left.

- Joseph in ready box 1, about to fly.

- Andre from South Africa getting ready for his flight.  Andre has been SA’s top dog for many years, and now has Roston Dugmoor, former Jr. World Champion nipping at his heels

- Andrew and Kevin enjoying some lunch outside at the competition site.

- Likewise, John Bentley and his wife from Canada enjoying the lunch offerings.

- Russian Canopy!!!  The rebuilt Angle’s Shadow Canopy.  80gms (10 lighter than the original) comprised of foam ribs and central spine and Nylon reinforced tape!  It was an excellent fit and flew well for their young pilot.  A real lesson in overcoming adversity.

- Linda J. taking a roll down the hill.  She really was ok   And no, we don’t have a callous cameraman (chuck??), he happened to accidently capture her in the background of another image.

- Jump plane about to touch down.  Note the wind sock with we have been using as a center pole.

- Chuck, me, and our innkeeper friends that came out to the practice site to see what all these crazy American’s are really up to.

On Sat, Nov 4, 2017 at 11:22 PM Derek Koopowitz via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

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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-- 

Vicente "Vince" Bortone

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_______________________________________________NSRCA-discussion mailing listNSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.orghttp://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

_______________________________________________
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NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

_______________________________________________
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NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

_______________________________________________
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NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

_______________________________________________
NSRCA-discussion mailing list
NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion

-- 

Vicente "Vince" Bortone

-- 

Vicente "Vince" Bortone

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