[NSRCA-discussion] What's going on at the WC?

Sun Aug 4 08:00:56 AKDT 2019

Day 6 - Opening Ceremonies

Sorry for the delay in reporting!  It’s Sunday morning here and we’ve had one official flight thus far.  Joseph flew first of our group at 8:40am, flew very well, and now I have a short break before Kal flies on the other line at 11:20am.

So back to yesterday…

Saturday began with a trip to the practice site for the day, with a planned early departure so we could be back in time for the Opening Ceremonies.

It was a picture perfect day. No wind to speak of, severe clear blue sky, moderate temps, and an empty practice site.  We continued to pick on one another with little nits about angles, positioning, presentation, etc.  Sergio and Marcelo from Colombia again joined the group, and later in the morning Seba Silvestri and team San Marino joined us as well.  For the last day of practice, it was pretty relaxed.  Everyone has adjusted to the time change, knows their way around the region a bit, and overall have become comfortable. Seems small, but it makes a big difference.

After everyone had a few flights up, we loaded up and headed back for the opening.  We made a radical departure from our normal routine and stopped along the way for some Italian fine dining… at KFC.  It’s no McDonalds, but it met the need.

Opening Ceremonies… For the uninitiated, this sounds like a bigger deal than it is.  It’s an attempt to create the pomp and circumstance that should accompany any international event.   With 39 countries in attendance, we have one of the more well attended Championships in recent years.

The ceremony consists of a parade of countries, each team organized together, followed by a presentation from the FAI president, as well as the Italian FIAM president.  That was then followed by a cultural program put on by our Italian hosts.  In many ways it resembles a massively scaled down version of an olympic opening ceremonies, only in this case we had a HUGE model helicopter pulling the flags and Italian flag colored smoke rather than a torch :)

Unfortunately the event was held late afternoon in the hot sun, minimal shade, and just long enough to notice the discomfort.  That said, the poor cultural performers were dressed all in black, full length layered outfits, and dancing and twirling enough that they had to be dying in the heat.  Kudos to the Italians for putting on a nice opening event for us all to enjoy

Following that was a welcome event for all the pilots and supporters.  Appetizers, drinks and general mingling.  We were all able to catch up with people we only get to visit with at international events, and meet new participants.  I spent a good part of the evening with two gentlemen from Iran who are here participating as the very first Iranian team.  Wonderful gentlemen, excellent English, and new friends.    And seeing them enjoy food and conversation with us, as well as the Israeli team reminds one that the bond of a common passion grossly overrides any thoughts of country politics.   Love this hobby…

John Carter and his Daughter have arrived (John is the US Judge this time) so we were able to spend some time with them.  He spent the day in a judge training program.  We learned through various conversation with him and other judges some of the criteria that was emphasized during the training.  Nothing new or particularly unusual but it certainly helps to hear what’s been highlighted.

The day ended with the team manager meeting at 9:15pm.  Reviewing procedures for each flight line - everything from parking instructions to how timing will be handled for each stage of the flight.   With 111 pilots, it’s going to be very long days for the support staff here and obviously for the judges, so moving things along efficiently is top priority.   A secondary priority is running a “green” competition.  They will not be printing any score sheets, only posting online after each session (morning and afternoon).  No running of generators on the contest sites, or running cars to charge batteries, etc.  As a side note, Italy as a whole is extremely into recycling, as every trash can everywhere seems to be sorted for paper, plastic and glass, with separate bins for food/bio waste.  Pretty impressive actually.

Last highlight of the day was the Arrival of Tim, Linda and Evelyn Jesky!!  After a very long day of delayed flights, missed connections (they got stuck in London) and challenging car rentals, they arrived safe and sound, ready to enjoy the competition and all things Italian.

Flight Details:
Joseph   - Line B - 8:40am
Kal - Line A - 11:20am
Andrew - Line B - 12:10am
Jason - Line B - 3:30pm
Brett - Line B - 7:10pm,

I will trying to update any scores as we get them, but official scores will be posted on the FAI web site under “Ranking”

http://fiam.ilpistone.com/wc19/category/rankings/

The current posts there are from the contest that was held this past weekend, but we should see first round scores sometime early this afternoon,.

Next report we will have some results!!

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________________________________
From: NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org> on behalf of Vogel, Peter via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 4, 2019 8:58:03 AM
To: Atwood, Mark <atwoodm at paragon-inc.com>; General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] What's going on at the WC?

This email is from an external sender.

I’ll do it Mark.

Folks, if I forget, ping ME!

Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
________________________________
From: NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org> on behalf of Atwood, Mark via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 4, 2019 7:25:09 AM
To: Jay Gerber <jaysgerber at earthlink.net>; General pattern discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org>
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] What's going on at the WC?

This email is from an external sender.

Can I implore someone to please cut and paste my daily post to the NSRCA Site?

If there is a place to upload all the photos, I will try to do that from here, but I don’t have anything set up.  I you can let me know where to post them, I will try.  Internet is reasonably good most of the time.

-Mark

On Aug 4, 2019, at 10:19 AM, Jay Gerber via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

CAUTION: Message originated from outside of Paragon. Use caution regarding any links, attachments, credential and financial requests.

AMEN.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 4, 2019, at 10:05 AM, Daniel Underkofler via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:
>
> Was hoping someone would take pity on us facebook-resistant types and send out updates on this list.
> _______________________________________________
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