Day #1 Worlds

Morning update:

Our first Competition day! P-13 is on the menu.

Chad & Agnes headed to the Henley airfield early to get a couple flights in. Michi, Will, Colin and Ethan all followed about 40 minutes later. I followed them out and after stopping to pay the landing fees, I headed up to the main site to get the flight line schedule. We elected to not attend the social as the drive and time involved were prohibitive (Up early today etc.). I heard through the grape vine that it was a nice event.

The event staff at the main flying site had kindly made multiple copies for me the night before so I quickly found them, borrowed a highlighter and marked out the Canadian pilots schedule. I give every team member a copy (no excuses!!!) and also put one on the wall at our accommodation.

Preliminary Schedule through to Wednesday.

 I went back to the Henley field and enjoyed a great breakfast that was served by some wonderful ladies right at the site. Very good and I understand that they will be there throughout the week providing meals all day long.

My breakfast with coffee... 40 rand :-)

The guys all got in a couple flights and also watched Andrew Jesky put in a round before heading up to the main field for his P round today. As Chad flies after Joseph Szczur, we will see plenty of the American team over the course of the preliminary rounds. 

The guys went for a quick breakfast as well after I told them about it :-) Gerhard Mayer also arrived to fly his Trigantic but I headed back to the Manor House to get Kelly and... well up load this blog update.

Argentinian Facundo Cepede's Diaguita Bipe

Diaguita Bipe at practice this morning.

It's now 10 am local and Kelly and I are about to head up to Site #1 now as Chad will be the first Canadian to fly just before lunch. The rest of the team flies in the afternoon winds :-).

Evening update:

We quickly arrived at site 1 and found Chad and Agnes talking with Diane and Ewi Plettenberg. CPLR was flying and put in a nice round. We later heard that a helicopter had buzzed the flying site moments before and he was forced to restart his round. The organizers had put out a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) informing pilots of the event but this fellow clearly did not read them.

Chad got his planes ready as we continued to watch the flying progress. Pretty sold wind conditions blowing about 25 kmh made everyone work hard to make good radiuses and loops in the Cuban 8.

Dave and Chad await the start.

Joseph Szczur was ahead of Chad so we all met up with the US team that came out to watch him fly. He did very well given the conditions.

Chad was up next and flew pretty well. Winds were much stronger than it felt on the surface and he had a few soft spots. A good start to build on given the conditions and nerves of course:-)

Michi was up next and he did a good job considering he needed to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes leading up to his flight:-) He was a bit nervous but held it together for the flight. The spin entry was a bit soft but some fine tuning and he will have it down next flight.

Michi puts in a round on the stick plane.

Voltage check.

Michi is next up.

Ethan was the next Canadian up to fly in the afternoon order and had a very good flight. Minor things to work on but a great effort considering this was his very first worlds. In fact this was history making in that he was the first ever Canadian Junior to compete at a World Championship.  He did us proud.

Ethan awaits his first round as Canada's first Junior.

History was made...Airborne for the first junior F3A flight for Canada! Proud? We sure are!

Colin had to wait a bit as he was near the end of the afternoon session. Some of the most interesting flying was the landing portion as the approach was over rough terrain and onto a curved portion of the race track. Many pilots moved to south of the flight box to facilitate and easy landing. Unfortunately the Swiss pilot Reto Schumacher landed and then hit the barrier. The Oxai Citrin is repairable but it will require some late night maintenance to return to the competition. We wish them well with repairs.

I made a run over to the main competition building and retrieved both Michi and Ethan’s scores. Chad had already picked his up from the board.

 Colin is oh so ready!

Colin finally took to the skies after a long day. It took a toll as his flight was less than what he expected of himself. No zero’s but some areas to work on as well.

Sunset over the Henley Aeromodellers Field

We loaded up and headed to the Henley field for some practice. Everyone put in a round or two before heading home to a nice braai. It was great!

Day 1 Scores

We are all exhausted and turned in early tonight.... it starts all over again when my alarm goes off at 06:30.

Tomorrow is round 2 at site #2. Good night form South Africa.