Day #8 Goodbyes

Sure! I gave Chad admin rights in London and told him to throw his thoughts in.... now we get Safari updates :-) I was thinking RC plane stuff :-)... like herding cats I tell ya!!

Our last day together as a team.

We had a very quiet relaxed breakfast and sorted out our bills with our host Joan. We made some gift presentations to her and some of the staff and also left a nice tip for the great service from the entire Village Guest House staff.

Michi, Colin and Ethan were all heading into the airport to catch their flight out tonight. Chad and Agnes are off towards Kruger Park to chase a rhino... or be chased? I can't remember :-) and Kelly and I are heading to the airport for a 13:00 departure to Cape Town and the continuation of our big trip.

It was a great experience and is always an honor and privilege to represent one's country. I think we did a good job as ambassadors and placing 9th overall was very rewarding for me personally. Congratulations to my pilots who never gave up trying to better themselves as we tried to decipher the scores and make improvements during the event. Agnes did a great job calling for Chad and Kelly helped me out immensely. Will Gross joined us and gave freely of his time to help get Michi sorted. No doubt he is curled up in a hot bath tub crying as I type this. :-)

Michi left his new daughter and wife to come over and fly and I am sure he missed them immensely.  Ethan was our first junior to ever compete at a World Championships and did it without a bit of help from his dad Colin..... ya right. He asked questions (hypothetical Q's are his favorite) all the time and was a pattern history statistician extraordinaire. He knew the prop size of every plane that has won the worlds since  Hanno Pretner first stepped into the flight box.. just kidding :-)  Colin not only flew but made sure Ethan was ready every time as well. This is an incredible feat!

Chad came in 16th for the 3rd Worlds in a row and showed why he is Canada's top precision aerobatics pilot. He will continue to climb that ladder and crack the 16 mark.... and I am sure he will do it one day.

Congratulations to the South African organizers and the staff that worked so diligently over the week to make things work. Was it perfect? No.. and it never will be but they never gave up and worked hard to fix problems and issues as they cropped up. Well done. 

I will add some additional photos to the team's gallery when time permits.

Van loading in progress.

Wonder if Chad will notice? :-)

This wraps up the team blog as I swing back over to the big trip journal that I started this blog from.  Hope everyone enjoyed the daily dish and, if your interested, it is at http://bigtripjournal2013.blogspot.ca/

Thanks

Dave