Yikes! I know I'm posting later than usual. Full days and evenings have got me trying to catch up again. I know you can all follow real time info about everybody and their scores. The team seems to really like the fact that they can walk off the flight line and know within seconds what their scores are. If you haven't already, you can go to the Official F3A site and then follow the link on that page for 'Rankings' and it will take you there.
Here's what Mark had to say about the day:
Mark:
Day 9 – Monday August 10th
Round 2! Today was another great day for the USA. Round 2 had the morning flight groups from yesterday flying in the afternoon and vice versa. Tomorrow all the groups will swap sites (from line 1 to line 2 and vice versa) and then Wednesday again swap morning for afternoon so that each pilot will have flown in front of all 4 judging panels, and will have flown both sites, in the morning and in the afternoon. i.e. “Equal Exposure”.
The forecast for the morning was for overcast skies which would be great news given the intensity of the sun and it’s position for the morning flyers, but alas, Swiss weather forecasters apparently train in the US (or maybe the other way around) because they to seem to be wrong at least 50% of the time! Brett and Joseph were up early and ready to go. There was a little concern that we might not be able to fit Joe’s head through the door after spending the entire night in 1st place, but he played it very cool, well aware that there is still a lot of contest to go.
Brett was up first and definitely had his game face on following yesterdays great round in the afternoon. Winds were very light so there was some initial indecision about which direction to fly but most had been flying right to left (east to west) so Brett chose to do the same.
A quick aside – At the 2013 WC’s in South Africa it was my habit to watch each flight directly behind the pilot on the centerline. It’s the best place to view the flight, and the best place to evaluate things from the judge’s perspective. But with the new scoring system that is in place here in Switzerland, we have the opportunity to see how each maneuver is being scored during the flight. The monitor for scores is fairly small at site 2 (where we are) and to read it you need to be standing well off to the side of center. This creates a bit of dilemma. In the end I chose to watch from the center for the best view and look at all the scores later, but the suspense is brutal!
After several delays due to full scale aircraft needing to take off and land, Brett flew another fantastic flight. His score put him 7th on the line overall which is a solid position considering the number of former top 10 finishers that had already flown against this panel of Judges.
Joseph was up 3 pilots later and while prepping for his flight we all noticed that something new for him to contend with. An audience. It may have been a coincidence, or… it may have been that a Jr. pilot had put up the highest score for the first day and a few people were interested in seeing just what he had to offer. Joseph didn’t notice, and we weren’t about to tell him and make him even more nervous. His flight was another burner, keeping a great pace and really presenting the sequence and the airplane well. He had one major boo-boo allowing the Top Hat spin to “slide” to the outside before the spin entry, but he recovered it nicely and proceeded to lock it on for the rest of the flight. His score put him 4th on the line behind Onda, Andrew and Stefan, which is pretty nice company at this stage of the competition.
The lunch break brought more jet demo’s and 3D routines to keep the crowd entertained (yes, I did say “Crowd” in reference to a pattern contest, which is an amazing feat that the Swiss have pulled off here).
Jason flew around 2:45pm, still with moderately light winds and a clear sky. Whatever the air conditions were, his giant Epic biplane seemed to like it, because he flew a tremendous flight. The flight was very precise and very well paced and resulted in a solid score on the line.
With 3 good flights for the day it was now up to Andrew to make it a clean sweep for the team. Never one to disappoint, Andrew was up to the task. An incoming Swiss army helicopter delayed his flight briefly but once underway it was clear he was trying to make a statement. “Crisp” is the best way to describe the way Andrew flies and this flight was no exception. Every component of each maneuver is well defined from start to finish. The result put him in first place on the line (receiving mixed emotions from his team mate Joseph who had previously held that spot). Tetsuo Onda from Japan later took the top spot, edging Andrew out by a mere 0.33 points.
When the day concluded, the overall rankings had our entire team in the top 15 with Brett and Jason in an exact tie. All in all a great day of flying and a great performance by all 4 of our guys.
By now we had spent a solid 8 hours in the hot sun and were ready to get back to the hotel for some much needed air conditioning, a shower and clean clothes, and some dinner. Several of us opted to spend some time doing laundry (amazing how many clothes you go through in the heat trying to live here for a few weeks!) and then it was Chinese food a short walk from the hotel.
Tomorrow will see our first head to head scores against two notable pilots in particular, CPLR from France (7 time world champion for those not familiar) and Gernot Bruckman from Austria, ( ETOC, XFC, Arizona Shootout). It should be an exciting day!
Mark:
Day 9 – Monday August 10th
Round 2! Today was another great day for the USA. Round 2 had the morning flight groups from yesterday flying in the afternoon and vice versa. Tomorrow all the groups will swap sites (from line 1 to line 2 and vice versa) and then Wednesday again swap morning for afternoon so that each pilot will have flown in front of all 4 judging panels, and will have flown both sites, in the morning and in the afternoon. i.e. “Equal Exposure”.
The forecast for the morning was for overcast skies which would be great news given the intensity of the sun and it’s position for the morning flyers, but alas, Swiss weather forecasters apparently train in the US (or maybe the other way around) because they to seem to be wrong at least 50% of the time! Brett and Joseph were up early and ready to go. There was a little concern that we might not be able to fit Joe’s head through the door after spending the entire night in 1st place, but he played it very cool, well aware that there is still a lot of contest to go.
Brett was up first and definitely had his game face on following yesterdays great round in the afternoon. Winds were very light so there was some initial indecision about which direction to fly but most had been flying right to left (east to west) so Brett chose to do the same.
A quick aside – At the 2013 WC’s in South Africa it was my habit to watch each flight directly behind the pilot on the centerline. It’s the best place to view the flight, and the best place to evaluate things from the judge’s perspective. But with the new scoring system that is in place here in Switzerland, we have the opportunity to see how each maneuver is being scored during the flight. The monitor for scores is fairly small at site 2 (where we are) and to read it you need to be standing well off to the side of center. This creates a bit of dilemma. In the end I chose to watch from the center for the best view and look at all the scores later, but the suspense is brutal!
After several delays due to full scale aircraft needing to take off and land, Brett flew another fantastic flight. His score put him 7th on the line overall which is a solid position considering the number of former top 10 finishers that had already flown against this panel of Judges.
Joseph was up 3 pilots later and while prepping for his flight we all noticed that something new for him to contend with. An audience. It may have been a coincidence, or… it may have been that a Jr. pilot had put up the highest score for the first day and a few people were interested in seeing just what he had to offer. Joseph didn’t notice, and we weren’t about to tell him and make him even more nervous. His flight was another burner, keeping a great pace and really presenting the sequence and the airplane well. He had one major boo-boo allowing the Top Hat spin to “slide” to the outside before the spin entry, but he recovered it nicely and proceeded to lock it on for the rest of the flight. His score put him 4th on the line behind Onda, Andrew and Stefan, which is pretty nice company at this stage of the competition.
The lunch break brought more jet demo’s and 3D routines to keep the crowd entertained (yes, I did say “Crowd” in reference to a pattern contest, which is an amazing feat that the Swiss have pulled off here).
Jason flew around 2:45pm, still with moderately light winds and a clear sky. Whatever the air conditions were, his giant Epic biplane seemed to like it, because he flew a tremendous flight. The flight was very precise and very well paced and resulted in a solid score on the line.
With 3 good flights for the day it was now up to Andrew to make it a clean sweep for the team. Never one to disappoint, Andrew was up to the task. An incoming Swiss army helicopter delayed his flight briefly but once underway it was clear he was trying to make a statement. “Crisp” is the best way to describe the way Andrew flies and this flight was no exception. Every component of each maneuver is well defined from start to finish. The result put him in first place on the line (receiving mixed emotions from his team mate Joseph who had previously held that spot). Tetsuo Onda from Japan later took the top spot, edging Andrew out by a mere 0.33 points.
When the day concluded, the overall rankings had our entire team in the top 15 with Brett and Jason in an exact tie. All in all a great day of flying and a great performance by all 4 of our guys.
By now we had spent a solid 8 hours in the hot sun and were ready to get back to the hotel for some much needed air conditioning, a shower and clean clothes, and some dinner. Several of us opted to spend some time doing laundry (amazing how many clothes you go through in the heat trying to live here for a few weeks!) and then it was Chinese food a short walk from the hotel.
Tomorrow will see our first head to head scores against two notable pilots in particular, CPLR from France (7 time world champion for those not familiar) and Gernot Bruckman from Austria, ( ETOC, XFC, Arizona Shootout). It should be an exciting day!