Preliminary Flight #4

Up early with the alarm clock and off to the field for an early start to the day. Clear skies so the sun will be in the box for both Michi's and my flight. We have a "sun evader" on the pilot station to help block the sun but depending on position and time of day it may interfere with visibility on the right side of the box. Not to mention the judges not seeing it well :-)

Our team's flight schedule today is: 
Site #2 - Michi at 08:39
Site #1 - Dave at 09:15
Site #1 - Chad at 11:04
Site# 1 - Ethan at 15:56

We arrived at site #1 and started to prepare the planes for my last P-15 flight. Michi and most everyone else had gone down to the other site for his final flight. Pat stayed behind with my number bib just in case things ran long with Michi.

Getting the back up ready.

I was in the ready box when they all arrived and said Michi had a a so-so flight. This is pattern "speak" for a not so good performance:-)  Michi was generally happy but had some in and out issues with the sun casting a silhouette on the plane.  He scored a final TBL score of 384

Cheering section!

I got airborne and had similar results... some good elements mixed in with some not so good ones! Although the winds were a light blow in, they caused some issues with pilots not maintaining the 150m line. I was one of them. I scored a 363 for my final P-15 round.

 Score board as I flew...

I started to dismantle my planes under the huge sun shade and tried to relax and enjoy the moment. It was hard though as I never felt that I really put in a flight that I know I was capable of. I think Michi felt the same way as well. I thanked my team mates for all the help and critique over the past week and also the supporters of the team via social media. We know that our efforts here in Switzerland fell short in our minds but those folks back home rooting us on deserve credit as well. More on this later.

Chad gets read to go for his final P-15 round ever! :-)

 Chad's flight was coming up shortly and the team all gathered around and watched him fly. With the huge scoreboard showing scores for each maneuver we knew he had a good flight going. Some very minor issues but once again he had a solid round with a 441score. This positioned him well into the top 30 fliers that will move on to the Semi-finals on Friday.

During judges breaks the spectators and participants were treated to flying demos by various local flyers. This F-104 shot the place up!

Ethan was up later in the afternoon so Colin, Ethan, Chad, Agnes, Kelly and I all headed to Hinwil field 20 minutes away to practice. Ethan put in some good rounds of P-15 with Colin helping him with positioning etc. He was looking good to me and his plane was presenting very well.

Chad brought out his #2 plane and changed a few setting as a style change for the F sequence was being implemented. He put in several rounds and aside from some initial adjustments looked very comfortable.  The gals had picked up some sandwich makings so we enjoyed a nice lunch while watching Mr Akiba from Japan do his flights.  He brought out an OS belt drive unit for us to look at

OS Belt Drive (Mr Akiba's back up)

Back up for F-15.

 We loaded up the cars and headed back to Site #1 for Ethan's afternoon flight. He was anxious to fly the sequence with the tweaks he had practiced at Hinwil.

Ethan's flight progressed well with some minor errors observed. The judges scores were once again displayed while the flight went on and everyone was doing the "score board head swing" to see the results. He scored a 392 which was pretty good but not really where he wanted to be.

We all gathered around congratulating him and then had a group picture taken to commemorate the team's achievements to date.

Post flight Team picture.

Most everyone headed back to the hotel to shower up and get ready for Nation's Night which featured a dinner, drink and a live band. They had a group photo also planned for tonight with all the competitors.

Back at the official site we enjoyed a good visit with fellow flyers and helpers from the different teams. We had Derek Koopowitz and John Bentley join us and we enjoyed a nice salad & chicken dinner, then they drew the flight order for the semi-finals. Everyone was cheering as the pilots were announced and then they individually pulled their flight order. The US team manager Mark Atwood and Andrew's helper Darin Pierce pulled the US pilot's positions as they did not attend the function. Practicing maybe :-)  Chad managed to pull the #6 position and will fly on Friday at 9:39 on site #1 and 14:59 on site #2.

 The band was good but a tad on the loud side for many as conversation was almost impossible near the stage. Many folks simply moved out to the other areas to converse.

We wrapped up the night with a small social on the hotel's patio area then hit the rack. Chad will be up early to practice, the gals are heading into town and Hartley and I have some rental car business and storage arrangements to make in the a.m.

Packing planes & plane stuff tomorrow....