Preliminary Flight #2

Spent the morning reading the other blogs as it's always great to have a different perspective.  Here we go again.... Today our flight times are as follows:

Day 2 - Monday
Site #2 Chad at 08:39
Site #1 Michi at 10:59
Site #2 Dave at 11:40
Site #2 Ethan at 18:06

We all headed to site #2 to watch Chad's second P-15 flight. He was second up after Akiba from Japan and had another solid round. They benefited by the low cloud that obscured the sun. He scored a 435.33 and was pretty happy with most of the flight.

Chad gets ready.

Kelly and I stayed around the #2 site as I flew just after Michi who was on the other flight line. My ability to see him fly was limited by the timing of our draw. We will work on Hartley for a better draw time :-) The rest of the team all went down to see him fly. Michi had a solid round again and was rewarded with a 424.33 from his judging panel. It's important to keep building each and every time we fly. He is up to the challenge!

I was up next and although I had changed out my rudder servo, I was not 100% confident in the plane. With an unplanned servo failure yesterday I found it hard to place full trust in the plane. There was only one way to find out!

I flew my round with good speed control but a weak stall turn at the end of the box ended any chance of a comeback. A few other areas come to mind but it's late and I don't want to bore you. I ended up with a 356.33 score today on site #1

We now had a break until Ethan flew so we headed to Hinwil and started practicing. Will's wife Stephanie arrived in from Red Deer, Alberta and joined in the fun of watching grown men struggle to fly straight lines and radius's :-)

Ethan and Colin hard at practice.

Hinwil practice field

We worked on positioning and refinement of the P-15 sequence. Everyone took a turn and soon we had to head back to the main site for Ethan's second Preliminary flight. Slight blow out conditions prevailed but the plane easily managed the wind. Ethan had a "cracker" of a round and scored a 427.33! He was very happy and so was the team.

We headed over to site #1and some of us had a bite to eat before returning to our hotel. A small social was held on the hotel's patio and we discussed the day's events.

Day 3 of preliminary flights go Tuesday
Site #1 - Ethan at 11:31
Site #2 - Michi at 15:20
Site #1 - Dave at 16:05
Site #1 - Chad at 17:49

Awaiting Joseph's scores... it drew a big crowd!

The scoring system has worked very well with scores posted within seconds of the elements flown. Also the main scoreboard is also updated as soon as the pilot completes the round. Technology is making the results available to all before the pilot gets the plane back to the pit!

I have added some additional pictures to the Team's Album although I am behind on captions. Sorry.

Preliminary Flight #1

Today is our first official day of competition. Teams are flying on two separate flight lines with a morning and afternoon session. With four judging panels all scoring separately it's basically a guessing game as to how things will turn out this early. Some panels can be harder than others so even though we may see "leaders" at this point it is really not representative of how things will play out. After the third round things will start to take shape and some "assumptions" can be made but until the final Preliminary rounds is flown it's a free for all.

Our team has four flyers as we have a Junior member in Ethan. This allows these younger flyers the opportunity to gain valuable experience and hopefully take on a full member position as they grow older. Ethan was first up this morning at 9:06. With the sun right in the box and the judges pretty much blinded, Ethan put in a pretty solid round of flying. A few small slips here and there but pretty consistent. He felt good about it but only received a 353.67 score.

Ethan readies his plane. (Well his dad does :-)

Ethan and Colin after round one.

We watched a few of the other notable flyers such as Jason Shulman of the USA. Jason was flying his new Epic Biplane and it was an eye catcher for shear size. A deep fuse that you could hold a small gathering in and huge tail surfaces. It flew well and presented nicely from my observations.

Jason about to make an epic flight!

Some woman was in my car!

Galactika

Brett Wickizer's ride. Great paint scheme.

A couple of fellow Canadians from Colin & Ethan's RC club in Ontario arrived and we said hello to James Kidston from Guelph (Ivan's home town) and Eric Wenger from Acton. We welcomed their support and look forward to seeing them back over the course of the event. We dragged then to Hinwil for some practice flights before our afternoon session.

Practice flights completed it was back to flying site #2 to watch Chad put in his first round of this competition at 15:19. We watched his flight progress and could see the scores being tabulated as he went. A good solid flight with some minor errors evident but he posted a 435.33 score.

Next up was Michi but due to the closeness of the flight times I could not make it over to see him fly. Luckily I have my spies (my entire team) and they reported a good flight as well! Congratulations Akimoto San with a 406 score.

The weather was clouding over and it looked like rain was on it's way so I decided to get the planes assembled early and stored in one of the tents near by. This was completed and then the skies opened up! I spent the time making a rain cover for my radio and it looked like it would work great.

The judges decided to take a break in hopes that the rains would abate but they returned to only slightly less rain than earlier.

Rain storm... judging hold.

The Ronco TX cover!

Kevin Caton of the British Team was kind enough to offer up his big tarp and we used it to keep the planes dry during the voltage check. It was now or never and Kelly took my plane out while Will called and held the umbrella over my head. I had never flown in this kind of weather but the flight actually progress very well... good tempo... good center stall turn.... feeling in the groove. Then across the top of my Hourglass maneuver the rudder stopped working. Arghhh!

I stopped the flight and landed with the rudder dead. My teammates help get the plane back to the covered area and we spend some time diagnosing the problem. I use an S-Bus setup and the elevators worked fine off the 1000mm hub. Changed the rudder servo out and will test fly it in the morning. Having never had a servo fail on me before I find it ironic that on this very flight one decides to take a vacation! Arghhh!

Our Team and Kevin Caton were the last to leave the field tonight after some Futaba surgery.  Oh well tomorrow is another opportunity and I look forward to the challenge.

Special thanks to all those that offered replacements parts... and to Chad who did :-)

Score link added to right side of the page... select Preliminary & click on the score number to view each judges score.... no secrets anymore:-)

Practice and Opening Ceremonies

Up early again as we met for breakfast and discussed the day's plans. We will head down to Hinwil and grab a flight and watch others to further gauge our style compared to the top pilots. We hope to see Japan fly as well.

A few teams are left to complete processing this morning at the Main flying site before the big opening of the event.  We needed some more practice so as planned, we all headed down to Hinwil and the flying site just by the road. Nice easy access and about 20-25 minutes from the main site. It is a nice field with good approaches and a wide, level landing field. It also has great hosts from the local club along with electricity at the pit location!

We arrived early and met up with the Isreali and British teams and very soon after the Japanese and Korean teams arrived. We put in a few rounds and watched the Japanese team fly. Very graceful and consistent flying from all three members.

Team Japan at Hinwil

Parking lot :-)

Akiba's Fantasista... note the huge ailerons.

Matt Hoyland's Citrin.

Hinwil pit action. Busy place but managed two flights.

Shlomi's CRS Contra powered Acuracy

Cooling system for Akiba's plane. 35˚ today so every bit helps.

Ethan and Colin talk with Sclomi about the Acuracy

Michi gets a one on one with Mr Naruke! He did the  happy dance later! 

Team Canada preparing for the opening.

We all gathered at the main flying site for the official opening and as each team introduced the National Anthem was played. We then marched along a short while before returning to the original start point. A few speeches in Swiss were made and then we all went in to mingle with the huge crowd (est 10,000) and watched a two hour airshow.

It feature RC planes from the very first contest held in Dubendorf in 1960 and progressed through the years featuring jet aircraft and high performance sailplanes. Strong gusty winds made it a challenge to landbut they did a great job. We also has a 9 member team flying full scale aerobatics as well as a Super Puma beating the skies silly with amazing agility for a helicopter this size.

All in all the best opening of a Worlds event that I have attended. My hats off to the organizers for this great show!

Will Gross, Mark Atwood and Dave Reaville following the opening ceremonies Those new US shirts are catching up to us:-)

Chad posted some pictures of the event at https://www.facebook.com/teamcanadaf3a2015/posts/966970146703575?notif_t=like

Once back at the hotel we decided on Mexican tonight and took another short walk down to the local restaurants. It was very good. Round one tomorrow.

 

Processing and Official Practice

Our official practice and processing time was scheduled for today at 13:30 and 14:50 respectively. Fly first and the process right after on line #2. With this in mind we decided to sleep in and relax in the morning. I was sent down to get Kelly a coffee from the fancy coffee machine in the eating area. With explicit instructions I headed down and on arrival in front of the machine, I started pushing buttons. Lets just say I botched it and heard the wrath on return to the room. I am no longer being sent down for coffee :-)

We slowly gathered our gear and headed towards the rental car when a text came through from Chad... seems things have changed and we are now processing at 12:10 and flying our official practice session at 15:10. Rolling with the punches :-)

On arrival at the main site we were advised that processing was now at site #1 and flying at site #2. This meant our planes needed to be assembled, weighed, measured and sound tested and then disassembled and moved to site #2 for the flying portion. Rolling again:-)

Chad double checked the processing location and they said they would be ready for inspection very soon. As we had planned for the new 12:10 time this would unnecessarily push us once again. We took our time and although we went in earlier than stated in the notification, we all passed with little difficulty.

Weighing & Measuring

Neat device weighs and measures.

Sound Testing

Team results were as follows

Weights
Chad  A - 5042 grams  B - 4987 grams
Michi A - 4868 grams  B - 4920 grams
Ethan A - 4515 grams  B - 4828 grams
Dave A - 4886 grams  B - 4920 grams

All passed noise testing as well :-)

Once completed we had a walk about and then headed to the #2 Flight Line for our team flights. On arrival the judging panel was still training so the RSA team was consequently still waiting to fly. Looked like a solid hour delay. Rolling some more:-)

We decided to return to the main site for lunch and met up with many friends and old acquaintances from previous worlds. Lunch was tasty and we knew the #2 Flight Line was open for practice as the entire judging panel arrived for their lunch. They had tablet training as well to acclimatize them to the electronic scoring system. This system will display the scores in real time on a big screen for spectators... eek!

We tried to ply the USA Judge for tidbits... but it didn't work!

 We finished lunch and  headed to Site #2 to get ready for our official practice. This practice session (10 minutes per team member) gives each pilot the chance to fly one of the sites & gives you a feel for the surroundings and obstacles if any.

We reassembled the planes and then watch the Swiss Team fly. The Czech team was next but they where halted for 20 minutes while a Super Puma helicopter did a flight demo practice session for the airshow tomorrow. Hey they need practice too!

Assemble, disassemble.... see a trend! 

Judging practice :-)

Ready for practice.

We finally flew with Chad, Michi, Ethan and myself getting their shot. The UK team, Kazakhstan and Brazil had been scheduled to follow but they ended up flying at site #1. We were the last so we stuck around and had a few photos taken of the team. Hartley and Pat had to leave to attend the Manager's meeting at 17:15 so they missed out. :-(

Team Canada F3A 2015

 We packed up and went to site #1 to get an ice cream cone!! It closed a minute before we arrived... rolling again! We had a visit with a few folks and met up with Linda and Tim Jesky (from our South African adventures) and Cindy and Mike Wickizer. They had just arrived today.

It was hot and humid today so it was time to head back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner. We left Pat & Hartley to attend the Manager's meeting, which had been pushed back to 18:00 for some reason.

Dinner was Chinese Take Away (very good BTW) just near the hotel and as we arrived back, the flight order was announced and we discussed who flew when and where. Generally good times with one early am for Sunday and a long day for me as I fly after 6 pm. Hope I can stay focused in this heat!

Hartley arrived back at the hotel around 9:20 PM and we all discussed meeting details and flight order. Goodie bags dispensed and it was time for bed.

I have added a link on the right side of the page to the starting order that has been posted on the Worlds Website. You can cycle through each day and see who flies when and where. I'll add scores later.

Our team members fly at... (This is approximate & subject to change with little or no notification whatsoever :-)

Preliminary Flight Schedule
Day 1- Sunday
Site #2 Ethan at 09:06
Site #2 Chad at 15:19
Site #1 Michi at 17:30
Site #2 Dave at 18:15

Day 2 - Monday
Site #2 Chad at 08:39
Site #1 Michi at 10:59
Site #2 Dave at 11:40
Site #2 Ethan at 18:06

Day 3 - Tuesday
Site #1 - Ethan at 11:31
Site #2 - Michi at 15:20
Site #1 - Dave at 16:05
Site #1 - Chad at 17:49

Day 4 - Wednesday
Site #2 - Michi at 08:39
Site #1 - Dave at 09:15
Site #1 - Chad at 11:04
Site# 1 - Ethan at 15:56

Team Practice Day 3

Basically a repeat of yesterday.... breakfast, drive, unload, assemble and fly. Our day started out great with the arrival of the Australian team to our humble flying site way south of Zurich. We got reintroduced to the members and spent the next 90 minutes flying through the P-15 schedule. They watched us, we watched them and we had a good visit.

Bill Bloodworth's OS Belt drive.

The Hungarian team also arrived later on but by then the Aussie folks headed off to do some registration business at the competition site and then head back up to the Zurich field by Eglisau.
It was great catching up with them all and I am sure we will see each other on the flightline.

The Hungarian and Canadian team members swapped flights as we endured the 35˚ heat! We had brought out our back up planes to fly today and each of us flew a round to ensure their readiness. All was good in the end. We did some reprogramming of the ESC to match my Acuracy and I was set.

Hartley arrived later in the afternoon having completed his duties re: registration etc. The gals promptly went off on a 30 minute drive to Heidiland for some sightseeing.

We relaxed as the lunch hour flight ban came into effect.

The clubs have noise restrictions placed on them by the local government. We are not permitted to fly between 11:30 and 13:30 so we sat and enjoyed the views and listened to the trains continuously rip past the town. This created far more noise than our electric airplanes. Maybe time to revisit the mayor's office :-)

Sensation of Team Hungary

Team Hungary

Team Hungary

Michi's backup.

Colin packs up Ethan's backup Axiome.

Ethan puts in a round with Dad Colin watching and "advising".

Great views during practice.

We finally packed up around 5 pm and headed home but stopped at the Hinwil to see some other teams fly. Met up with Lassi Nurila and some others. It's a very nice field but lacked some box markings from my observations.

Back at the hotel we showered up and after a small debrief, headed out to a late dinner.

Tomorrow is our first official team function with practice flights at site 2 and then plane processing afterwards. I'll sort this pictures out and get them captioned in the morning....... as we have the morning off! That means sleep in!

Team Practice Day 2

We all met up again this morning for our breakfast & coffee. A few bleary eyed soldiers but we are slowly swinging into the time zone nicely.  Numerous USA Team members also enjoyed the hotel breakfast and I managed to say hello to Brett Wickizer and caller Bryan Hebert who finally got in some flights with the delayed airframes. All good on the USA front I am told.

We departed for our practice field and in short order had our planes assembled and flying. A right to left wind prevailed so it was nice to fly the opposite direction from yesterday. This is also the probable flight direction for the event itself according to my "sources".

Hartley and Kelly enjoying the new chairs!

We met several local club flyers who let us have access to the facilities on site as well as the use of umbrellas etc from the shed. One fellow just came down just to say hi and spend some time with us. All were very welcoming.

Ethan's Acuracy

All of us put in flights with continued critique and general improvement . Chad continues to put in solid flying with Michi making good strides today with his overall presentation. Ethan has been on fire and has his Acuracy dialed in nicely. A few minor presentation issues got worked out during the session.  I spent the day getting some settings sorted out and when I left the field I had a new radio setup along with a new throttle curve thanks to Chad. Ya.. lets mix things up a little! I'll need a day to really get a feel for this but I was happy with the changes. We also managed to complete some of the requisite paperwork in preparation for our team processing on Friday.  (Weights, measurements and sound check.)

Deep discussion on the state of F3A:-)

Chad preps for another sortie.

The heat was stifling when the winds dropped and we melted in the 32 degree heat. Lots of water consumption coupled with a nice lunch that Kelly picked up on one of her "runs through the wee towns" help beat the heat :-) The sun was also starting to become a problem but we just shifted around and continued. 

We packed up around 5 pm and headed home just as the a couple of the Swiss team members arrived. A quick meet & great ensued and we were on our way home. We stopped at a gas station on route and picked up some ice (a 5 kilo bag cost 9.90 CHR or $13.50 CDN)! We splurged and bought one to go in our team cooler.

Dinner was at the local Italian establishment next door and we also had the pleasure of Harry & Rosemary Ells join us. A good meal and good company! We had a great time catching up.

Tomorrow we will all fly our backups for a couple flights so I headed back to the room to unpack the Galactik and get it ready.... yes it was still in the box. Everything was in good shape and the assembly took place without any problems. The stabs and T-canalizer will remain off to improve transportation and the plane is now in the van ready for the a.m. departure.  Ethan and Colin put the backup Axiome+ together and  Michi also prepped his Axiome+. Chad has a non-contra powered Oxai Acuracy as his backup and it's already in his van from the day he arrived.

Tomorrow Hartley will attend to registration duties at the main flying site.  Another warm day in the forecast!

I almost forgot... Michi returned to the hotel and discovered that he is the proud owner of a 220v Rice Cooker! Seems Liyan found one on her shopping trip today. I guess we won't be seeing them at dinner anytime soon :-)