Epilogue

 Hi folks

Well the entire team has now returned home to Canada... and John made it back to the USA :-) 

It was a great trip for all involved and I am very pleased with the effort everyone made to compete at this level. It is clearly a grind but the effort put in is definitely worth it. Representing your country at an international event is always a privilege.

We have some additional paperwork to send into MAAC in order to meet their requirements but that should be done within the next few weeks give or take. A Team Manager's report on the event and a Technical Report on the equipment used and our general observations during the event itself. 

I must say it was refreshing to see these planes unrestricted in their operation, unlike Canada which is now in the midst of a huge over regulation of our part of the hobby. Restricted to certain altitudes and additional testing in order to fly in controlled airspace has put a huge damper on our ability to run contests and practice our schedules, especially where I live in Victoria.   It has just crushed us, plain and simple.

In closing, one last big Thank You to all those folks that supported us through the past year and followed along on our journey!

Clear skies!

Travel Day

 

Most all the gang heads out today but Kelly and I remain for just one more day. We heard Henry and Terri leave just after 4 am this morning as they caught an Air Canada Flight at 10 a.m from Brisbane to Vancouver. The rest of us slept in and then went over to the Gardens Galore for one final breakfast with John, the Northeast’s and us.    Some of the judges and organizers were there along with Joe Walker of Team USA 🇺🇸 

When we got back to the motel, Michi was putting the final touches on his packing job. They are heading to the Gold Coast then to Brisbane for a few days before heading home to Victoria.

She is full!

After dropping some plane boxes and gear, Chad, Agnes and the boys headed off to catch their flight tonight up to Cairns for a little R & R themselves. 

With the team now disbanded and heading in different directions, it's time to thank all those folks that supported us through this journey of ours. You know who you are! It was an absolute honor to represent our country at these World Championships.  We will be home soon with many stories!

In closing out this blog, we would be remiss to not thank our great hosts, the Australians that put on a fantastic event. Absolutely top notch and one that has produced some great memories for all.  To Brian, James, Norm, Russell, Phil, Simon, Tyson, Dave, Aaron and all the rest of the great folks that made us feel right at home... we thank you!

 

Once everyone is back in Canada, I will update this blog with the usual epilogue page. 

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

 

For those interested.... we are heading back to our family travel blog here

FAI F3A 2023 Finals Day & Banquet

 Awake before six am as we have the events final competition day ahead of us. We will all head up at some point to the flying site to watch the last few rounds.  Flying starts at 08:00 until approximately 16:00 and the closing ceremony and awards from 16:30 till 17:30. 

Finals Flying Schedule

All the guys have been disassembling airplanes and getting them boxed up for the journey home. I took the time to look at my latest purchase, the VLV Contra V2 WC setup along with a battery tray, props, and a CF spinner.  Not really sure if I got caught up in the buying frenzy with John and Henry but I have it in my hands now. Seems like a bad idea considering I have no plane to put it in nor a place to fly it. We will see what happens. 



VLV Contra V2 WC

 

 We headed off to the plant nursery and joined Agnes, Chad and the kids. Henry and Terri had just finished their breakfast and were wandering around the area. It was huge in the back of the property with additional stores. Much more than meets the eye from the entrance.

John came back from a visit to the local zoo and we headed off to the field to watch the action.  Weather is fantastic with a light blown in with some scattered clouds in the distance. We managed to see the last 4 pilots doing the F-23 schedule. Andrew Jesky was last up and flew fairly fast. Some good flying with a few minor errors evident.  Henry and Chad joined us in the pilot section for the last couple guys. 

Trophies up for grabs!

Andrew's last F-23 about to be flown

Judges break now with the last flights of unknown #2 coming up.   I meet up with Felix Nieuwenhuizen, father of Peter whom I have flown with in D-8 back home.

With Felix Nieuwenhuizen!

About to finish off Unknown 2

 

We all watched the final round of Unknown #2 and the flying was, as expected, very close.  Gernot was up first and had a good round with solid scores. We had the benefit of the live scoring to assist us, although reception would fade in and out at times. Onda next followed by CPLR who put in a so-so flight with large correction error on his Vertical Eight. (Still got a 7 for it). 

Pete Collinson was up next and had clean flight along with Stephane Carrier who flew right after him. The judges break came and went and ironically the last of the heavy hitters were up next. Sandro Matte (flying the Pletty powered Advantage!) and Andrew Jesky flew next followed by Christian Niklass.  All flew very well with minor imperfections to my eye.
 

Jason "The Bearded One" Shulman flew a very strong round and finally Lassi Nurila took to the skies to top it all off. The pilots all receive loud applause on landing.  
 

With John watching the live scoring it was clear that an 8 was the “even score” per maneuver and the tell was the 7.5 or 8.5 (or 9.0) that would be the decider. We had an idea who had won but without the TBL algorithm applied, we just couldn’t be 100% sure.   (TBL stands for  Tarasov-Bauer-Long Process for Analyzing Aerobatic Scores... more on that here for those interested.)
 
While the scores were being tabulated, the pilots all posed for various picture with their planes.
 

Gernot

Top Ten

French Team

We all gathered around the podium and after some delay, the awards were presented. Just prior to this the organizers published the results, through the managers WhatsApp list for all to see.  

The crowd gathers!

Lassi is #1

Once the awards ended, we headed back to the motel to change and walk over to the RSL Club were the banquet was being held. It was a great evening with good food and drink! Lots of conversations ensued with much laughter, Best dressed went to Team Japan!

Banquet

A great evening had by all!

Semi Finals Day

 A huge day for the thirty pilots left in the competition as they all vie for the top ten spots available in the finals tomorrow. They will fly two flights of the F-23 schedule today, one on each flight line and the best two of the three scores (Normalized P-23 total, and/or F-23 morning and/or F-23 afternoon) combined will determine final placement.

I'll do my best to update this blog but you will probably see a lot of Facebook posts on team page as well.

Lets go...

06:15 - Up to shower and get ready for today's activities.  Chad headed out early to see the morning pilots while a bunch of us went over for breakfast across the street. He flies at 10:20 and again at 12:28 and I believe you will be able to see live scoring of his first round here (real time)

 

 This is the schedule that they will fly today....

 

07:30 Updated the blog with this post..... and heading to breakfast in 25 minutes :-)

13:35 Update -  Breakfast was very good and then we went back to the motel. Cars loaded we went up to the flying site #1 and met up with Chad. He was starting to assemble airplanes as his flight time approach.

Waiting for round 1 of semi's.

 

Kelly and Agnes carry the colors.

 

We all gathered around to support him as he then went out and flew a very solid round of F. The Fighter Turn was "in" instead of his usually "out" but still looked great. He received a 519 score. 

Chads round 5 scores (first F flight)

We loaded up and headed to the other flight line for his next flight. The crew all arrived as we wished him a good flight. Some delays as the line was running late from the morning session. 

Chad in the ready box.

 

I called him through his last F... although I don't think he heard me :-)

Once again a solid flight with very few errors. He certainly was consistent throughout all his flights and I was able to see them up close:-) 

 

Chad's round 6 scores

 

 

14:55 Update We are now sitting watching the remainder of the pilots finish off their respective rounds.  Results should be tabulated and the top 10 announced at some point. 

Once the last pilot flew on Line 2, the Australian organizers swung into action and the judging tents & assorted support structures where quickly dismantled. (Only line 1 will be used on Saturday)

We went over to the Team Managers meeting area and awaited the results.... no one actually knew the result so it was a bit of a guess if we even needed to be there? We were just being proactive.  Just before the meeting, the official announcement came with the result.

Semifinal results.

 Chad placed 15th overall with very little separation amongst the pilots.... every point counts!!! The pilots & team managers then sorted through the various Unknown choices and the final schedules were determined.  As we were no longer required, we headed back to town. Chad did offer to fly the demo if needed.

Unknown #1

Unknown #2

Flight Order and Times

20:00 Update - With Canada no longer in the mix, it was time to head home to debrief the day's events. It's been a grind these last few days as we have traveled many KM's and visited numerous RC field in the area. Being up early each day the exhaustion is now setting in! Once back at the motel, we headed to dinner at the Blue Bird BBQ place and enjoyed another very tasty meal.   On the walk home we observed numerous Australian RC types at the local Indian restaurant. Luckily I had my Astralian Team shirt on! 

We reconvened the debrief session poolside and after an hour or so pulled the pin and went off to bed... everyone is beat! Chad especially!

Finals start at 08:00 tomorrow morning at Flight Line #1 and, with only one line, we will get live scoring throughout the day! Awesome!

Reserve Day (more practice)

For Michi and Henry the contest flying is now over. Their scores will count towards the overall team score that will determine team placement. With Chad still in the game, we departed early this morning at 06:15 and, after a quick stop at the bakery for coffee and a breaky bun, we headed off to Inglewood Airport to practice.

 An uneventful drive with the exception of a huge wide load semi that was hauling a huge tube like structure. Hard to describe so here is a video to prove it :-)

 

Gernot, Bones, Andrew, Jason, Joseph and Chad all put in practice F-23 rounds with Fraser Briggs down at the far flying site. John arrived and we both assisted Chad in his flights. A bit of critiquing and flight coach analysis after each flight confirmed our observations..
 

Jason's Vision

Can you say trouble!

 

The Jesky’s arrived to watch Andrew followed shortly after by Phil Spence, Norm Morrish and Russel Edwards.  The three amigos made the most of the social atmosphere!

Heading out.

John has apples for the horses.

 Chad flew numerous rounds under the watchful eyes of John and myself with other callers/competitors observing. Constructive comments and ideas were discussed.  After an unknown number of flights, John headed home to Warwick and we stayed until about 5 pm then headed home ourselves.

VLV Drive in the Nexus

 Off to the rack! Semi-finals day tomorrow!

Preliminaries Day 4

 Editorial note: It's crunch time for me as we start to get into the live feed of information versus the blog... I have tried my best to update the Team's F.B. page when things happen and then recap the entire day with the blog.  That will start to change as my time is freed up and I can do both much quicker.  I have a huge 45 gig plan ($45 Australian) and I plan to use it!! So here we we go.....

Morning Session.....

 One final day of flying for many pilots as the roster is cut down to the top 30 pilots.  I should have the results by the time I update this blog later today so start checking back often. 

Michi was up again at 9:52 and put in a good flight. He elected to change planes to his back up Excess bipe because he felt he could see it better. It turned out to be true but sadly a bit late in the game.  The entire team came out to watched as he flew with light shifting winds. He was happy with it and managed to also pull the black ball (which requires the planes to be re-processed.. weighed, measured etc.) following his flight.

Not really a big deal and the plane passed without issue.

Michi awaits his turn

Cheering section!

Happy!

Michi and the crew!

Michi's Round 4 scores.

USA watching Pete Collinson fly before Chad.

Chad was up third following Pete Collinson of the USA. He again had a very strong consistent flight in some increasing winds.  I have been calling for him over the course of the event and have never seen such strong, consistent flying from him.  After his flight, he also pulled the black ball and his plane was reprocessed, again no issues.

Battery check.

 

We took some pictures of the team members (hint: Never give your camera to the bearded one!)  

Chad's Round 4 scores

Made lunch and met some nice local folks. One being Eddie Edwards who flew F3A with Canada's Ivan Kristensen back in the 90's at Pensacola, Florida. Small world! Had a great conversation with him.

The car worked well as a food truck:-)

Henry was up after lunch at 13:23 and put in a good round in blowing conditions. He managed the airspace well but the spin entry continued to be a blight on the score card... although he did score with no zero's.  He was happy and we all gathered around for another team picture.

Chad was off to practice at the WAM field with Michi following along to burn off some packs. We returned to the motel to relax and await the final scores. Team managers meeting tonight at 17:00 to draw flight order and discuss any relevant issues

Check back for updates on final P-23 scores and placement and any other info I may come across. As you can see I am suffering greatly doing the blogging!

Note: One of the British Pilots, Garry Peacock suffered an eye infection of some sort and spent some time at the E.R. in Warwick this morning. His eye had puffed up but was able to fly later in the afternoon. Great news! 

Update: The final P-23 scores are now calculated and the results are as follows...

With the top 30 pilots going on to semi-finals, the remainder will now start to pack up their planes (except demo pilots of course).  Tomorrow is an reserve day so judges will be doing some home work on the F-23 schedule along with demo flights and the 30 top guys will be out practicing as much as possible. 

John and I drove out to the glider club and joined in on the 17:00 Managers meeting. They discussed the format and then drew names to determine flight order. The results are shown below.

 This will be properly documented in the coming hours and published for all to see. So on Friday, Chad is 11th up on Flight Line 1 in the morning and then switches to being up number 3 at Flight Line 2 in the afternoon. The exact times will be published at some point. 

For tomorrow, Chad will head out early to practice the F schedule (with me in tow), John will sleep in and eventually follow us, Michi will have a family day, Henry and Terri are doing a trip into Brisbane for the night and Agnes & Kelly will be out terrorizing the local population in some fashion :-) 

That is it for now.