Official Practice & Opening Ceremony

 Once again, it's off to the practice field in Warwick. Michi and Chad led the way with John, Henry and myself following in time. When I arrived, Michi was in discussion with Japanese Team Member Yuhei Suzuki who was kind enough to watch and coach Michi through a round of P-23.

Of course they spoke in Japanese so I can only guess as to what was said.  Probably something like this.. "Your Team Manager is great"... but I am no totally sure :-)  

 

The wind was pretty strong and gusty with the trees creating a lot of turbulence in the lower levels. We eventually packed up and some of us headed back to get uniforms etc for our upcoming practice session at site 1.

On arrival at the airport site, the winds continued to blow near the limit. The flags looked very nice flapping away.

The official practice is intended to give pilots a feel for the area and at least one of the competition sites. Several pilot also elected not to fly as the risk to their planes before the actual event was just not worth it.

Kelly and I caught up with some of our friends from previous years, Kevin & Sally Caton and Tim and Linda Jesky. Great to see them!

Both Chad and Michi assembled planes with Henry deciding to take a pass on the practice flight. He only has one plane here so probably a good decision. We also managed to get our team bibs which gave away our flight order.... Michi #1, Chad #3 and Henry #10. The bibs are color coded with the Team Manager getting a Dark Cyan bib, pilots a lighter cyan with their # on it, and a blank cyan bib for helpers. Only one bib with a number is allowed during an official flight.

Chad is ready!

The "Ginsue" setup! Looks very cool!

We followed the German team and took to the skies a few minutes early at 13:28. With our allotted time of 45 minutes, Chad put in two flights and Michi, in true fashion, squeezed in three.

Lots of eyes on the flights.

Following the practice session, we headed to town for a late lunch and later returned for the opening ceremonies. All the teams paraded through and lined up under their respective flags. After a short address by some dignitaries, the event was officially opened. There was a lot of digital media being taken and some are posted on the team's Face Book page and elsewhere. 

Agnes and Kieko led the way!

We returned to the motel and shortly after six pm, we all walked over to the RSL Club for a meet & greet. It was well attended and everyone enjoyed the appetizers than flowed out of the kitchen.

The place emptied out as everyone was excited for the start of competition in the morning. In true fashion, we watched some of the World Pipe Band Competition in Glasgow, Scotland. We had several relatives attending and have also competed there in the past.  Awaiting results now!

The Preliminary Schedule was also published today with Canada on Flight Line 1 at Michi leading off the contest at 8:15 sharp!

 

Some of you may have noticed but I have had a difficult time linking this blog page from our team's Facebook Page... seems simple enough as many others have had no issues with their respective links... but I have had nothing but grief trying to do it.  I have tried alternate url sites, appealed to Facebook and even had others attempt to solve the problem. 

 Fortunately my appeal for help has been answered by a fellow pattern flyer whom just happens to work for Meta in Seattle. His "team" is now working on it. More on this saga later. 

Off to the bed!