Preliminaries Day 3

 Up early after a decent sleep.... finally.  I packed up my gear and joined Chad in a drive up to Toowoomba TAA for some practice flights. A quick stop at Macca’s for coffee and we were off. Fifty minutes later, Michi beat us by a few minutes and was unloading his plane when we arrived. 

New Zealand’s Jason Arnold was flying already with Akiba San providing input. Sandro Matte also arrived shortly thereafter. Several practice flights ensued under clear skies and blow out condition. 

Peter Pennisi and Fraser Briggs also arrived and Fraser gave us the details on his failed round 2 flight.  He had one lower aileron servo lead plugged in backwards so it was dead.  Also regretted not having his backup plane ready to go. 

He did honor me with a nice photo after doing a full control check:-) 

Peter's plane

Fraser looking good!

Michi worked on his snap and wind corrections. John arrived and watch the last few flights. 

Michi’s tail wheel decided it had had enough flights and jumped off. A quick search yielded no sign of it so out came the spare parts box. All fixed. 

 

Repairs underway!

We packed up and headed to the Warwick Airport and line 1.  After an uneventful 50 minute van ride we pulled into the prime parking spot at line 1!  The weather was similar with a few more clouds appearing. 

Michi was first up after lunch break and had a good round although some minor line length issues and climbing slightly on few of the horizontal legs. Easy points not to give up. 

 

John calling for Michi

Ready start the afternoon session

 

Michi Round 3 scores

Next up was Chad and he once again had a solid round with very minor issues. A good flight to add to his total scores.

Chad Round 3 scores

 We had a break between Chad and Henry so it was off to the VLV booth that Mark Hu was running. Numerous drives, spinners and battery trays flew right out of the tent and into peoples cars.  Hey it was on sale!

Team action resumed with Henry following Gernot Bruckmann on the flight order. He had a solid flight and managed to get the plane's spin entry on track…. It wasn’t perfect but it did score. 

Gernot getting in the mood.

Here we go!

Henry Round 3 Scores

We debriefed and waited to watch Jason fly his P-23 flight. Suddenly the judging tents were all moved away from the runway as a couple water bombers were inbound. A mini airshow ensued as a plane departed (with smoke) and a few minutes later a water bomber landed. A second bomber came in to land but executed a go around after cancelled his bombing run. Great to watch. 

Flying reconvened and while watching, listened to Michi explain his options if pilot X get X score and he flies a smoking round ?  We will see what happens.
 

We had a small social outside of Michi's place before heading over to Psycho Suzies for dinner.

Last round of the P-23 schedule tomorrow on Flight Line 2