Start of Preliminaries Day 1

 It is day one of the preliminary rounds at Warwick Aerodrome.  With Michi up first on Line 1, he left the motel at 06:50 this morning. Chad followed him at 07:15 with John and I on their heels. A quick stop at McDonalds for a coffee and then off to the airport. 


The guys were setting up the planes and things looked pretty quiet at the moment.  The judging tent soon came alive after the scoring system had a bit of an issue of some sort.  It was all sorted out and the demo pilot Russell Edwards took to the skies after a ten minute delay.
Michi had his batteries checked and after the official starter gave the word, he plugged in and flew his first P-23 round. Solid effort with only a few minor flaws shown. John called for him and Michi was happy with the flight. 

 

Michi awaits his first flight.

Battery check.

Battery check for Chad's backup.

Peter Collinson was up next for USA and put in a very solid flight with Chad flying after him. Chad’s flight was very smooth & consistent and scored well… he is in the mix.
Henry was up a little later and also had a good round with the exception of his spin entry… not what he wanted. 

Team USA supporting Pete's first flight.

 

Uncle Norm awaits hos next battery check assignment.

 

John calls for Henry

 The team debriefed the flights and after the planes were packed up and bibs collected, we headed off to Toowoomba TAA about an hours drive north to practice. Chad had all the coordinates so after loading it all up, we headed north.  After 50 minutes of driving, my carplay was telling me to go left to the RC field but Chad kept going… mmm maybe a better route? No sadly, it was not a better route as we drove through parts of the town. A little road side meeting ensued and we managed to find the field shortly thereafter. Hey a little adventure for us.

Sandro Matti was the only plane flying so the Canadians quickly joined in. Soon after, the Japanese team arrived and we all put in multiple practice rounds.  
 

Chad puts in a practice round.

 

Michi and his second favorite team!

 

After sending some food back with John, Kelly was off checking out the town of Toowoomba… well the quilt stores and big mall anyway :-) 

 Henry ran out of packs (didn't bring his charger) so he and Terri headed back to Warwick. I did some blogging and watched some of the live scoring from the worlds site. Aside from some technical difficulties that seemed to pop up, I must say it is impressive to see this.

We headed back to town and enjoyed sa small social outside the Akimoto room along with some fresh sushi that Lian made.  Amazing what she can do!

Round 2 tomorrow!  

Side note: During the flights at Line 1 today, one of the Colombian pilots ejected his batteries during the 45 up line snap. He managed to get it back to the ground but suffered additional prop damage. The canopy was later recovered and a replacement prop sourced from other competitors.  He has no backup.

Additionally a second Colombian pilot forgot to plug in the ailerons during a practice flight later in the day at Warwick Aero Modellers field. Luckily it was returned (with the assistance of Andrew Jesky) without damage. Also no backup plane. 

Lessons learned for all... battery strap check, control check prior to launch. There is a reason for a backup plane because $hit clearly happens! A long way to travel to sit and watch.