F3A Argentina

Nov.12, The End

I must say this has been another great experience, all the effort that everyone on the team put in, paid off. I want to thank all the financial donators, every dollar helps, as these trips are very expensive. I especially want to thank John and Danielle Bentley for all their help. John called every round and was there to critique manoeuvres, which the guys were extremely happy about.

When all was said and done,

1st, Tatsuo Onda, Japan

2nd, Christophe Paisant-Le Roux, France

3rd, Jason Shulman, USA

Team

1st, USA, 2nd Japan, 3rd France.

Al in all, some very good flying in some very trying conditions. The wind was a straight blow in, gusting over 40 klm.

The closing ceremonies were held at the airport till after seven. I will add pictures below. I then had to drive back to the hotel thirty min. to get Pat then to the Cumelo Hotel in Carilo for the banquet, about forty min. apart and get back for eight, didn’t happen, although we wern’t really late. This was the strangest banquet ever, no speeches of any kind. Got to watch some Tango dancing and that was it. The Russian team was sitting with us at the table, we had a great time with them. I was given a bottle of Russian Vodka, not sure what I did to deserve that honour but I did humbly accept it.

This part of our adventure is now complete. We are staying for a couple of more weeks to do some tours of the country.

If anyone wants to follow my tours blog, you can email me or any of my friends for the web address, I do not want it on Facebook thanks.

As you know, the winds were crazy, they kept blowing over the porta potties, here is some Argentine engineering.

Nov. 10 Semi’s

Michi flew his final rounds today, he was not prepared for the high winds. In his words (my F rounds suck). Finals, unknowns, closing ceremonies and banquet tomorrow. I will post the semi final list below. The starting order for the finals will be drawn tonight. It has been very interesting, the Argentine people don’t have the same time table as us. For them, it will get done but unlikely it will be soon. We asked if we needed tickets for the banquet, they said you have paid so all is good. What time does it start, we don’t know yet. A very different culture. You could not ask for nicer people though, even the police are nice. Pat was lost and parked it the wrong place, they told her to pull over then gave her directions. There is only one or two entrances into the towns off the highway and there is a police check point at each one. We had to show our papers once so far, we gave them a couple of Canadian flag pins, they were all smiles. The contest will all come to close tomorrow, I will most likely do a wrap up Sun.

Nov. 9 Final P scores

Michi was up at 4:45 this morning to head to the practice field, it paid off as he made the semifinals and will fly two flights of F tomorrow. He placed 25th out of 62 pilots, the top 30 fly the semi final pattern (F). The top 10 then fly the finals and unknowns. I will again attempt to keep you informed, the internet is so up and down here.

The place we are staying have charcoal BBQ pits just outside our door, so as we have kitchen units, John and Danielle, Pat and I, decided to invite the Aussies and the Zeelanders for a cook out. What a feast, chicken, steaks, sausage, potatoes and veggies. The veggies were a big hit as they are not that popular down here. There was also desserts, wine and beer, I am sure a good time was had by all. We still have a ton of food left, want supper come on down.

Nov. 8 clouds

Xavier zeroed his spin, he has had trouble with it all week. He flew this morning, the weather was not great but flyable. The contest was put on hold just before lunch. One of the Turkish team members lost sight of his plane in the low clouds and it crashed, very sad. The cloud ceiling did not improve, so at 3:30 the contest was called for today. They will fly the remaining pilots in the morning. The forecast is for better weather tomorrow. Michi fly’s his last P round at 9:48, if he can manage to get a raw score over 425 or so he should make the finals. I thought I would have a big update today, but as they have not finished flying, it is not to be. I will have more info tomorrow.

It is 9:41 and it is bucketing down, the dirt/sand roads are interesting when wet. They pot hole like nothing you have seen. We travel the streets in first and second gear, this poor rental car has to last till Tues. when we take it back.

Nov. 7th Day 3

Arrived at the field in the rain, things were looking a little iffy. The rain tapered off just in time and we started on time. Xavier had another good flight, got a 377, he was happy with that. Started to rain again just after lunch but did not last long, built Michi another shelter, he did not need it today. Michi was back in the groove with a 421, we are all looking forward to the final round of Preliminaries tomorrow.

Nov. 6 Rain

I did write a blog last night but with everyone trying to get on the net to check scores, somehow when I went to publish, it all disappeared.

We had a huge thunder storm Sun. night and the rains continued till just after noon. The event was delayed till 11:30, flying then got underway in light rain. Michi was 5th to fly, it was still raining lightly. He did not score as well as we had hoped, no major mistakes but this is the tougher panel of judges. His score was 741, his plane disappeared in the clouds a couple of times.

Xavier’s flight was in the afternoon, the weather was getting nice by then. He rolled the wrong was on the knife edge humpty and did a nice one and a quarter roll. That does not help your scores.

The power was out at the airport, so they were unable to provide the score sheets after each flight. We never saw any scores till 9:30 last night. Hope that doesn’t happen today.

Good weather this morning but rain forecast for this afternoon, Xavier flys at 10:30 and Michi at 3:28.

Nov. 4&5 Opening Ceremonies & First round

Sorry, fell asleep writing this last night, I will update later. For now, here is the flight order for today.

Yesterday we had plane processing and official practice, processing went good, all planes well within the weight limits and lengths, accept Xavier’s, he just made length. The off to official practice, we had an hour to use as we saw fit. Xavier chose to fly twice and Michi pounded in five rounds. The guys decided to head back to the practice field and made it back just in time for the opening ceremonies. We marshaled in front of the terminal and marched around to the back to stand in front of our respective flag. After all the pomp and circumstance, we were treated to a one man air show. He was wringing out an RV7, did a good job, doing a knife edge down the runway a few feet off the ground. I did not get a photo of that, there were too many people in the way. We then had meet and greet and I went to the managers meeting. I am not trying to offended anyone but when you are told that if you pull the red ball, you will have to get your plane weighed and you ask what colour the other balls are, I think you have had a little to much sun. Got back to the hotel and had a meeting with the team to discuss the info from the meeting. Everyone was ready for today.

The Boy Scout led us in, there were boys and girls.

This morning the guys wanted to get in a little more practice, so they were up early and headed to the practice field. I stayed behind to go to the airport and make sure nothing had changed over night, as has been the case but all was good. Michi arrived with plenty of time to assemble both planes. When our time came we were ready, John Bentley, caller extraordinaire, placed Michi’s plane on the flight line and the flight began. Michi had a very good flight, he was very happy as were we. The weather could not have been better, light in flow, cross box but sunny with large puffy clouds, perfect. It was starting to get a little miserable near the end of the day, with a little rain on the way home. Next was Xavier’s turn, he also flew well and was very happy with his flight, he said after, “well that’s done now I can go home”. Not a chance. As per usual, there is one judging panel that is tough and one a little softer, we had the soft one today, we are looking forward to tomorrow.