I will post the results from the prelims here. I have not posted much lately as I have been trying to dig myself out of the nice big hole I got into after the first round, and Dave and Mark have been doing a good job of keeping theirs updated. Once its all over I will post my thoughts on the event.
For now here are the semi-finalists and country finishing order.
CPLR
Shulman
Onda
Somenzini
Matt
Akiba
BPLR
Silvestri
Carrier
Jesky
Wissinger
Marquet
Suzuki
Friggeri
Dierickx
Beschorner
Rubin
Ulsamer
Fremming
Mayr
Northest
Graselli
Danksagmuller
Filgas
Van Vliet
Bloodworth
Warm-up pilots
Robinson
Shaden
Country order of finish
France
USA
Japan
Italy
Germany
Belgium
Austria
Swiss
Argentina
Canada
Austailia
China
Russia
South Africa
UK
Ireland
Korea
Ecuador
Hong Kong
Chile
Brazil
COlumbia
Suriname
Thailand
Venezuela
Singapore
Liechtenstein
Norway
Netherlands
Sweden
San Marino
Portugal
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Opening Ceremonies
Well the opening ceremonies are now over!
We woke up early this morning for our official practice at the competition site on line A. We got there early enough to see CPLR, BLPR and Carrier practice ahead of us. CPLR and Carrier flew good flights in the fairly stiff in blowing crosswind, but nothing to blow you away. BPLR's flight had some serious flaws in it which I am sure he will not make tomorrow during the competition rounds.
We each got in a flight and I managed to squeeze in a second flight during our 45 minute time frame for practice. We also noise tested the models with each of us registering around 93dB which is just under the 94dB limit.
After practice we got the models processed and took some team pictures.
After processing we quickly got on the road and went for a flight at Galvez field. Once again we met up with the Italian team who were also practicing. Silvestri got a flight on his Shadow with the counter-rotating props, which I was looking forward to seeing. You could definitely hear the cavitation noise from the props during flight at times. The plane had extremely slow downlines and flight speed relative to his other model. I am not sure if this is simply setup or a function of the two props, either way in the severe crosswind it made for some high crab angles to maintain track.
We woke up early this morning for our official practice at the competition site on line A. We got there early enough to see CPLR, BLPR and Carrier practice ahead of us. CPLR and Carrier flew good flights in the fairly stiff in blowing crosswind, but nothing to blow you away. BPLR's flight had some serious flaws in it which I am sure he will not make tomorrow during the competition rounds.
We each got in a flight and I managed to squeeze in a second flight during our 45 minute time frame for practice. We also noise tested the models with each of us registering around 93dB which is just under the 94dB limit.
After practice we got the models processed and took some team pictures.
I get my models ready for processing at the hanger.
The Canadians getting models processed in the hangar. My planes are in the front with Dez's Prestige's next in line at the back.
After processing we quickly got on the road and went for a flight at Galvez field. Once again we met up with the Italian team who were also practicing. Silvestri got a flight on his Shadow with the counter-rotating props, which I was looking forward to seeing. You could definitely hear the cavitation noise from the props during flight at times. The plane had extremely slow downlines and flight speed relative to his other model. I am not sure if this is simply setup or a function of the two props, either way in the severe crosswind it made for some high crab angles to maintain track.
One of the Italians gives Silvestri a hand launch of the counter-rotating prop Shadow. It seems they did not like taking off from the grass as hand launches were commonplace.
After our practice we hit the opening ceremonies. We were treated to some spectacular kite flying, as well as full size fly-bys, and parachutists. Here is a shot of us just before the ceremonies began.
After our practice we hit the opening ceremonies. We were treated to some spectacular kite flying, as well as full size fly-bys, and parachutists. Here is a shot of us just before the ceremonies began.
Some of the kites performing their acrobatics, these were very impressive.
The full size planes doing their overhead fly-by's. I did not catch the make of the planes as most announcements were made in Spanish.
Well, thats it for tonite. The big show is tomorrow, all of us are up in the morning. I am #5 on line A in the morning, with Dez about an hour after me and Dave should be finished up just before lunch. Then we will probably hit the practice field and make any adjustments that are required.
I want to thank everyone who has sent wishes via email or comments, I hope that tomorrow is a good day!
Chad
The full size planes doing their overhead fly-by's. I did not catch the make of the planes as most announcements were made in Spanish.
One of the parachutists coming in for a landing, they happen to train right at the Esperenza practice field that so many pilots were flying at during the week.
Well, thats it for tonite. The big show is tomorrow, all of us are up in the morning. I am #5 on line A in the morning, with Dez about an hour after me and Dave should be finished up just before lunch. Then we will probably hit the practice field and make any adjustments that are required.
I want to thank everyone who has sent wishes via email or comments, I hope that tomorrow is a good day!
Chad
Friday, November 9, 2007
I will keep this post short as I really have to get to sleep on time tonite. Our official practice is first thing in the AM tomorrow right after the French, and we want to get out there and see their flights as well.
Today we practiced with the Japanese team, they are truly a model team for Precision Aerobatics. Well organized, very disciplined, extremely courteous and pleasant to be around. I really enjoyed watching them fly today, even though I did not think that they are as on their game as I have seen previously. Its still practice and I am sure they will bring out their best stuff for next week. Suzuki has a new plane that is quite unique with a very narrow fuselage, it almost looks like a profile plane. Its named Mid-Rex, and I will post some pictures of it tomorrow. Akiba is flying the OS 200 and the other guys are running the YS 170's.
We had a great BBQ lunch supplied by the local modelers. I will get pictures of everything up tomorrow.
Chad
Today we practiced with the Japanese team, they are truly a model team for Precision Aerobatics. Well organized, very disciplined, extremely courteous and pleasant to be around. I really enjoyed watching them fly today, even though I did not think that they are as on their game as I have seen previously. Its still practice and I am sure they will bring out their best stuff for next week. Suzuki has a new plane that is quite unique with a very narrow fuselage, it almost looks like a profile plane. Its named Mid-Rex, and I will post some pictures of it tomorrow. Akiba is flying the OS 200 and the other guys are running the YS 170's.
We had a great BBQ lunch supplied by the local modelers. I will get pictures of everything up tomorrow.
Chad
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Practice
Well its been a few days of practice, and finding the best and worst sites to practice at! Some late nights and some early mornings. Finally a little bit of a let up to do a blog update.
Official practice and model processing starts tomorrow for some teams, we are slotted for official practice Sat. morning just after the French team. From there we will get our models processed and probably head out for some practice before making our way back to the opening ceremonies.
We first spent a day of practice at the Esperenza where there were the following teams: Ecuador, UK, Columbia, Norway, Sweden.
Kevin Caton from the UK is flying this Pletty powered Twister.
So far electrics are definitely not dead. From what I have seen at the practice fields they are far more common than glow powered models. We all know that at least half of the top 10 will be running glow, but I personally predict (based on what I see walking through the hotel lobby and the practice sites) that at least 50% of the models here are electrics. I will also go out on a limb and say that Flightpower and Hacker are far and wide the dominating power source of these models, with YS leading the glow models.
After Esperenza we decided to go on a longer drive to find some isolation. We headed down to San Lorenzo which is some 120km away from Santa Fe. There we found no one to fly with except ourselves! I personally got in 8 flights and I think I managed to rid myself of some poor habits that I had been exhibiting at the previous practice sessions.
Our fellow Canadian drivers zooming down the highway toward San Lorenzo at 130kph (the normal speed limit)
San Lorenzo was not a bad field, same orientation as the Worlds site which is nice. Right alongside a highway with traffic that liked to honk its horn as it drove by, some what distracting, but at least we were alone with a lot of opportunity to fly.
The Canadian team prepares for a day of practice at the San Lorenzo field.
Dave Reaville's caller Mark Byrne takes a ride on Dave's Twister in Argentina....look ma no hands!
Today we hit the Galvez field, in the same direction as San Lorenzo but about half the distance. It is also a nice field with the locals welcoming us with a cooler full of cold drinks! We spent part of the day practicing with the Italians and the Portuguese.
The lineup of pilots at the Galvez practice site
The counter-rotating prop arrangement on Sebastiano Silvestri's Angel Evo S. He did not fly the model but said in calm weather it works very well, however in the wind it does not have the speed. The props were very large (I could not see a size). The gearbox is built into the front of the Hacker motor, with dual shafts (one within the other) driving the props. It seems like a very complicated setup with a lot of potential failure points from my perspective.
Official practice and model processing starts tomorrow for some teams, we are slotted for official practice Sat. morning just after the French team. From there we will get our models processed and probably head out for some practice before making our way back to the opening ceremonies.
We first spent a day of practice at the Esperenza where there were the following teams: Ecuador, UK, Columbia, Norway, Sweden.
John Harrop (I hope I got it right) of the UK team is flying this Plettenberg powered Integral.
Kevin Caton from the UK is flying this Pletty powered Twister.
A bit of a crowd watches me practice at Esperenza, unfortunately I wasn't putting on a good show in my opinion!
So far electrics are definitely not dead. From what I have seen at the practice fields they are far more common than glow powered models. We all know that at least half of the top 10 will be running glow, but I personally predict (based on what I see walking through the hotel lobby and the practice sites) that at least 50% of the models here are electrics. I will also go out on a limb and say that Flightpower and Hacker are far and wide the dominating power source of these models, with YS leading the glow models.
After Esperenza we decided to go on a longer drive to find some isolation. We headed down to San Lorenzo which is some 120km away from Santa Fe. There we found no one to fly with except ourselves! I personally got in 8 flights and I think I managed to rid myself of some poor habits that I had been exhibiting at the previous practice sessions.
Our fellow Canadian drivers zooming down the highway toward San Lorenzo at 130kph (the normal speed limit)
San Lorenzo was not a bad field, same orientation as the Worlds site which is nice. Right alongside a highway with traffic that liked to honk its horn as it drove by, some what distracting, but at least we were alone with a lot of opportunity to fly.
The Canadian team prepares for a day of practice at the San Lorenzo field.
Dave Reaville's caller Mark Byrne takes a ride on Dave's Twister in Argentina....look ma no hands!
Today we hit the Galvez field, in the same direction as San Lorenzo but about half the distance. It is also a nice field with the locals welcoming us with a cooler full of cold drinks! We spent part of the day practicing with the Italians and the Portuguese.
The lineup of pilots at the Galvez practice site
The counter-rotating prop arrangement on Sebastiano Silvestri's Angel Evo S. He did not fly the model but said in calm weather it works very well, however in the wind it does not have the speed. The props were very large (I could not see a size). The gearbox is built into the front of the Hacker motor, with dual shafts (one within the other) driving the props. It seems like a very complicated setup with a lot of potential failure points from my perspective.
We ended up getting rained out of Galvez and went back to town to catch up on some errands that needed to be ran. Tomorrow we are heading out bright and early to beat the rush while a number of teams should still be at the site dealing with model processing.
Off to bed!
Chad
Off to bed!
Chad
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Sorry!
Sorry guys, no update today! We just got back to the room (11:30pm). I will update tomorrow again.
I will say that we were out practicing with the UK, Ecuador, Norway, and one member from the Swedish, Columbian, and Irish teams at the Esperanza site today. Weather was decent with fairly stiff winds again.
Chad
I will say that we were out practicing with the UK, Ecuador, Norway, and one member from the Swedish, Columbian, and Irish teams at the Esperanza site today. Weather was decent with fairly stiff winds again.
Chad
Monday, November 5, 2007
First Day of Practice
Well today we hit the Parana practice site around noon to start getting ready for the big week next week.
First we started off with a well needed breakfast to get us through the rest of the day. The breakfast at the Holiday Inn is pretty good.
After we ate we packed up the cars and took off toward Parana, on the way just happens to be a Wal-Mart, so we had to stop and pick up some essentials like water, chairs, snacks etc.
The Wal-Mart patrons in Argentina are not a lot different than the patrons at the local Wal-Marts in North America, just look at the picture and see if you agree?
The drive to the Parana practice site is fairly scenic with construction, a tunnel, police (or military we are not really sure) checkpoints that check to see if your lights are on! A few general shots of the country side during the drive...
We did fairly easily find the practice site and joined the team from Chile, and a couple of members from the German team who were finishing up and left shortly after we got there. We managed to get in a few flights and later in the day Adrian Wong from California along with the Hong Kong team and the team from Thailand arrived and began getting their gear setup and ready.
I managed to squeeze in 4 flights and start getting accustomed to the conditions. It was fairly windy today probably up around 15-20 mph at the top of the box. With the wind at our backs at this site and a bunch of tree's behind us landing was a bit interesting due to the turbulence. Everyone was having trouble with the tricking landing situation.
Rene of team Chile and his pair of Genesis (Genesi?)
Here are the guys from Thailand trying to get a YS 170 going. They were having a lot of trouble with this engine. We left before they were able to get it running but hopefully they got it solved.
Adrian Wong and his team mate from Hong Kong watch the flying. Adrian was just checking out the practice sites as he did not have his planes assembled yet. His primary suffered some damage to the canopy which is unfortunate as it is an Akiba built Proline.
We will be back out practicing tomorrow at one of the sites. Not 100% sure which one yet.
Chad
After we ate we packed up the cars and took off toward Parana, on the way just happens to be a Wal-Mart, so we had to stop and pick up some essentials like water, chairs, snacks etc.
The Wal-Mart patrons in Argentina are not a lot different than the patrons at the local Wal-Marts in North America, just look at the picture and see if you agree?
The drive to the Parana practice site is fairly scenic with construction, a tunnel, police (or military we are not really sure) checkpoints that check to see if your lights are on! A few general shots of the country side during the drive...
We did fairly easily find the practice site and joined the team from Chile, and a couple of members from the German team who were finishing up and left shortly after we got there. We managed to get in a few flights and later in the day Adrian Wong from California along with the Hong Kong team and the team from Thailand arrived and began getting their gear setup and ready.
I managed to squeeze in 4 flights and start getting accustomed to the conditions. It was fairly windy today probably up around 15-20 mph at the top of the box. With the wind at our backs at this site and a bunch of tree's behind us landing was a bit interesting due to the turbulence. Everyone was having trouble with the tricking landing situation.
Rene of team Chile and his pair of Genesis (Genesi?)
Some members of the local club were out to setup a shade shelter for us. Someone was missing the directions as it ended up taking about 10 people to finally figure out how to assemble it, easily the most entertaining part of the day!
Here are the guys from Thailand trying to get a YS 170 going. They were having a lot of trouble with this engine. We left before they were able to get it running but hopefully they got it solved.
Adrian Wong and his team mate from Hong Kong watch the flying. Adrian was just checking out the practice sites as he did not have his planes assembled yet. His primary suffered some damage to the canopy which is unfortunate as it is an Akiba built Proline.
This is an Extreme Composite Proline which one of the Hong Kong team members was flying. It seemed to fly very well and had a ton of power with the YS 170.
We will be back out practicing tomorrow at one of the sites. Not 100% sure which one yet.
Chad
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Ola!
Well we did finally make it! Actually some 36 hours after we left the airport in Calgary.
It felt like forever on the airplane from Toronto, around 12 hours I think with a short stop in Santiago, Chile to drop a few off and pick a few up.
Here we are standing around the airport in Chile waiting to get back on the plane to head to Buenos Aires.
A shot over the wing looking toward Santiago, Chile
It felt like forever on the airplane from Toronto, around 12 hours I think with a short stop in Santiago, Chile to drop a few off and pick a few up.
Here we are standing around the airport in Chile waiting to get back on the plane to head to Buenos Aires.
A shot over the wing looking toward Santiago, Chile
It was around a 2 hour flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires, which seemed extremely short in comparison to the marathon that we had just completed.
A shot over the wing as we approach Buenos Aires
A shot over the wing as we approach Buenos Aires
At this point my camera batteries decided to let me down and I didnt get any more pictures until after we were safely in the hotel today. However I will grab the ones that Xavier and Dez took tomorrow and paste them in here. Until then a story will have to do!
Once in BA at the airport, after grabbing our luggage we quickly cleared customs and security and proceeded to grab our rentals. The rental office was a brief 5 minute drive from the airport, and one of the staff came to pick us up and took us to get the cars. We left my dad and Xavier to fend off the porters trying to load our luggage and planes into every taxi that drove by!
A missed exit leaving the rental office cost us a few minutes of time trying to find out way back to the airport, however we made it back and jammed all the boxes etc into the cars and off we went.
We let Dez take the lead on the trip to Santa Fe since he had a GPS and Xavier had maps...what could go wrong! Well we ended up in downtown BA traveling some fairly busy streets and getting first hand exposure just how exciting driving down here is. A few years ago I spent a bit of time in Venezuela so I had a bit of understanding what to expect (I didnt actually drive in Venezuela myself), but nothing makes up for experiencing it yourself!
Long story short (well not really) we made it out of BA an hour later on the road to Rosario.....awesome its all downhill from here! (literally!). So I knew that there was a bypass around Rosario, unfortunately it was night time at this point so we pretty much missed the exit to take the bypass and into Rosario we went. Ok, long story short (this time I mean it), we spent two hours trying to navigate our way back to the highway. A gas station and a few more maps later (to hell with the GPS!!) we were back on highway 9 and hit Santa Fe and quickly found the hotel (Holiday Inn) at about 2am local time.
So we slept in a lot today, and while most of the crew went out walking around I stayed in the room and got my gear all charged up, assembled etc etc etc.
A shot of our hotel room with parts scattered about during the assembly of the planes
The plane survived the trip without even a scratch on them, which is always a great thing. Once of my boxes had some minor damage to it on arrival so I was quite happy to see it unscathed. All the other equipment like batteries and chargers were as we packed them in the luggage prior to leaving Calgary.
Before we went out to supper we hit the Esperanza practice site and had a chat with the locals flying out there. This looks like a really nice site and we will be out there tomorrow AM after we hit the local Wal-Mart for a couple of cases of water and some chairs! You can always count on a Wal-Mart and McDonalds to be nearby where ever you go in the world to ensure you feel right at home! We can actually see the McDonalds sign from our hotel window (I will get a picture of that tomorrow)....and no we have not been there yet.
Tomorrow we should get all the pictures sync'd up and now that my batteries are charged I can continue to get more!
Thats it for today!
Once in BA at the airport, after grabbing our luggage we quickly cleared customs and security and proceeded to grab our rentals. The rental office was a brief 5 minute drive from the airport, and one of the staff came to pick us up and took us to get the cars. We left my dad and Xavier to fend off the porters trying to load our luggage and planes into every taxi that drove by!
A missed exit leaving the rental office cost us a few minutes of time trying to find out way back to the airport, however we made it back and jammed all the boxes etc into the cars and off we went.
We let Dez take the lead on the trip to Santa Fe since he had a GPS and Xavier had maps...what could go wrong! Well we ended up in downtown BA traveling some fairly busy streets and getting first hand exposure just how exciting driving down here is. A few years ago I spent a bit of time in Venezuela so I had a bit of understanding what to expect (I didnt actually drive in Venezuela myself), but nothing makes up for experiencing it yourself!
Long story short (well not really) we made it out of BA an hour later on the road to Rosario.....awesome its all downhill from here! (literally!). So I knew that there was a bypass around Rosario, unfortunately it was night time at this point so we pretty much missed the exit to take the bypass and into Rosario we went. Ok, long story short (this time I mean it), we spent two hours trying to navigate our way back to the highway. A gas station and a few more maps later (to hell with the GPS!!) we were back on highway 9 and hit Santa Fe and quickly found the hotel (Holiday Inn) at about 2am local time.
So we slept in a lot today, and while most of the crew went out walking around I stayed in the room and got my gear all charged up, assembled etc etc etc.
A shot of our hotel room with parts scattered about during the assembly of the planes
The plane survived the trip without even a scratch on them, which is always a great thing. Once of my boxes had some minor damage to it on arrival so I was quite happy to see it unscathed. All the other equipment like batteries and chargers were as we packed them in the luggage prior to leaving Calgary.
Before we went out to supper we hit the Esperanza practice site and had a chat with the locals flying out there. This looks like a really nice site and we will be out there tomorrow AM after we hit the local Wal-Mart for a couple of cases of water and some chairs! You can always count on a Wal-Mart and McDonalds to be nearby where ever you go in the world to ensure you feel right at home! We can actually see the McDonalds sign from our hotel window (I will get a picture of that tomorrow)....and no we have not been there yet.
Tomorrow we should get all the pictures sync'd up and now that my batteries are charged I can continue to get more!
Thats it for today!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Well we made the first leg of the trip to Toronto safe and sound. A small bit of convincing and a Visa transaction later and we were on the plane in Calgary. Here is a shot of our plane in Calgary as they load on the luggage....hopefully the planes are safe and sound!
Here is a shot of my dad Brian who is coming along for the first time to watch the World Champs. He doesn't fly himself so this should be quite the experience to see what its all about. Or at least see what all his hard earned money went towards when I was still a kid!
Once we hit Toronto we went out for supper with my sister as we have a 6 hour or so stop. After a nice supper and doing a bit of catch up over coffee at the local Tim Hortons (its a Canadian thing) we made it back to the airport. After a quick visit with security and the transmitters we met up with Dez Vaghy (pilot), Xavier Mouraux (Dez's caller), Harry Ells (team manager) and his wife Rosemary. Dave Reaville and his caller Mark Byrne along with their wives will join us in Santa Fe in a couple of days.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Packing
Almost finished packing up tonight. We are leaving Friday AM from Calgary, the trip will take approximately 24 hours including our long layover in Toronto on the flight down. We will arrive mid-afternoon on Saturday the 3rd then drive the 450+ km to Santa Fe north of Buenos Aires.
Hopefully everything has gone well at that point and we can hit the practice field first thing Sunday morning (Nov 4th) and start adjusting our models to the local conditions!
Supposedly the hotel has high speed internet access so it should be fairly easy to update this page daily with pictures and comments. So keep your browser pointed this way for updates.
Chad
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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