We met this morning at 7:00am in the lobby of the Achat Hotel to decide what we would do for the day. It had stormed during the evening andf rained overnight and was still very wet with occasional showers passing through. We decided to go to the field to set up winches and test them if we did not have good weather to fly but it was pretty good once we got to the field so we set up six winches and commenced practice.
Initially the guys flew some thermal practice flights to check out the local conditions and with a pretty stiff breeze up top the launches were often spectacular. I set off to procure necessary supplies at a local hardware such as tarps and plastic to keep models dry as well as a wheeled trolley to get batteries from the field to the vehicles.
After lunch the team started some earnest speed practice with all the pilots throwing down some pretty ordinary flights to start with. The issue was we were launching into a great breeze and then flying a speed course downwind of the launch area. These conditions and such a layout is not that familiar for the pilots and it took some getting used to as they were diving for the course almost from the top of the launch. Initially after a few cuts and misjudged turns the guys started to get in the groove with Tom throwing down a sub 14 second run of 13.24 to show the others how it is done. Before long both David and Darrell had gone under 14 seconds in great air and then David hit the sweet spot with a 12.69 blistering run. Darrell too found his length to make a great 13.3 sec time and Dave laid down another sub 13 with a 12.8 It was pretty exciting to see the guys get their turns right because when a speed run is done correctly for a fast time it is very smooth and a pretty thing to see as opposed to an aircraft going very fast but not accurately directed for a slow time as we had seen earlier. We had measured the course and had Don at Base B calling the turns. He said at the end of the day that it was the best he had seen them turn base B in all their practices back home.
This is all good and bodes well for the rest of the week and the worlds next week.
As we were packing up at the end of the day we were visited by friends from Argentina Nicolas Mancini and Carlos Pisarello. They will be out practicing also for the rest of the week. It’s fun to finally meet some of these guys we know from Facebook.
Looking forward to more good practice tomorrow.
CU all then.
Gordon
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Jul 30 – Practice Nardt Airfield |
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