Saturday 17th
Ok so it is saturday and this is our third day here. For the first time we are able to fly! Still very overcast, lots of rain yesterday, a little clearer today, but still can't see any blue sky.

The Americans have 1 roll of line and all their winches but no batteries yet. I had 1 roll of line so we now have 2 winches that we can use between us.

I had a flight with FOSA A and was very happy with a few tweaks that John and I made for distance. A couple of distance legs at different speeds, turning well and speed trim was very close. A taste of a few thermals and then in to land.

The competition site is not complete yet, so the field we are flying at is a full size airfield and actually the site for the full size aerobatic competition that starts next week. John had a flight with his A model that was uneventful, a little bit of slope soaring and nice landing. Second flight was very similar for both of us, for me was a speed run, similar for John. Then we had a heart starter with the first launch of John's B model. it came out of my hand straight with lots of tension, and imediately broke left and headed for the fence and a very large, mobile transmitting van! Missed by a little bit, thanks to John's quick recovery. He landed and readjusted the elevator trim a little and then had a much better second launch.

Unfortunately it then started to lightly drizzle, so we packed up before everything got really wet and went to visit the actual flying site. Still very wet under foot but otherwise starting to look like it will all come together. The tent is up for the teams to "live" in for the event and looks good.

I took some pics of the site which is quite narrow, with buildings power lines and a clock tower all within range in distance,.... there was also many rocks on the field but they seem by magic to be dissapearing! Tim, Evan and Warren are due in tomorrow, and we have some more practice lined up for 10am tomorrow morning and Roman is hopeful that in the afternoon we might be able to set up some winches on the field and do some practice / training on the competition site.

Steve

Monday 19th
Germans have arrived tonight, tomorrow will be interesting!

Good day practicing, tomorrow out to the competition site, winches and line have arrived so all should be good. Late night, about to hit the sack.

Cheers Steve

Tuesday 20th
Laiwu Cup aka Xueye Open Report.

Bad day today, mid air with Martin Herrig in distance while thermalling before entry, both wings came off my Fosa. The point of impact was just past the wing joiner on my model, about 50mm from the root on Martin's model.

Tim Kullack and John Skinner held their own in speed and distance.

Craig Goodrum has loaned me a Ceres Lift for my B model.

Winches are tested and the WC will start tomorrow. The field is very poor, rocks still everywhere. Catching is the order of the day for speed and distance.

Felt has now been laid out as a landing area, but damage is still being done.

Webcam is installed at the field but nobody said anything about hooking it up!

Steve

Wednesday 21st
Well today was a bummer! I lost a FOSA in mid air in distance; ripped both wings off.

I had Roman's altitude logger onboard at the time, the launch was almost as quick as the descent! I was offered a model from Tim, a helper on the US team, and also offered a Ceres Lift from Craig Goodrum, which was very graciously accepted. Test flew and set it up this afternoon and tweaked my backup FOSA to turn a little better in distance, now happy with both models.

John and Tim are both flying really well, John now has his cut in speed out of the way; 2meters short (captured on video) and he's quite happy with his repaired FOSA (lost a wingtip yesterday in distance, another mid air. We built a new one from foam and carbon last night.

Tim has been scarred too, bloody rocks all over the field are just cutting models to pieces on landing.

A few of us have been helping the Chinese and Hong Kong teams get models setup and trying to coach them as much as we can. I am learning some Chinese in the process! We are all enjoying it and to see the smiles on their faces makes it all very rewarding.

Trying to get the PC setup at the field tomorrow so I can send more regular updates. Cheers Steve from Team Aussie! Sent from my iPhone

Thurs. 22nd / Friday 23rd
Day 1 is one I would like to forget; 2 rounds of speed with extremely bad air and 2 speed runs around 21-22 seconds, on top of that we had a winch break which gave me a 1000 point penalty.

Tim and John both flew reasonably well.

Rocks are still an issue with landings for each pilot resulting in damage for all of us on the leading edge and bottom of the wing. I'm thinking of writing the score that comes with each new mark on the wing.

Well the end of Day 1 could not come quick enough for me!

Day 2 I did some retrimming with the #1 FOSA and improved a few settings.

John and Tim held their own in distance, best to say we are all learning!

Thermal was not so easy, but we all got our times today.

Off to dinner, will try to email more afterwards,

Cheers Steve, Sent from my iPhone

Hi Everyone. Well, we made it into Frankfurt, took nearly an hour to get our bags and the model box, but finally it all came though ok, barely a scratch on the box. Haven't had a chance to open it yet but all looks ok on the outside.

We picked up our car and it took me several minutes to even start it. I'm not joking! No key, finally I pushed the right button and off we go. Ok maybe not. After I found reverse (no label on the gear lever... Kerri-Anne found it later in the day. It had fallen off. It is the only thing we found wrong with the car!) we were able to get going, first thing was to get outside and get a gps working. Well we had a few GPS issues! The gps on my phone is refusing to work, even though I have the europe maps loaded, the TomTom we have not been able to figure out how to get what we need loaded and the gps in the car was in german!.

After nearly an hour we figured out how to get some of the info in the car into english, then a litle while later we figured out the gps. But the gps was still talking to us in German. Finally got it sorted and all is good now, but without it our relationship was being tested!

The autobahn is really cool, Still haven't figured out how the speed signs work, but so long as you fit in with the crowd it all seems ok. So after several hrs driving, including a detour through the back of Munich we ended up at the Neuschwanstein Castle. The rates for the hotel there were near on half-price so we jumped at the chance and stayed the night.

The hotel is at the base of the hill and has views to both castles. The scenery here has to been seen to be believed. I don't think our photos do it justice, but we tried! The history of this wonderful castle is amazing, it still remains unfinished, but the majority of it is complete. It took I think 16 years to get it to the state it remains today, and the King it was built for only got to live in it for about 6 months before his death. Paragliders probably had the best view yesterday, and there were alot of them launching from a peak behind the castle.

The engineering behind this amazing structure is simply awsome. The dop from some of the walls is in excess of 200m and the wall stops and the hill continues, there is no ledge or any way of walking around it. It is truely a magical place. The woodwork inside is stunning. In the King's bedroom the woodwork alone took 6 master woodcarvers 4 years to complete. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside, but we did get some postcards that have a few pics on it. There is a bridge behind the castle called Michelle's bridge (in english) and the picture from there is supossed to be the best angle, but unfortunatley there is scafholding all across the back side of the castle.

So today we are off to Czech., hopefully we will have access to WiFi there. I think on the first day there are around 500 photos to sort though; got to love digital cameras!

All the best,
Steve and Kerri-Anne

Hi Guys, We have arrived in Czech. The trip in was an interesting drive, we stopped an hr. short of our destination and decided to ask the gps for the nearest hotel. It said 15kms, which was 13 kms off the beaten track!

It seems that there are three types of roads in Czech; the major highways (autobahn equivalent 130kph max limit) then the major roads between towns; 90kph limit. These roads between towns are usually not marked with lines and can barely fit a semi going each way. The roads in town are usually a fraction wider but not much.

The speed limit system seems very simple, 130max on the highways, 90kph max on roads between towns and max 50kph through towns. Most towns would not be more than a kilometer square and are spread apart typically 3-10 km. The trees sit right up on the edge of the road and is quite peaceful and charming to drive through at 50. To do it at 90 is down-right scary! There is barely a striaght section for more than 200m, and reasonably hilly too. Kerri-Anne and I arrived at the hotel about 10am and I am pleasantly surprised, especially compared to 2001 WC (hosted in Czech, but at a town 150km further North).

I met up with the American team and had lunch with them and found out that Mike Smith had a gps location for the field so we went for a drive in the afternoon and found it. I must admit that most clubs would be very envious of the setup! There is accommodation for several people on-site and a garage down stairs for the models.

I will endeavour to get a few pics of the facilities over the next few days. The field prep is kind of "interesting"; manicured lawns that we can't land on!!!! Where the spots will be is crop that has been cut down to around about 3" tall and is rather strong. I personally will be trying to dork the models onto the spot with minimum energy as I think I will end up with some damaged leading edges if I try my normal approach.

Tim Kullack, Evan and Warren (Tims brother) arrived at the hotel while we were out at the field and Nick and Tanya arrived as we were returning from the field. Tomorrow we will be doing some setup and practice at a field about 30km from our accomodation and hope that it is a bit quiet so we can get some air time. I think our last helper arrives tomorrow too; Mike Rae will be a big asset for us.

General feeling at the moment is good and all quite relaxed and looking forward to some good flying! The weather for the last week has been reasonable during the day but lots of rain at night but it was a beautiful day today and looks like more of the same.

We did have a visitor to the field today; a HIND helicopter did a beat-up right over our heads at no more than 100m altitude, out to the base of the mountains, around the back of the mountains then played up and down the river a little then back overhead on his way home. It looked REALLY cool!! I must admit I forgot the camera today so no pics. but I will get some tomorrow of the practice field and the team.

We have email in the hotel as well as one the field, so info should be easy to keep passsing on.

All Aussie models have been checked and no damage which is a good sign, and Roo (our mascot) should start appearing in a few pics over the next few days, as he made an appearance this afternoon. I think though we will need to keep a full time guard on him so he does't go walkabout again!

Heading out to the practice field tomorrow early and try to get done what we need to by lunch time. More tommorow.

Cheers, Steve

Thanks to those that are responding, it is great to have the access to the net while we are here, I know what it is like being stuck back in Oz wanting to know what is happeneing!

First day of practice, got out fairly early and had a pretty good session, Tim, Evan and Warren left around lunch time to go and pick up Mike Rae who flew into Brno, Nick and I had a few more flights then pulled stumps about 3pm (flyable daylight around 7.30 pm)

By the time we left many of the teams were starting to show up and have some fun. We spent a bit of the afternoon catching up with old friends from many countries. I spent about an hour and a half starting a new program from scatch on my primary model as there was a bug in it that I just could not figure out what or where it was, so I started from scratch. It is pretty close to where I want it now, Speed and Distance setting is better than I had before and thermal is getting close. Launch is reasonable, a little more fine tuning tomorrow morning and all should be good. Landing is all set and just as good as before.

The thermals here are just SOOO different than what I experienced in Chrudim in 2001. The thermals today had balls, and bigs balls at that. If you wanted to practise speed you only needed to launch once and it was not hard to thermal back to launch height in about 4-5 minutes, WITH the speed ballast! If the conditions don't change then we are in for some very serious speed and distance scores! Thermals so far are very strong and you actually have a hard time getting into it and staying there, but if your in then it is an express train up, and if you are not going up then there are some mighty big hole to pull you back down again!

There are several trigger points around the field which I will get into in a day or two with some pics to help explain. Today was about 28-30 degrees with a light wind that was influenced by thermals to the point that we spent most of the day either launching 90 degree cross-wind to the occasional tailwind.

The landing area does leave a bit to be desired, the cut down crop is pretty rough on the bottom of the model and I think that the leading edges are going to suffer a bit. I guess time will tell. Joe arrived tonight, just in time for dinner and beer. He has his Ceres that he flew at Jerilderie and a new model being delivered to the field tomorrow.

We have a day of official practice tomorrow then 2 days of prelim. comp then we get into it. Roo was out-and-about this evening and made friends with a local lizard; will find out more about the lizard and will get back to you as to the details, cute little fella that is a pet. There are also 3 chipmunks ( I think...) here as pets as well; very cute little guys. I will get some pics tomorrow morning before we head out.

Pics from the field should start tomorrow as people start getting serious and have something out to photograph. I will also endeavour to get some pics of our tent setup, The Japanesse team is just behind us and it is VERY full... I think we will be raiding Joe's area a little as he is all alone.

We all had a good feed and the local beer goes down quite easy, and I'm ready for bed so I will post again tomorrow afternoon with some pics!

Cheers Steve

Today was our first day on the course, we started with some distance and then moved onto speed.

The Aussies were near the tent when the announcement went out this morning for "volunteers" so we jumped in. Problem with being first on the list is that you are more than likely to get sent up first.

So it was, I was first up in distance, the air was reasonable and I was figuring on at least 18 - 20 laps. I started with the heavy joiner bar and 2 slugs (2160g dry, total with ballast was 2924g). It is a little heavier than I would typically fly for the air, but it proved a good choice.

I got a Base A buzzer and light, then no base B... Bugger!! So we went out to about 400 meters and informed the organiser and then carried on, 1 minute in saw me with 3 laps (aiming for 5) and I was holding height and climbing, I was letting the model run with the weight and was using a little bit of camber (about 2.5mm), I started backing this off about half way though the second minute, still with no buzzer at base B, but it was good practice so we continued anyway.

The air I was in was pretty good and holding along probably 80% of the length of the course so into speed as I still had plenty of height left and started racing. I know I got 9 laps in the last minute and was near that pace for nearly 1.5-2 minutes and I finished with plenty of height and about 25 second to go. I could easily have got to the other end and back but the "Zone" was starting to get very crowded, so I opted for the safe option and landed.

I looked at the board and I only got 2 laps...oh well it was a hell of a lot of fun. No one really kept count except for that last minute, but I know that it was up around 24 laps and that is with two very long excursions past base B waiting for a buzzer.

The distance was pretty close as there was usually a model at the other end turning so we had a pretty good reference for the turn. Tim did a awesome job and had a distance score of 24 laps, next nearest was 12. He didn't get isolated but was far enough out to stay away from crap while every one else fell down, then the air built and off he went. Some very nice flying.

Nick was not so lucky; we got stuck on the wrong side of the course and too far away to get back to the pack that started racing behind him, got buried a bit but we hopefully learnt from that.

Evan launched well, flew well and listened well and was rewarded with some good racing.

My second heat of distance suffered the same as the first; no buzzer on base B. They did get it sorted eventually but was a bit annnoying none-the-less. Still, I was very happy with my flying and set-up, my calling was getting real close by the end of it and it shook out some of the bugs that have been lurking around for a while! Truth is that it has been a LONG time since I flew distance againt another plane, much less several planes so I was very happy with the result.

Speed for me was a different story, Tim was very neat, tidy and acurate, and rewarded with somewhere in the 15's. Nick had a good run from a low launch (due to bad air) and 17 was quite respectable for the air and height from launch. I got a pretty good launch, had air on the course and my first turn was spot on, the wings were nearly level and on the way back before I heard the buzzer, the second base B turn was about 5 meters short and I had to go around and get it. I ended up with a 21 second run which considering I stuffed base B I was happy with the time. Did the same again on the second run, 27 sec that time, poor air and very poor judgement on my part.

With any luck the guys have beaten the cuts out of me for the next few weeks! The pre- world comp. starts tomorrow so we will know soon enough.

Interesting thing is that the fast guys look to be flying VERY heavy and they are diving a LONG way past normal "aussie entry height"

Steve Keep

Official results are up for the Brno Cup

Day one, Round 1 is over plus a few heats of thermal for Round two complete.

Contrary to the results on the web, Joe is actually in thrid place, we did not get a new 4 minute time in the course when we re-launched, so we got a re-flight.

I managed to put together a speed run and get around base B, which was good for me. I also had a very good run in distance with a 1000. Tim and Nick did not have such an easy slot in distance, but did do quite well given the air.

We are still at the field at the moment and it is 9.30pm, about to pack up and head off, all are in good spirits, no damage anywhere.

We needed a flag pole for the Opening Ceremony so Gerry's new Shooter fuse became the flag pole; so yes Gerry, I have picked up your fuse! Don't worry, we didn't hammer it in too hard!!! (Got the wing too...)

Day 1 Complete:
Today was the start of the WC and was not a good day for myself or for Joe. Joe started to try and fly speed in launch mode, where as I tried it with 5mm of camber, neither case worked out so well!

I think Nick was the only clean speed run today, as Tim also had a cut on base B. 

Duration was not easy and Mike called Nick a real "get out of jail" thermal with two minutes to go, down low & nearly in landing circuit.

I ended up nearly 1.5 km away over a small town at Mike's suggestion. There were periods of a couple of seconds where I could lust see the model. It came back with a fair bit of height and this time I got my spot but was one second out, better than the first attempt!

Cheers, Steve and the Boys.

Day 2 WC
It had been raining over night and was very damp under foot when we arrived this morning, and now at 11 am it is raining, but distance continues!

Speed is up next. I went down 2 laps in distance as I was a little bit light and having trouble keeping the model moving, it was also very easy to stop it in the turns.

Tim got caught a little bit and went down a few laps and Nick did pretty good keeping up with his group.

Joe also went down by 2 laps to Jiri Baudis (manufacturer of the Ceres). He is flying his new model called a Cyrial (sounds like serial) which is also what Joe is flying (delivered to Joe just the other day).

It has just started raining heavier so I think they may stop flying for a little while. At least there is matting under foot and that makes it possible to move around the winch area with out ending up 6" deep in mud!

So I now have a dropper for speed and distance so a slightly more conservative speed course will be flown and I think slightly heavier than I normally would in distance.

Day 2 Summary
Well what a day, just finished dinner.

I thought we were going to be able to finish speed but no, Joachim Stahl was left to fly and it rained. So in the end they split the speed round into three which means that the last group had to refly speed. I already had a 16.8 that I was quite happy with (long but safe) but I had to go and do it again, and to top it off I was second up and not only that I had a LOT of top pilots in my group.

The wind had died down a little bit and was still 90 degree crosswind, so I decided to lose a little weight out of the model which made Joe happy as he was throwing it. (I flew at 3960g for the first flight in round 2).

I put in as much ballast in as I could safely launch and get away with (around 3700g) and flicked off the line on the first launch so came around for a relaunch and it flicked again but I kept it on the line, went through a thermal as I was rotating up the line which gave me a good zoom. Happy with the height, less than 2 minutes to go I entered; a fraction long on base B and going pretty quick, I think I might have just got the towhook past base A ( cut it a fraction fine there...) and down to base b again which is where it started to get interesting.

I got to base B a little quicker than I thought, I did have the model rolled over just a little too far as I started to carve through the turn; with the weight I had on you can't just bank and yank and still keep the speed, so when I came out of the turn the nose was high and not quite in the right direction, so rather than push down ( which is BAD) I rolled further into the turn and pulled a fraction out inverted (which is where I SHOULD have stopped) and kept going back to level.

It was executed pretty well and came out very well; 15.52 seconds which stood as the highest score for my part of the round until the very last pilot, Joachim did a bit better but he was rather conservative and didn't do it with a roll!!!

We did have a joke about it together later! I got a lot of applause for the roll and as I was walking off the field many people commented on the run, it really was quite amusing! It even raised a smile on Andreas Herrig!

It is certainly a run that many people will remember for a long time to come I think!

As a team, we did not have such a good day in distance, and I need to figure out how to put a terrain warning in Joe's model, for the second time in distance he had a "collision with a nearby planet" before crossing the finish line, with plenty of energy, but the model just stopped for some reason, probably because the ground reached up and grabbed it and stopped it!

Nick had a cut in speed, so we are changing our tactics a little for tomorrow and being a little more conservative. Tim also did not have such a happy time in speed, I think a llittle wary from the previous cut on base b; he flew the horns being very safe, which is WAY better than a cut. I struggled in thermal, and should have followed Mike's calls, as it was, I ended up about 40 seconds early, but did nail the spot.

I am still having trouble with ballast in distance, I will be trying heavier tomorrow and will if it gets any easier! Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for all of us!

Cheers, Steve

Day 3 WC
I had a hectic night last night repairing a transmitter until 12.30pm (a battery melt-down in Nick's TX). All good now. I will make this really quick as I am about to head off for breakfast.

Tim is flying conservatively in speed due to having a cut already and same with Nick, although Nick is probably flying a little tighter.

I was having a ball in speed yesterday and even beat a Herrig brother!

I spoke to Andreas a bit and they are both very cool guys. I am still getting my butt kicked in distance though; I flew one round 500g too light and was also down in launch height. I'm still trying to figure out why.

Thermal was ok up until the landing. For some reason I'm staying high for too long and then coming in high and late. I must try to remedy that today!

Tim and I had a few line breaks yesterday which did not help the situation either. Unfortunately Tim had two line breaks in distance which had him onto the course very late and without the other guys as markers at his height. I am getting used to a rapid relaunch now.

Flying against the Herrig brothers in distance is a real eye-opener, they just don't give a single mm away. Well I'm off to brekky; starting this morning with duration for round 5.

Talk soon, Steve

Last day WC
Hi guys, well it is all over and it was a BIG day.

We had an incident that put one of our guys in hospital, and the fact that he is alive is pure luck. A model upwind of us on the launch line stalled on the line and came staight back down then pulled up; the model hit Mike in the side of the body just a few inches above the hip. Fortunately it was the wing that hit him and not the fuse.If the model had been a foot higher or a foot to the left it could have been worse. He is ok now and back with us, but rather tender.

Some quick action from our team Doctor made sure he was ok initially then the paramedics arrived and carted him off to hospital. He was back later in the day and several times there was an announcement over the PA as to his progress and cheers went up each time it was good news.

Tim was flying distance at the time and they were on the end of the winch lane when the accident happened. It totally destroyed the model, there are some pics around that I should have soon. I am off to dinner and will return shortly. Mike is off the beer for the night and moving slowly but is otherwise ok.

Talk soon,
Steve