Our first day of flying was Saturday the 6th of June, which was to be or only practice day before the competition started. We arrived bright and breezy to sort out our accreditation doc’s that would give us the access that we need to get into the various restricted areas. Although when we arrived there was a little confusion as to where we were to set up to fly….
We soon had everything put together and were ready for the practice round.
After a short but successful practice, we were wipped off to a pilots briefing that was unfortunately put on hold after a few minutes due to a huge hail storm that blew through (with a lot of stressed modelers, as our models were all in open tents). Fortunately for us Richard Swindells skipped the briefing and ran back to the tents to secure all our planes…
Straight after the briefing, we left to rush to the hotel to prepare for the opening ceremony. We arrived at the center of Turino at about 6pm and the whole ceremony lasted about 3 hours. It was really spectacular, with parachutists landing in the square with very little room to land… the flame lighting and full brass band.
On Sunday the 7th, the local DLG club had arranged a F3K competition for us. This was run like clock work.
Straight after the briefing, we left to rush to the hotel to prepare for the opening ceremony. We arrived at the center of Turino at about 6pm and the whole ceremony lasted about 3 hours. It was really spectacular, with parachutists landing in the square with very little room to land… the flame lighting and full brass band. On Sunday the 7th, the local DLG club had arranged a F3K competition for us. This was run like clock work.
On Tuesday morning the 8th, we arrived at the airfield to very overcast weather. The breeze was blowing straight onto the no fly area (grandstands and public areas). There was absolutely no way that we could follow the lift as we had been told that if we go anywhere near those areas we would be DQ’d. Unfortunately Mark, Steph and myself all flew without ballast. Everyone else flew very heavy and managed to push forward to the tree line……. And Mark and I got hammered, although Steph did manage to win one round and not do too badly in the second round. We were lucky that these scores were not taken into account at a later stage. These scored were used to put us all into groups for the Semi-finals.
On Wednesday morning the 9th, our slot was a little later in the morning and we were lucky enough to have great weather once again. We knew that this time there was no room for mistakes. We had to fly perfect rounds, as we were expecting most of the competitors to max there flights, in which case, they would have taken the previous rounds scores into account. The top 8 were only separated by 12 points.
On Friday the 11th, we once again had really great weather. We knew that we had a limited time slot, but that we would have a couple of rounds, before we would be called to stop. With only 8 of us in the final and the weather being as good as it was, we once again thought that this would be a long long final. It turned out that someone came down in every round until it was just Max and myself. Tony from the UK was the first one out, followed by Oleg from the US, then Vitalijus from LTU, Ricardas from LTU and Richard from the UK. There were a number of close calls for a number of us but we were lucky enough to land just a few seconds after the first plane was down. Francesco from Italy landed next and secured himself the bronze medal. Max and I then flew about 4 rounds and maxed all 4 at times we were doing rolls and aerobatics around one another just to keep the round exciting…….. but unfortunately we ran out of time and we were stopped for that time slot.
We were then told to be back by 6pm, and that we would continue with the final. We were finally called at 7:30pm to start, and ooooooops……………… I landed first. To Max’s credit he found 2 or 3 little bubbles and worked them well. (Mike Stern from the UK/ ex-ZIM received credit from Max for half of the gold, as he was launching for Max in the final)
On Saturday the 13th, we had the awards ceremony, and this was a very special moment for me. It was a very proud moment for myself and Bob Skinner who was there to award the medals to us.
All in all it was a great trip and we have learnt a lot. A special thanks to the organizers, although we had small issues, they were always sorted out. Thanks to our team for all the support and help throughout the competitions, as well as Lionel Brink and Bob Skinner for their assistance and help in the qualifying rounds.
Alan
