Monday 23rd - 0833
Now we have a warm up pilot in the air, Steve will be flying in around an hour, Alan after lunch and Julian late afternoon. Some more pics here…
 

1 - After the Free flights, Steve and Julian dream about the 1st unknown
2 - 1st unknown box wind and judges (OFF official wind, 500 500m wind, A judges)
3 - Figures submitted for the 2nd unknown.
There is a day off tomorrow, and possibly some thundery weather for a couple of days after that. For today it is clear, blue and sunny.. Game on!
Peter Rounce

Busy day today, especially for judges....
After the usual, just slightly delayed briefing, we started on the first Unknown this morning and managed a warm-up and 5 contest flights before early lunch break at 11.30. Early lunch because of a planned inbound Commercial Flight. Steve was last to fly before lunch and got through bravely with all figures scored, although he was caned a bit by the judges on the sausage and the rolling turn.

Flying started after lunch at about 1.45pm and my draw of number 11 came up about an hour later. The weather today was superb, with the wind straight down the box from the south, cumulus at about 4,300 feet and unlimited visibility. Although my flight was by no means error free, the errors were sufficiently small for me to pick up quite a few places by the close of play. Some others who placed higher in the Free yesterday fell further, so after being 13th and 7th on these two flights, I now find myself in 6th place overall.

Apart from 4 or 5 at the top, who have flown consistently better than the rest of us, the field has been pretty open. Julian flew just 4 from the end and had what I thought looked a very good flight - probably better than mine. However, it obviously looked different from the other side of the box as he scored a little lower than me after all. Julian came 9th in this flight and also moved up, though, from 10th to 8th overall.

We are now in something of a strange position. We have only one more programme to fly, but 5 days available to do it in. On the other hand, the forecast is set for deterioration some time tomorrow, with Wednesday and Thursday set for some pretty bad rain. The organisers/jury have decided to let everyone fly the second unknown, and Steve is rostered for #2 tomorrow morning, with Jules and I at 23/24 respectively. The big question is how much we can do tomorrow before the clag sets in.

None, and we all have to wait 3 or 4 days. Some, and the programme will be split with later piltos flying several days after earlier ones. Or all the flights tomorrow and then we have to sit for 4 days twiddling our thumbs waiting for the closing ceremony Saturday.

Oh well. Time will tell.

Today's biggest surprise came after Jules landed. At the fuel pumps, a young lady with a clip board presented herself and notified Jules that he had been selected at random to take a anti-doping check. So he was dragged away and allowed to do nothing else until he had produced a urine sample. Unfortunately, adrenaline does have a rather drying effect on the system. We thought he had been kidnapped or, worse, seduced, as we waited for nearly 90 minutes with no word from him at all. Apparently people have taken up to 5 hours... at least, that's what he told us!!!!

Results so far in the usual place: http://civaweb.mwebservices.net/AEAC2007/OnLine/default.htm  If you click on the sequence name at the top of each column, you can see the rankings for that sequence alone.

Bye for now
Alan
Just thought I might pass on Julian's latest claim to fame. Not only has he now flown for England, sat around and waited for England, but he has actually pissed for queen and country as well...