The French made their entrance day before yesterday with a Cap 231, presumably modified to the latest standard allowing it to fly aerobatics, and an Extra 300. They promptly installed a single-place canopy on the Extra and spent the day boring stylish holes at very high speeds. The canopy prompted much debate regarding its legality, and finally the contest jury told their team manager, Coco, they must remove it and reinstall the 2-place canopy. His reply was that it made no difference, leading one to wonder why they brought it along. Nevertheless, it allowed idle minds to concoct a variety of conspiracies and stratagems most likely to mess with the French. It is a popular and multi-national pastime.

This morning Hans L. from Australia showed me a DVD of him flying his Yak 50. He’s here in support of his mate, Richard Wilshire, with hopes of flying a Y50 in a future AWAC. Based upon what I saw on the DVD, he should be flying it here at this one. We’re all disappointed that the pre-registered Bucker Jungmeister was broken in a crash a few weeks ago and won’t be attending, and there is unanimous enthusiasm for seeing classic types take part. There are many competitions within the greater whole, such as being the best Yak-55 or best Zlin pilot, and we’d all love to see a Yak-50 conquer a Cap231.

The last couple of days have reminded me that the biggest challenges in this contest are mental. Stress inevitably takes brain space better occupied by calm reflection. We’ve had far less distraction at this event than previous ones, and our team is very well integrated and mutually supportive. We’ve had a bit of minor teeth gnashing and eye-rolling associated with the practice flights and time-slot management, but we’re hoping it will just go away as the actual contest approaches. There’s always someone who seems to want to tell others how they have to do things, but in the end success or failure depends upon what one brings to the game in their own head.

As this is just the 7th AWAC, the formula is still evolving. I believe we’ve stumbled into the sweet spot this time, with 8 US pilots, and a flying alternate. Early on the original 8 pilots voted to acknowledge our alternate, Steve Johnson, as a full member of the US team. While he is flying as an independent and "hors de concours" (meaning ineligible to win the medals), he represents a major asset to our team had one or the other of us been forced to withdraw. This is highly likely when one is renting aircraft, and flying in a foreign country. When it comes to winning team medals, you can never have enough competent pilots tossing their scores into the total. Steve is flying quite well, and I predict he’ll distinguish himself in the final scoring. It is a lot of money and aggravation to come this far only to fly Hors de Concours, but when one considers the invaluable experience he’s gaining toward the day he is on a future US team, I think it’s money well spent. I am as convinced as ever that doing well at a world championship demands a multi-year strategy, so he’s well on his way. There is just too much difference in the game here and at home to reasonably expect a win one’s first time here. I suppose it could happen, but I doubt it….

A few of us sat in on the FAI/CIVA rules committee meeting yesterday. Mostly dull stuff, but better than napping at the airport. This committee makes recommendations to the full CIVA group at its general meeting, which can adopt or reject its recommendations. Then, the IAC can adopt or reject the CIVA rules in our effort to keep the US Unlimited and Advanced categories aligned with the world sport.

The committee voted to recommend that the bonus system be abandoned in the Unlimited Free, and to raise the maximum number of figures to 9. They also voted to drop the maximum number of figures for the Advanced Free to 12 from 15, and I think they decided to require two snaps rather than just one. My eyes were glazing a bit, so the real facts should await the official report, plus whatever the CIVA Plenary meeting actually adopts. There was the usual confusing debate regarding hard and soft zeros, none of which currently affects pilots flying in IAC contests. We learned that the AWAC judges’ perception of whether all the points were present in a hesitation roll is a "soft" zero, meaning that a judge’s zero would stand regardless of whether it was in the minority or not. Clearly, a pilot is well advised to present the points in an unambiguous manner.

Pavol Kafka, from Slovakia, is our chief judge. We met originally in Germany in 2000, and again in Sweden at the AEAC in 2003. He’s well schooled in this sport, and highly respected. His style tends to be hands-on, and he’s announced that they will be comparing scores after every flight and at the end of the day to insure all the judges are up to snuff. He’s known to be much more stringent than some in the way he controls the box, and we’re all primed to give the required wing-wags and warm up figures as prescribed.

We have a Spaniard competing for the first time at AWAC. Pedro Teilleria is flying an SU29, and comes across as a somewhat short Desi Arnaz, including a huge expanse of grinning white teeth and a sonorous voice just on the verge of singing out "baba looooooo!". The limited baggage space in his SU29 meant he marched in the parade in the same grease-stained shorts and polo shirt that had practiced in. As he strutted with a confident machismo behind the young military standard bearer we had to observe that he looked "mahbelous". He truly did, and the crowd loved it.

Yawn…. A quiet time in the hotel café, with pilots chatting over coffee, my 3 year-old grandson riding a tricycle about the hotel property, and some women planning a site-seeing outing for their husbands and SO’s. Not only are we not allowed to fly, we must submit to domestication.

Time to pay attention to group activities. We’re off on a touristing mission.

Poland is a special land, and a fascinating people. It had a 125-year stretch when it didn’t even exist, having been partitioned between Russia, Germany and a few other ambitious powers in the 19th century. Before that it had periods when it was the largest and among the richest nations in Europe. Unfortunately, it has always been surrounded by empire-minded countries and has been nibbled away, invaded, and plundered by the Turks, Hungarians, Swedes, and Prussians, as well as the previously mentioned Germans and Russians. In spite of constant invasion and occupation, the Polish people have retained their identity, language, and culture.

We learned more about Robbie Gibbs at lunch today. He shared that he is the first male in his family in 4 generations to not serve a full 30 years in the military. He went straight from high school into the marines, eventually working as an aviation expert and small unit leader. He says he left after 10 years because he figured he’d end up as the oldest private in the military, given their rules and his responses to them. That’s something of a surprise, given the kind and helpful nature we’ve seen here. He and Walt led the work on Joakim’s Extra 230, resulting in a much nicer to fly aircraft, as well as repaired brakes. He’s flying Joakim’s EX230 here, and owns the ex-Bubba Vidrine/Jim Abram EX230 back in the states. It lost its engine earlier this year, and was returned to flight status shortly before he came over for the AWAC. I’d say he’s quite talented based upon how quickly he’s come up to speed.