July 31st
Hi All,
As 'Merican Bob said to us after the ceremony, "Sure looks better from up there, doesn't it?" And I have to say he was right.

After we got the medals we went to the aeroplanes to take some pictures, and actually got applauded by the airshow crowd just for walking by. A bit like being the queen at Ascot. JP will never be the same again...  Then there was the re-enactment of the battle of the Nile with pedaloes at the yacht club farewell party, but I won't go into details.

See some of you in Sweden soon, the rest at Conington or Sywell, I hope. Let's make those events causes for celebration too.
Best wishes to all
Alan

Ay Up the lads done good. We've got the bronze team medal, its official,  and our smartly dressed and Brylcreemed team will be stepping up onto the podium at the 4 O'clock closing ceremony which will now be at 5 o'clock. This is entirely due to the 4 minute freestyle which is taking 5 minutes and still running.

Naturally, as you know, Top Cat did the top flight and Nik On put in a very good performance particularly in the not very well knowns. BUT, the outstanding performance was Sooper Dooper Jerry who has finished just 3 places behind Tom in 20th (that's Gerald 20th and Tom 17th) flying two full unlimited Unknown sequences for the very first time and doing it in competition. Those results do not reflect the real quality of their flights.

Last night was French party night and it were reet grand to see Tom in particular release all the pent up tension of a competition, in the usual manner. A top pilot barely alive today! But I would rather have avoided watching Uncle dancing at midnight...scoring a big handful of hard and soft zeros with his footwork, let us hope he does as bad at Sywell hee hee.
Yours
JP

A few sore heads this morning, but not mine. Damned responsibility. Some of the limbo pictures are interesting....

Freestyle just finished and now closing ceremony in 10 minutes. Have at last got what is left of the team (Kester and Mark have both jumped ship early) into reasonably matching outfits for the photos.

Bye for now
Uncle
 

The Russians have a clean 1,2,3 in the mens' contest and the overall, with Mamistov, Rakhmanin and Shpoliansky in the top three places. France are 4,5 and 6 with Narjoux, Delorme and Dussau. UK are TC 17th, GC 20th, NO 21st, MJ 25th and KS 32nd. All Brits bar Kester and Val flew the second Unknown and the lowest overall aggregate (Mark) was 76.35%. Tom was on 79.73% at the end.

We have a 137 point lead over the home team for the bronze; hence the celebration going on in the tent currently. I will go back in a minute and snap some more compromising photos. I think Tom will fly the Final Freestyle tomorrow, but at the moment he could do it without the aid of either Mr. Lycoming or Mr Cap.

Lock up your daughters...
See you at Conington, or Sywell.
Alan

(earlier on)
....the bronze appears now to be firmly in our grasp, as we have a 150 point lead on TBL'd scores with just a few pilots left to fly. So I doubt the result will cvhange much once it is official. Nick flew a very good second unknown, and Mark's was also very clean. The last Lithuanian had a little problem with heading after the half pos flick on figure 7 and so scored relatively low to our benefit.

Now we will bite our nails until the scores become official, but we are dusting off our best kit for tomorrow's ceremony...

Cheers
Alan
(it may just be beer o'clock now!!)
 

Hi All,
The 2nd unknown is now underway at 18:30 local time and the first Frenchman of the top ten pilots has just launched ahead of his necessary start time. I won't even begin to explain other than that the Russians and in the 123 positions at the moment. We are still in bronze team position for the moment by 10 points out of many many thousands of points.
Regards
JP

That elusive medal... is finely poised as the first unknown draws to a close. We now have all the scores relevant to the bronze medal and the current situation is that we are 78 points ahead of the home team. The French and Russians are still fighting out the gold and silver places as the last 3 or 4 pilots fly the routine just before lunch. If the cut allows 75% to fly the second unknown, then we have 4 pilots in contention to Lithuania's 3. If the cut is made at 50% then both countries have 2 to fly. For us, Tom and Gerald would have to hold on to, or possibly improve, that 78-point buffer. The next couple of hours are going to be very interesting for the organisers...
Byeee
Alan

Some flying has taken place to complete the first Unknown and since yesterday evening, tactics and the rule book starts to become significant.

All the team have performed very very well with very good results for Tom and Jerry in particular. HOWEVER they are being pipped at the moment by SAINTLY local hero V. Lapenas and the ANGELIC Antanas unpronounceable. Nevertheless we are are holding the current bronze medal position as the last few flights take place and the TBLP gets to work.

I don't understand all of the JPI bollocks but its all on-line with bar graphs and what have you. Verreeee interesting Mr Bond. Will there be a second unknown and who will fly when? Certainly the Russians and French are flying last (ie. now) and one will invoke the new 6 hour break rule (just like the Graf Spee in Montevideo Harbour with ACC as the British Ambassador).

Anyway back to aeros, the wind is now westerly this morning and we are back close to the judging position. These are very top men and a very difficult technical sequence to get just right but nevertheless I am surprised at what I see as basic errors and easy judging downgrades. eg. there is a goldfish in the unknown and on the finish 45° into a spin figure I have seen both Su's and CAP's go very very steep (there are good reasons for being a bit steep at this point) but on current record this is not necessarily reflected in scores, and also well rolled finishes to snaps. Ho hum.

Must go and get me place in the team photo...at the rear in a borrowed team shirt.
Regards
JP
ps. Must also pester ACC and TC with more why why why questions. That's the value of being here, plus the flying which is personally inspiring and depressing in equal measure.

And from Alan....
Friday morning in Kaunas.... has clear blue skies, and the airfield is resounding to the whoosh and crack of the judges' conference.

Flying the last 10 of the first unknown should start soon, then, when the results are known, the politics will begin - about cuts and time remaining. I have no more news on scores etc yet. Perhaps in an hour or so...
Alan
 

There will also be much head-scratching tomorrow about how many pilots will be allowed to go on the the second unknown. There is also a new rule this year that says no pilot can be made to fly two consecutive unknowns with less than six hours between, so that will be fun in operation. Whichever team (France or Russia) is leading after the first unknown will almost certainly want to delay if possible so the second does not get finished. There is also some doubt about whether we can continue with the unknowns into Saturday and then do the 4-minute that afternoon.

We will of course keep you posted. Watch this space.
Bye for now
Alan

A bit earlier....
Here we are again in sunny Lithuania. The fog and cloud lifted enough for flying to start at about 2:30 pm. It is now 4:30 and the judges are having their first break. Val and Kester have both flown. Kester had a very respectable clear round with just over 70%, while we are still waiting for Val's scores to get through the system. If the weather stays as perfect as it is now, all the Brits will fly this afternoon and it may just be possible to finish the programme this evening. If the full programme is not possible, I expect they will stop and leave the top 10 to fight it out tomorrow morning rather than risk having just two or three flights in different conditions.

Will get online again this evening to give the up-to-date picture then.
Alan

Foggy foggy day from Eric Sykes....
You don't want to know the Kaunas actual. Postponed briefing in 20 minutes and flying starts an hour later...not.

However, last night was high spot of the week..Spaghetti Night in the big tent. There have been several evenings organised by teams plus an Arabian night that I missed a couple of days back which involved young ladies removing their underclothes on stage. However last nights spaghetti job was best with big chunks of personally imported Parma ham and parmaggiano reggiano for snacks followed by hundreds of gallons of spaghetti and sauce cooked by the Italian team with much arm waving and shouted excitement. Our team stayed on the water but me and uncle would have ended up slatted on 3 bottles of red plonk if we had not invested a proportion of it in cameraderie and hopeful sabotage of other team pilots. Top people the Italians and they get my team gold medal.

As I type the other side of the field is becoming more defined in the mist !
Bye
JP
ps. Today I am Eric Sykes.... just off to the hangars with a hacksaw to disable a few enemy aircraft. But definitely not the Italians!
 

July 27th
Dear All,
So this morning we have very heavy rain and no visibility. The Free Programmes were all flown yesterday and it looks like today will probably be washed out. I will go for a briefing at 11.45 (90 minutes yet) but it looks like being bad for a day or more.

The official results are available on the EAC website (per the link above), but for reference the UK placings (out of 41 European pilots) are:

So you can see that everyone has flown at least respectably and, in Tom and Gerald's cases, quite exceptionally. Most experienced spectators would agree that Tom's placing probably does not really do justice to his flying and it is hard not to think that the order of flight and the halo effect are not, to some extent at least, affecting scores.

As far as the team results are concerned, we are currently in 4th behind the Lithuanians. Our total is 12,099 and theirs is 12,166 so it is very close indeed. We also have the benefit of fourth and fifth competitors whose scores might come in to play in the event of a disaster from one of the current top three, while our delightful hosts have just the three men competing. So we are still in with a great chance of capturing that elusive bronze medal.

JP is being very useful as an extra pair of hands, especially when I need to tend to unknown sequence design etc while some of our pilots are flying. Also collecting and delivering people to and from the hotel at unscheduled point in the day. So I'm glad he made the effort to be a part of it all. It has certainly been an eye-opener for him as far as top-level flying is concerned. The speed and aggression of the top French and Russian pilots is very impressive, as they remain always virtually faultless in their precision. As next year's WAC is in Spain, just a cheap EasyJet ride away, maybe we could swell the team numbers with a few more helpers. Perhaps some of you with other personal skills that could be put at the team's disposal might care to join us for an experience in the sun that is certainly educational from the flying side, to say the least. Just a thought.

I'll send more news as the met situation becomes clearer...
Alan

Kaunas actual 290/02 2000 OVC002 +RA
So no flying today then, and similar for the next few days now puts the contest under some pressure.

Watching the last few Free flights (the leaders from the Q) yesterday was quite amazing. The lines are spot on and the corners are square. You look at the sheet for the next element, perhaps a couple of full rotations in opposed rolls and flicks on the vertical up. You see the pilot pull up hard and draw a great long long line but no roll, then he starts rolling and you think this is not possible, finally he stops and instead of falling out of the sky flies another good long line and continues. WOW !

Now... Preparation is everything and I am always as careful as I can be about my admin and paperwork ( just ask Kaberry ).

But...Even the best can fail and I have seen lots of minor examples here. The best came to light last night when an anorak burning midnight oil started checking Free Programmes from one leading country.

And... every one was wrong, correct pictures, correct K but wrong catalogue code for either one or two figures on each sheet. They were using an old version of Aresti software except that the catalogue changed in 2003 with all of the 1.35 etc through 1.40.plonk figures and Aresti 6 (the current version) incorporated these changes. The scrutineers and competitors appear not to have picked this up. Ho Hum

YAKUK is busy in business. Switch on a 'puter in the contest office and Oh God there it is is again, either the Elite Twister or some other bag of Cow Bones as wallpaper. We were out at dinner last night and some dude and family walk in at random and "Oh hello" and MJ quickly completes the sale of more rag sticks and old pans.. Just amazing.

Bonjour
JP
ps. Uncle says I can have commission on all Aresti 6 upgrade sales for the next month so please order promptly.
 

Anyway, 'Q' finished and scores discarded, but the Russians are leading as a result of excellent flying and the French similarly in second. Third are the Lithuanians who have scored very well indeed, and our chaps have put in good performances with few errors. Of course many errors are not necessarily visible. The Su's present very convincingly to the judges in snaps.!!! ;))) ( Mark J says "just like an extra"). Have either met or seen every top name aerobatic god still extant. American Bob shoots more breeze than a Force 8 gale, but my vote of top man at this contest is FAI organiser Hans Vogtmann, German fixer and expert at herding cats but a really affable cool guy.

Must go - ACC wants to print an unknown offering.
Regards JP
ps. Please send more hub caps !!!!!!!!

Later.....   Free's well under way this afternoon and Top Cat has just put in an absolute stonker, will be leader after 31 flights ( if there is any justice in this world ). And Gerald is not far behind in 6th. MJ and Nick Onn also well placed. LATEST as I type Tom is 4th. We have an online scoring system which posts unofficial results just a minute two after a flight finishes (we need this at Conners and Sywell).

There was extreme skulduggery last night while most of us were enjoying Lithuanian night in the beer tent, but of this more cannot I say. Dos vadanya. We did get a little bit of aileron (about 2 half rolls worth) in a practice humpty this morning and a hundred of the best US greenbacks cadged off Nick Onn now say its an official protest. We shall see.

Half of the competition hire cars were relieved of hub caps at the hotel overnight, but don't send me any cos Mark says he knows a good Sunday market across from the airfield where they sell them and anything else under the sun apparently. I am very happy to be here and wish I had gone to Slovenia the other year as Bagger Nadger (Kaberry's term) - it is well worth while for anyone wanting to go international in the next year or so. Being kept very busy.

Regards
JP
BA. Bachelor of Aerobatics
MIS Master of Ironic Subtlety
ps. Justice is a rare commodity in this world but in ample supply here.
 

The draw means that Nick Onn will be wind dummy after todays' two warm-up pilots, so please all keep your fingers crossed for him. Val and Mark have more mid-draw numbers with Kester and Tom near the end. I suspect that if we do not finish the Q Programme today, there will be moves afoot to bin it and get on with the Free Programmes ASAP. More of that if it happens.

We have just been given the Free Programme booklet and there are lots of 6-figure sequences this year, including Nick's of course from the UK. Will provide entertaining watching to spot zeroes etc... especially from the judges.

Bye for now,
Alan

As you know from Uncle, flying started yesterday and this morning we have a booklet of everyones' free programme to review for mistakes and skulduggery. I am here to look listen and learn plus BEER, have found myself drinking our abstemious pilots quota as well as my own.

However, aerobatics. It is very educational. Most of us see very little unhinged aeros and it is interesting to see the standard of the best in Europe which includes Russia and USA (flying H/C as a qualification contest for them). Only 16 Q's so far and some of the very best still to fly, but with a few very good flights there is also some fairly modest flying. The niceties of the Q programme are there to be seen by experienced pilots, but just like our home comps they still catch people out..... eg. Figure 9 (square loop with negative snap in the top) often comes in what ACC calls the "widescreen" version. Being a bit naive and nouveau to this game I find the style of flying surprising. Some very very square corners (ouch) to exit right on the 332ft bottom limit, even to the point of compromising balanced line lengths. At these heights and standard it is best to present closer in to the judges, and from our tent of course we see different things to the judges!. HEY big idea...we could position judges at random points around the airfield and then really catch people doing their subtle corrections.

The wind has been very light and after some faffing over cloud base there was a free break available but not really necessary. So far I have only seen one team taking best advantage to reposition using this break, with quite a few others getting very close to the judges and needing to present a couple of figures going away. Very few big zeros, and very accurate attitudes... most of the time. Of course the Q is to be discarded and it is not clear how hard people have trained for this sequence, it only determines start position for the Free programme.

Ah yes! Free programmes. Not everyone uses Aresti software and the draughting of some is poor and inaccurate, bad enough to get you in hot water at Compton or Sywell. Now where's me crayons?

Regards,
J(your car awaits)P
 

Hi,
It is now 0950 local on Day 2 of the contest in Lithuania and I can hear the sound of the first warm-up pilot entering the box. Yesterday was completely spoiled by low cloud, but we now have an 1100m base, so all is well. Gerald will fly in just over an hour, unless something really changes. We'll mail again with some updates and results when we have them.
Alan

R but....... Alan has not got the Kaunas TAF!! as below, so now flying in 1600ft base !! As I see from the hotel only the box flight was done. With TS forecast for Sunday its doubtful in my opinion the Q will be flown by Tuesday, if they decide to do a Q that is.

Second warm up flight from PZL Koliber (aka Rallye) disappeared into cloud at 2300ft after a 15 minute climb (with international jury members on board).  Only excitement at morning brief, I say we need Mr Marsh here as he'd soon have this lot ship shape......
JP
 

July 23rd
Very very quiet and the phony war continues with little prospect of flying today. We all know what a cloudy/wet day at Compton or Swampea is like, but at a major competition like this with its additional administrative delays then it's tough on pilots all ready to launch into action.
JP     ps - I made a key error yesterday when I signed personally for two hire cars. Foolish boy Paulson. ACC is driving the other one and mine has just been stolen by a well known YAK dealer   :((

... after dinner. Included are Eric Vazeille, on the left, trainer for Tom and Gerald, World Champion in 2000, and Nikolai Timofeev (next to me) who was never overall champion but won lots of World gold medals in individual programmes.

Note how little enjoyment they are all having   :-)
Alan
 

We have now had two opportunities to train briefly at the contest site, so all the pilots know what the box looks like there. Yesterday we had a less busy day at our private training base at Istra and today is the last full day before we trek back to Kaunas for registration on Thursday.

JP arrives by air this afternoon and already the crowds outside are gathering in anticipation of this momentous event. There is even talk of a delegation from the local Hi-Fi Society attending to pick up a few tips on super-woofers. The local TV company has been seen with contracts in hand, hoping to snap up a star presenter for their coverage of our last day's training. Alas, however, there is no sign of the Kaunas Aston Martin enthusiasts club.  The kitchen has been warned, of course.

Will write more when there is real news.
Bye for now.
Alan
 

I am now getting quite good at the 125km drive from Panevezys here in the North down to Kaunas. Today will be the third day running we have made the trip for afternoon/evening training after having less hectic mornings here. There is even a chance that we might be able to rent a small aeroplane today to get the coaches and an Extra pilot there a bit quicker. We have here a rental Ford Focus C-max turbo-diesel (brand new, just in from Finland) which is surprisingly quick. I could recommend one for anyone in the UK who needs more speeding tickets for their collection. So far we have avoided the law, but a lot of wood is being touched as e have yet to be overtaken on the road to Kaunas or back.

The Russians seem now to have taken another step up in the power stakes, with higher compression pistons and electronic ignition in the Su26M3, that is now pushing about 450hp. They are thus able to fly slower on down lines, make tighter corners and still get vertical penetration going back up. This may well prove key in the unknowns this year, where opposite vertical rolls are permitted for the first time. To counter this, Tom and Gerald both now have higher compression pistons as well, as I expect will all the French CAPs. At the other end of the scale, the Italian G200 is here again, flown I think by Paolo Zoppi, so it looks like he will take over my unofficial title of 200hp World Champion, held since 1998!!

The hospitality at Istra airfield has been very warm. We have visitors to watch the flying every day and there are no noise complaints. How long can this last, now that this delightful little country is part of the European Empire?

Ciao amigos,
Alan
 

July 17th
Hi All,
Mark, Kester, Tom and Gerald are busy training. Nick was hoping to leave Berlin this morning, but as two Italians are still stuck in Poland, I don't know when he'll arrive. Val is apparently in Kaunas, probably running IBM from her mobile. As the contest proper does not start 'til next Thursday, there is time.

In the meantime, here is the view from my bedroom window (looking out JP) at Panevezys Istra international airport.
Alan