All of our pilots flew their Frees today. Kester started off but made some heading errors in some figures, and got very low scores for his highest K figure when he almost forgot to fly a vertical roll and ended up putting it very late on the line and just got the roll complete before sinking to the horizontal exit. Richard flew next and put in a solid flight. Richards flick rolling technique is very good and he finishes flicks very cleanly. His positioning was very good and managed to complete the sequence inside the box - no outs. The judges seem to have down-rated his flight more than we expected (see the interim results on the website). Richard is learning all the time and this WAC experience will make him stronger in future competitions.

Mark flew shortly after Richard, and with only three pilots between Kester and Mark in the flight order it meant a swift change over, making Mark feel a little rushed in his preparation. Its just another of the pressures of competition flying. Flying the sequences is only half of the battle. You have to be able to withstand the stress of preparing for your flight over extended periods of time, including unexpected delays to flying or unscheduled changes in the flying order. It needs a huge amount of mental resilience to withstand this pressure and deliver high quality flights. Despite the rush, Mark flew very well. He has excellent rhythm and is accurate in his hesitation rolls.

Nick flew next and started his programme with a double snap roll on a 45 line that could only be described as awesome - the rotational speed was incredible! His flight was very solid, but the first half of the sequence has to be flown higher than most Sukhoi pilots because his aeroplane has a less powerful engine and smaller prop than most of the others. Nick intends to put this right over the next few months.

Tom was next up and flew very, very well. Unfortunately he fell sideways off the tail-slide and it got marks very close to zero. Despite this error he has still got a very good score. Inevitably it leads to a lot of "what if" thoughts. But I think what is important to remember is that the Q flight and the Free demonstrate that Tom has truly hit World Class level. He needs to pull everything together in one sequence and he has a real chance of winning a medal. The single word that comes to mind when watching Tom fly is commitment. Flicks and rolls are started and stopped with a combination of aggression and precision that makes them very impressive to see. I am certain that sometime soon, it will all come together for Tom and his commitment will be rewarded.

Gerald was last to fly and he also flew very well. Perhaps slightly more safe in style than Tom, but still very accurate. We have not seen scores for his flight yet, but it looked good to those watching from the flight line. Gerald is also very capable of winning a medal.

We are still waiting for results from some of the flights today and of course the Free Programme has not been flown by all pilots, so the results are incomplete.

I got to see some of the flights today and two notable flights were those of Debbie Rhin-Harvey and Mikhail Mamistov - both were exceptional flights. I couldn't see more than a couple of minor errors in Debbie's sequence and Mikhail's flight was just beautiful.

That's about it for now. I guess today has reminded me just how small the difference is between winning and losing in this sport - its brutally cruel at times, but hugely rewarding at others. I can only stand and admire what these pilots can do. Flying this level of aerobatics in a World Contest is a remarkable achievement.

More tomorrow.
Steve