Good day again,

The results of the 4 minute free are delayed but should be available tonight.

More later.
Steve

Good evening all,
Today saw the 4 minute Free flights. The 4 minute Free flights and an airshow actually. So we started with an early 0830 briefing so that we could try to get as many of the 4 minute flights flown as possible before 1130, which is when the airshow was scheduled to start. 20 pilots were selected to fly the programme, including Mark, Tom and Gerald. Come the morning of the flight, Tom and Gerald decided not to fly the programme. This left Mark as the sole Brit participating in the event. Mark put in a very good programme - lots of smoke, tumbles and a smoke heart to end the sequence. Aircraft performance limitations constrained the amount of slow flight and high alpha figures he could include in the programme and we suspect that this has put him at a disadvantage compared to other pilots flying higher powered or manoeuvrable aircraft, although everyone thought that it was a well presented, well choreographed flight.

I saw most of the Free Programmes and the ones that really seemed to be well executed were those of Castor Fantoba (ESP), Renaud Ecalle (FRA) and Zach Heffley (USA). If you get the chance to see the video of Zachs flight, take the opportunity. It was excellent. Very, very exciting with some new figures. An extremely explosive snapping figure that involved pulling the Sukhoi into a very, very tight positive loop (small!) and then inducing a very sudden negative snap was very, very impressive. Ian has it on video, so we should be able to load it onto the exploder when someone more technically able than me is available to transfer the file. His flight was full of very slow flight and gyroscopic figures including an excellent Cobra. Apparently he frightened the judges, but from the flight line he wowed most of the pilots who watched the flight. Flying gyroscopic figures low in the box certainly carries a calculated risk - an engine failure at the wrong moment could be catastrophic, but I am told that Zach has a lot of airshow experience. So this is one that you should only try at home if you really, really know what you are doing! Anyway, it was a very exciting moment and the USA are lucky to have such a pilot who is so talented at such a young age. I am pleased that we got the chance to watch his flight. Certainly one of the highlights of WAC 2007 for me.

There are no results available for the 4 minute programme yet. The unknown figures have been selected for the Second Unknown - I will send you copies of the figures and the sequence in the morning when one of the proposals has been accepted by the jury. Monday is a rest day, because the Unknown has to be available to the pilots 18 hours before they fly the programme. So it's a visit to the tourist destinations in Granada tomorrow and possibly some sleep.

I will let you know more when it happens tomorrow.

The next official briefing is at 0900 on Tuesday, after which the Unknown 2 flights will commence. The GBR team is in fifth place for the medals at the moment, 300'ish points off the 3rd spot, so we will need some good flights through the Second Unknown if we are to secure the Bronze. Its going to be difficult, but this is a World contest, so perhaps it should be. Like most things in life, those that are the most difficult to achieve are often the things that are most valuable.

I really need more sleep!
More in the morning.
Steve