WMC07

Main news over on the british teams site - click here

Team bonsai are delighted to welcome the second associate pilot to the Team Bonsai fold Metodeje Vlacha flying his Sukhoi Su29 opened the air display and after some tense negotiations he agreed to join the Team. Picture below shows his fabulous Aircraft and David Hadley and Owain Johns proudly standing next to the latest addition of the world acclaimed Team Bonsai. (more…)

The competition has started !  - with the shorted opening ceremony ever which was really appreciated. The first task is this afternoon and is a repeat of yesterdays timed precision spot landing. It kicks off at 16.30.

The legend that is team BONSAI has established a strong brand prescence at WMC 07 - the three founder members are all wearing BONSAI branding and we are pleased to welcome Robert from the South African Team who is the first associate member of this elite group. By winning the practice task (more…)

had a fustrating day where very little flying took place, the 4 min circuit followed by a spot took a while to organise and therefore the organisors needed a little while to sort the competitors. Once underway the task was a challenge with the added twist of trying to land in the box as well as combining time. It was unerving to fly away from the field and keep going, you really needed to trust your timings and conviction and carry on before turning. Once turning on finals you could not deviate at all of your track so timing was critical. Scores are not out as yet but again the british team did well and by looking at Video evidence the initial signs are good. For now the weather is poor with a low cloud base the forcast for tomorrow is good and the opening ceromony takes place with air display followed by us doing our spots the first nav task will kick off on Sunday. I have taken a few photos of the build up of the task.

Friday morning .

Things have settled down nicely now and after yesterday we have a much better idea about tasks and the make up of them. The organisers have been good with the scoring and so far so good with the accuracy and maps. It was too windy in the morning so the organisers made the right decision to postpone the task until later in the day - this did mean that as a slower machine I was sent off right in the middle of the heat and thermals. The task was a simple track accuracy and timing on a ground speed.

With such a strong wind and the chasers narrow speed range it was difficult to maintain ground speed on the downwind leg. Conditions were rough amongst the valleys and at times it meant that maintaining a good track was difficult. On return we had a spot in tricky conditions. The rest of the team did well with British pilots in 1st in each class, I came third which I was pleased with sandwiched by Czech pilots. Not all pilots in the class flew ( some pilots are still arriving !) For results see wmc07 for the individual scores see wl2 - today promises to be interesting with some timed precision spots, in the UK we have done spots for a long time but not with timing so a timed 4 minute circuit could be interesting.

Wednesday 15th - had a good few days - the weather is nice - warm 30c unlike England ! Have flown twice each day which has been good - I set a circle task for the rest of the team and then did some ground speed calibration, having the GPS and software is powerful and unlike the nationals when you leave on a Sunday to forget what you have done there is ample opportunity to fly and then analyse the track. The flight this morning was calm to begin with but as the temperature rose the thermals really began to kick in, in amongst the valleys the wind was variable and this made conditions interesting at times.  Robbie Keene and Simon Baker are now here and therefore the British Team are all here. Tomorrow there is a practice task run by the organisers and this will be a chance to see how they intend to run the tasks- we’ll see…….  I ‘ll update tomorrow and hopefully there will be a few opportunities for some photos.

After a long drive on Saturday and Sunday I and a large percentage of the team arrived on Sunday afternoon. The first impressions are very good the organisation appears to be slick with all facilities promised and on time. (I am currently writing this in the team marquee on a wireless network !) The airfield is huge and with a large runway there promises to be sufficient space for spots and the practice this week.

We have set up Camp and most people are settled in (more…)