You may find this interesting - ping....
You in that picture??
From one of our competitors......
Ok, so the perfect safety record is history. Two Caps and a Sukhoi are toast thus far.
The Sukhoi I trained in while waiting for mine to arrive, "Tiger" painted like Tony the Tiger, and a Cap tangled on the tarmac head-on yesterday evening. Neither won. The Cap will be sent back to France for repairs, and
the Sukhoi will be flying tomorrow after nothing more than having a new prop installed. Everyone is happy the collision didn't involve the meat department. No injuries.
The other was an accident involving the French warm up pilot. I am told it involved a steep slip to landing. The air is very thin and behaves completely differently than sea level flying, and it appears the slip just
went too far. The plane caught a wing on the runway, which broke off, and flipped the plane, somehow causing the wing to whip back around on top of
the pilot, then flipping the fuselage onto the canopy, where it came to rest
upside down. The pilot and plane were sprayed with foam, and amazingly and
quite luckily, there was no fire. The plane was righted with the pilot
inside, and he stepped out with only a broken ankle and pinky finger, in
addition to cuts on the head and face.
Thereafter, our team manager was drafted to fly warm up flights and will do
so in either Vickie's or Janet's Edge 540's. She has promised not to do
slips or steep turns.
The temps are running mid 90's with pretty good humidity for the desert. We
start diving into the box at 4500' - 5000' above the ground, which is 3500'
above sea level. That means we're operating between 4000' and 8000' or so.
The planes are gasping for air, constantly over temp on both oil and
cylinder heads. The canopy air ventilation feels like someone has mounted a
hair dryer there (which probably wouldn't work anyway because the voltage is
220 over here). Anyway, it's not cool in the least even at these altitudes.
The wings behave entirely differently also. Very easy to break out in pulls
and pushes. Snaps are mushy. Roll stops must be managed differently because
the ailerons seem to stall.. There is no waiting for the plane to stabilize
on a vertical line before rolling because there isn't enough energy to
complete the figure and fly away from it. Departures from vertical lines are
most always accomplished by pumping the elevator to try to reattach to the
airflow without falling out of whatever's next in the sequence.
Most of the above is embellished to make the reading more interesting for
you, but it is quite hot here in any case.
Overall, there is not a lot of exceptionally pretty flying due to the
conditions, with exception of some of the Russians, who have bigger engines,
wingtip and aileron extensions for more lift and roll control, and bigger
oil coolers, and in the case of their women team members, big hair.
However, we're stunt pilots with catlike reflexes and we can deal with it.
We've been frequenting a restaurant, "Hollywood", which is the most
Americanized other than McDonalds, and Burger King (both of which serve
beer), when we need a burger, rib or chicken wing fix. Our waitress, who is
most attractive with a variety of piercings and facial tattoos, speaks great
English.
It's most pleasing to know what you're eating before it comes to the table.
I've resorted on several occasions to hopping up with my menu, taking it to
a table which has just been served, and asking the patrons to point to the
menu selection they've made so I can make the connection. This is much
easier than learning Spanish or using a dictionary and saves lots of time.
At Team Tinto (FYI....the term for Red Wine is Spain is Vino Tinto), one of our mottos (there are many) is: "Never let
the truth get in the way of a good story".
Thanks for the ping....and WOW!, talk about density altitude considerations!!
Just flying is dicey enough in those conditions let alone doing aerobatics.
Gutsy. Real "Life on the (knife) Edge" stuff.
Wishing the Team much success!!
The US G'vt provide transport??
Inquiring minds and all...
Amazing how far the feminazis will go for equality. Even air acrobatics. I am sure we would win every year if not for the chicks demanding to fly with the team.
This is going to be a short one. Going to bed soon.
It's official... Marta Meyer is going to be the warm-up pilot at the
WAC. She has flown both Janet and Vicki's airplanes, and may fly
either for the warm-up flights.
The whole Team is now in Burgos, and we each got to practice in the
competition box today. We're checked in to the contest hotel, and are
hoping we'll have another practice slot tomorrow.
There will be a pilot briefing tomorrow afternoon, followed by the
opening ceremonies. We'll draw for order of flight at the briefing.
Will give you more info tomorrow.
Good night from Burgos,
Allyson
Today is the official start of the Contest.
Opening Cermonies are at 4pm Burgos Time (which is 7am PDT).
Which means they are happening right now.
The sunrise in this area is 6:38am and the sunset is at 9:55pm. I bet they'll fly until at least 9pm everyday.
Today's weather has a high of 91 degrees with 37% Humidity.
Go USA!!!
Update from Burgos:
There are 48 pilots competing in the Contest.
The Order of Flight was selected - the worst position is first - we call that position the "Wind Dummy" since everyone else gets a chance to see you fly in the Aerobatic Box and figure out the wind based on what the "Wind Dummy" does.
Reigning World Champion Sergey Rakhmanin drew the unfortunate position of #1. "Team Bad Karma" (because of their difficulties in getting their airplanes in Spain) continued on their path of bad Karma... Allyson drew #2 and Vicki drew #4. Michael Racy also got a less than fortunate number by drawing #5.
The rest of Team USA got very good draws. Robert flies #17, Debby #24, Janet #26, Zach #29, Kirby #34, David #38, and Hubie #47.
More news as it comes in........
Reporting live from Burgos (I wish) ... Dashing Dasher
Duh on me! I didn't read your write up - yes, that's Vicki, and yes, I spelled her name wrong.
Good luck to her - we met once at the Kitplanes dinner at OSH.
Some GREAT pictures from the Red Bull Air Race in Rotterdam.
http://www.airshowaction.com/redbull2005nl/page1.html
and the Paris Airshow
http://www.airshowactionphotography.com/paris05/page1.html