Oh ok Joe gets the last word....

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Gidday y'all!

Currently at London Heathrow awaiting a flight back to California. Will be in CA for a week or two before returning home.

I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation for everyone that supported the New Zealand team, including the kindness of JR and Horizon Hobby, Kennedy Composites, RC Bandits, the AucklandSoar club, FoamWorks, GlidingCanterbury, NZMAA, the NZ Soaring SIG, as well as the many individuals that purchased raffle tickets, t-shirts, as well as donated money to the team. Without all of your help it would have been much more difficult for NZ to field a team halfway around the world!

I would also like to express my appreciation to the US team for allowing us to use two of their towers throughout the competition. The tow team, comprised of Kelly Johnson and Dave Kalamen, was wonderful. Without them we would have not had nearly the success. Their level of professionalism and attention to detail was only matched by their athleticism when we turned the 'winches' on! Guys, good on ya!

A few disorganized notes on the wonderful event in Turkey for ya.

I was quite impressed with the event organization and the facilities. The Soarist club put on a fantastic competition. The level of flying skills was amazing with a definite advance in the overall competition level since two years ago. Some of this might be airframe related, but in my opinion it was mostly pilot related. The air was challenging enough to make it a landing comp for only a select few people, with most pilots getting hit at least once during the prelims by bad choices or bad luck.

For me it was really great in that it was an air callers event, where if you chose poorly initially you were likely out of luck for making time. The only caveat for this was the treeline/slope at the tent line that provided so many saves during the week. We had so many flights where we were the only ones that got away and then some of the group ended up sloping on the trees for a few minutes until a bubble broke off from the treeline. Without this treeline, there would have been far fewer maxes recorded. That said, I think that the kiwis ended up using the treeline for maybe three or four of our maxes during the event, so we used it a little bit too! :-)

This event appeared to me to first measure thermalling ability to get into contention for the event, then landing skills provided the separation amongst the survivors. There were some difficult calls for the event organizers due to the inherent judgment calls required for the launching after the start of the buzzer, and landing before the buzzer. The event results ended up being dependent on these judgment calls, which is a weakness inherent in F3J competition.

It was an honor to call for the kiwis, DP and AJ during the week. I gave them all a hard time during the week, and they put up very well with my sometimes difficult calling style. Kudos go to all of them for not chucking me off the field!

I was quite impressed with AJs flying and natural thermal ability, although I was a bit tough on him at times (working on tightening up little items for improvement which were pretty small in reality). The landing comp aspect was what ended up dropping him down to third place, with two 95 landings in the flyoffs.

Calling for DP, what is there to say? He is the easiest pilot to call for in the world. Half of the time, he is already aware of what I tell him, and the other half, he gets as soon as I say something. Because of his skills, I just have to get him somewhere near a thermal and he sniffs it out. It was an honor to work with him at yet another WC.

As for the kiwi team... Wow! First kiwi team to compete in F3J since 1998, and the first kiwi team to make it on the podium for soaring!!! All three of the pilots learned very quickly as to what was required to compete at a WC level, and came through to show their skill. Two of the pilots had not ever flown in a true handtow F3J competition until Turkey. The way that the kiwi pilots ended up responding to challenging circumstances was amazing, as demonstrated by one pilot that really put it back together after first having his primary model fail on launch, which was followed shortly by finding out that a close family relative had just passed away.

Sven was the pilot to beat for much of the competition, and lead the preliminary rounds for much of the competition. Towards the end, his flying really got in tune with the challenging air on the field. It was just one landing that took him off of the podium. I think that the most inspired flight that I witnessed at the competition was done by Sven at the ASC cup in the 2nd round. He was down to maybe 15 meters altitude in about 3 minutes, and in very difficult conditions he was able to make the full 20 minutes flight. He matched the winner of that heats score, and finished with what should have been 1999.9 points, enough to win the cup. Unfortunately there was a transcription error on his score as well as the eventual winners score, but Svens score did not get corrected in time for the awards.

Watching the Croation junior Arijan Hucaljuk in the last two rounds of the preliminary rounds was quite the treat. He got a 9:58.5, backed up by a 9:58.1, both with 100 landings!!! Both are amazing scores!

One of the things that I learn about at high level competitions is the level of sportsmanship that occurs amongst the majority of the competitors. It is how one responds to adversity rather than success that measures character and integrity.

Lots more to say, but gotta go...

Regards,
Joe
proud NZ team manager

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