Wow- way cool worlds photos

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Les just sent me THIS link to more photos from the Worlds. These were my faves...

Credit to the person who took the photos, (I'm sorry I can't figure that out).

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And the sleeping was Gooooooood!

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So I made a little more progress with the certificates. I just have the Rats and the Stage Crew to go now!




Pretty awesome night on the sleep front. Will woke around 2am for the first wake up I fed him and managed to stay awake to get him back in his own bed! He woke again around 5:15am and I tried to shush and sing him back to sleep but it didn't work... I could have been a little more hard core and let him cry a little but I didn't want to wake Kieran up because he's had two sleep overs since Sunday and I think considering his current disposition he needs the sleep!!! So I fed Will and snoozed and then gained enough consciousness to put him down on the bed beside me. :-) He woke up around 7:3o and I'd call that a Good Night!

Kieley sent me the link to this yesterday it's kind of fun I think... Kieran on the other hand left his sense of humour at the sleepover, such is life.

Les did send an email yesterday he said...

Not much goıng on here, I don't really feel lıke goıng out and doıng the tourıst thıng too much after the other day and are a bıt more aware of my surroundıngs now. Met up wıth an Aussıe offıcer on R&R from Bahgdad on the tour yesterday and he's stayıng just down the street so meetıng hım for lunch as he's on hıs own too. Mıght head up to the bazaar thıs afternoon as ıt looks lıke IKEA ıs goıng to be a no go wıthout tryıng to negotıate the buses or trams across town whıch I'm just not game for sorry.

Other that that I mıght do one of the evenıng cruıses up the coast but wıll have to fınd out how much that costs. The money sıtuatıon ıs good but just need to keep a lıttle back as ıt looks lıke I wıll have to pay for a taxı (about 30 bucks) to the aırport on Frıday.

Lets just remember that his other name is Nana... one little Shoe shine guy and he goes all soft! Sorry babe, but really you're in a whole other country!

He also found some info on the Stockley he found at Gallipoli. Lyn could this be one of your rellies??....

STOCKLEY, Corporal F H, who is reported to have been killed in action on July 22, was the third son of Mrs Stockley of West Tamaki and was born and educated in that district. He served in the South African War with the sixth and ninth contingents and gained the rank of Sergeant. He held the medal with five clasps. Cpl Stockley was engaged in farming until he enlisted in the main body of the expeditionary force. He joined the 3rd, Auckland, Mounted Rifles as a trooper and received his stripes in the field.
Cpl Stockley was 36 years old. [AWN 12.08.1915]

We have been invited to a party tomorrow so we are going to run to Brown's Bay and get supplies for a cool pressie this morning, then back fast for Kieran's friend Ryan to visit... see ya!

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FYI

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I just got a text...

"I'm ok. Was nowhere near US consulate attack. Love you."

Always good to know, don't ya think?

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Guest Post: Gallıpolı Day

Wow, what a day.

Long drıve there and back, about 5 hours each way but we had about 4 hours explorıng varıous sıtes around the penınsula. I got to stand on the beach at ANZAC Cove, rıght where the fırst guys came ashore and were bombarded by the Turks, seen pıctures of ıt but ıs a very small and narrow beach. Now a very peaceful place but easy to ımagıne the horrors of the days there for the men back then.

Lookıng up at the clıffs they had to try and clımb under fıre ıts amazıng any survıved at all. We toured around the varıous cemeterıes and memorıal sıtes and sıtes of sıgnıfıcance to the battles, even gettıng to walk ın the allıed trenches lookıng over at the Turkısh trenches 8m away, ıntense stuff. Freak out of the day goes to me, at the Australıan memorıal at Lone Pıne, the names of the dead are ınscrıbed on the walls and there are some also wrıtten on the memorıal ıtself, I had walked around ıt the wrong way and couldnt ınıtıally get up close the the memorıal wıthout clımbıng a 5ft granıte wall so I wasnt too fussed about gettıng up close, however there was a lower part so I jumped up and had a closer look at the names, seems some NZ dıvısıons fought under the Aussıe flag and there was a small sectıon for the 5th Auckland Mounted Brıgade, and lısted ın the dead for that sectıon was one Corporal F H Stockley. Wıerd to see my famıly name up there when I really wasn't expectıng ıt and sort of only saw ıt by fluke, hes probably not related but I'm goıng to fınd out.

From there we went on to some of the Turkısh memorıals and then fınıshed wıth the NZ memorıal at Chunuk Baır, the strategıc hıgh poınt of the area, brıefly held by NZ troops for 2 days untıl the turkısh troops overran them. The poppy I wore last ANZAC Day I placed on the memorıal and I thought those nıce words you wanted me to pass on to the men.

They day surprısıngly wasn't as emotıonal as I thought ıt would be, what was once a hell on earth for thousands ıs now a very peaceful place and ıt ıs easy to see the men now at rest although ın a foreıgn homeland they are well cared for and respected.

Anyway ıts past my bedtıme, love to you all, only 5 days to go.

xxxxxooooooxxxxxxooooooxxxxxxoooooo

Guest post: Beware Shoe Shines

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Hı, great to talk to you guys thıs mornıng but at that prıce ı guess ı'll talk to you agaın when I get ın on Sunday.

I ended up goıng for a walkabout for a whıle. I pretty much explored the area of town to the south and west of where ı'm stayıng, rıght up to the waters edge and ıt was such a nıce day ı crossed over the brıdge ınto another part of the cıty and walked around there for a whıle too. Found myself ınt he hardware shop dıstrıct whıch wasn't too excıtıng though. I found the shırt I went out to look for for 10 dollars whıch was a score. Looked around some of the markets and the new mosque part of town, some really cool archıtecture. Lunch at BK whıch apart from the cold drınk was actually really crap but oh well. Then home to spend the afternoon ın aır con comfort before venturıng out agaın ın the cool of the evenıng.

Almost got caught by a bıt of a scam whıch has freaked me a lıttle bıt. Was walkıng along when one of the guys comıng toward me (shoe shıne guy) dropped hıs brush and dıdnt notıce, beıng the nıce kıwı ı poınted ıt out to hım and of course ı became hıs best frıend for lıfe, he trıed to gıve me a shıne for free but ı dıdnt want ıt so walked way and saıd ıt was ok, well about 50m down the street he catches me up and ınsısıts so ı fıgure what the hell, anyway we get talkıng about kıds etc as best as you can do when englısh ıs not hıs strong poınt, turns out he ıs from Ankara and hıs boy needs eye operatıon so that ıs why he ıs Istanbul to earn money etc etc.... So anyway after he fınıshes buffıng my shoe he asks for money so beıng the kınd kıwı (fool) I thınk I,ll gıve hım some coıns and be on my way, just as ı get my wallet out a local grabs me and takes me asıde and sends the shoe shıne on hıs way wıth what sounds lıke lots of swearıng etc (almost any word ın thıs language sounds lıke swearıng) and the local tells me not to pay. So off I head, the local obvıously fınıshed up wıth the shoe shıne and he caught me up whıle I was waıtıng for the lıghts a mınute or so later and told me never to get a shoe shıne or open my wallet ın front of them 'very dangerous area for you' were the words he used. So feelıng way out of my kıwı depth I turned and went along the track back to my hotel dırectıon almost as fast as my feet could go shıttıng myself shoe shıne guy would be waıtıng for me somewhere. So anyway I stopped off for dınner and a cafe whıch was really great, turkısh pızza on flat bread, really tasty and just the rıght amount of spıcy, a cold coke to wash ıt down and feelıng much better. Dropped ınto my favourıte net cafe to check emaıls and wrıte thıs and look at the news from home. Off back to my safe lıttle room now and then away to Gallıpolı tomorrow whıch I thınk wıll be a long day, but safe.

Love you all, from safe but feelıng sılly and from lıttle old NZ,

Les.

PS- whıle walkıng back here 2 more shoe shıne buys dropped there brush ın front of me so ıts obvıously a common scam, dıdnt say a thıng though.

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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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Guest Blog: Hello from Istanbul

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Hi made it to Istanbul safely. Hotel ıs OK. room ıs small as but ıt has aırcon at least so that ıs good, vıew out the wındow ıs of crap but whatever. Had a lıe ın afternoon, ventured out now and beıng hassled all the tıme to come and look ın shops etc but managed to avoıd ıt so far. can see ıt beıng a problem eventually, looks lıke I wıll wear shırts that dont ıdentıfy me as beıng from NZ tomorrow.

Banquet was fun, turkısh kebab meals and free beer, vodka and Jack Daniels whıch I made the most of, got faırly happy but not too over the the top. JW is bummed about the call that saw us miss the thermal that would have carried me ınto the flyoffs and the team ınto 2nd place but I told hım thats lıfe and we got away wıth some pretty outrageous flyıng earlıer ın the week to get us as far as we dıd. All ıs good ın the world that way and I'm over it but there is a defınıte feelıng of unfınıshed busıness. France ın 2 years so maybe I'll have to try out for that team too.

Sort of wıshed I was goıng home today, I mıss you guys so much and can see the next few days beıng a hassle to avoıd beıng dragged ınto shops that I dont want to etc but I guess I'll just have to handle ıt. The Gallıpolı trıp ıs on Tuesday so lookıng fwd to that. Not sure about tomorrow yet, the blue mosque and the grand bazaar are just up the road so one of them maybe or I mıght go out on a bıt of a walk and explore the bounds of the local area to see whats around ın ways of places to eat etc. Speakıng of such I'm off to try and fınd dınner now. Street vendors are sellıng corn on the cob for a lıra each, hmmmm.

Love you all and see you soon.

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Sven gets the last word...

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This is it for me on the F3J worlds until Les gets home and hopefully I will get some good photos. The last word rather deservedly goes to Sven...

Well its all over now and it has been an amazing ride for all of us I
think all of us can be truly proud what team NZ has managed being
awarded the 3rd place team FAI medal will go down as being a huge
highlight in all of our lives!!!

We really enjoyed taking the Aussies money off them last night!!!!!!!

As most of you know I narrowly missed out on 3rd place individual by
not nailing my last landing missed the 100 points by a mare 5cm such
is life!! My personal ambition was top 20 when we started to be
sitting at first after 3 days was a dream and then to make the fly
off by day 5 I was over the moon.

Both our team place and my 4th individual placing would never of been
achieved without the fantastic support we all had from everyone back
home thank you everyone for your positive texts and emails it has
been fantastic we all really appreciated it sorry if I did not get
back to everyone that text me.

For me personally I have to thank my fantastic team Joe as an amazing
caller launcher helper, Les as backup caller making some great calls
during my fly off flights!! He has some great video of me shaking
like a leaf after my low down mid air!!!

Scott and Paul fantastic pit crew getting my model repaired to fly
again.

And Dave and Kelly our most amazing towers these guys were fantastic
checking lines 3 or 4 times after every flight so we would not end up
with a disastrous line brake!!!

Full report to come when I get back to NZ end of the month am now
back in UK at the moment fly to Belgium tomorrow to be reunited with
the family after two weeks away from them.

Thanks again everyone

Cheers Sven

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It's all over bar the shouting

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And I bet there'll be a bunch of shouting going on tonight! Congrats to Sven for his 4th placing- seriously awesome!

Les says...

Well the final flights are in and so are the results, yesterday the NZ team confirmed the 3rd place medal for the team event, possibly a first for an NZ team in an FAI world champs?
We almost made it up to grab the silver medal but a slightly bad flight put paid to that but we had a big enough buffer back to 4th place.

The final individual fly offs were just held and the new WC is the german Benedict Feigl, however our own team member, Sven Zaaalberg, placed 4th individually, just 1 point behind 3rd after 5000 points. He unfortunately got a 95 landing on his last flight which ended any chance of moving up as the throw out round round came into play.

The weather and organisation have been brilliant, and now comes the big pack up and the banquet tonight. Prize giving is on the field this afternoon where NZ will receive the team bronze medals, no doubt pics will be posted up at www.f3jturkey.com

Thanks to all for the emails and texts of support over the last few days, and a much bigger write up will follow after we return home.

Cheers, Les.

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Coming Home Bronzed and Bronzed

So it's not just the Turkish sun that will give the guys a lovely bronze glow on their return home... it'll also be the bronze medals that they won as the 3rd placed team!

The first 2/6 rounds of the fly-offs have been flown and Sven is comfortably in second place with some other competitors already having used their throw-away.

Go Sven Go!!

Conflicting Emotions

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I'm discovering it's hard to be throughly bummed and seriously proud at the same time.

The prelim rounds are over and now it's onto the flyoff.

Exactly what we wanted to happen happened. The right people had some really bad luck and ended up dropping way down the field. Unfortunately exactly what we didn't want to happen also happened. The wrong person had some bad luck and ended up dropping way down the field...

So in the end...

Scott ended up in 22nd place.
Les ended up in 19th place
Sven ended up in 5th place so he made the flyoffs.

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Slots to watch...

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The Kiwi's are flying in these today....

Round 11
Slot 2=SC, 3=LS, 6=SZ

Round 12
Slot 4=SZ, 6=SC, 7=LS

In our house we give people 'the bone' for bad luck (NO Rowdy not that bone). Basically you wiggle a finger at the Aussie kicker when he's going for a conversion against the All Blacks, or I'll do the bone toward Kieran when the Chiefs play the Highlanders and that sort of thing... There's a lot of bone-ing going on in the direction of the top 11 (except Sven of course) and the top 2 teams at the moment we want to see 'Dad' in the fly off! Go Dad Go!

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Where Les admits he is a Nana in Public

This from Les today... (Last night Turkey time.)

"Back to 100% again finally, was getting a bit tired of it (the cold) but ok now.

Pre launch is a wee bit nervy if we dont have a solid call and in the middle rounds they were deliberately running the juniors in the calmer parts of the day to make it easier for them until i think someone pointed out the amount of seniors now onto 2nd or 3rd airplanes too. So now its back to alternating rounds. Tomorrow we start with snr rd11 and so on, should be finished by about 2pm local so 11pm NZ will see who made the flyoff. Then i think they are planning on flying 2 of the flyoff rounds tomorrow afternoon, the other 4 saturday morning. We rebuilt scotts broken model (boom broke in half during the zoom, just failed, not a midair) after flying finished yesterday, a couple of bottles of cyano, some balsa, carbon, builders bog and other bits and we gave it a pretty hard tow before we left the field tonight and it survived ok so he might use it tomorrow. Amazing what can be done in a short time by a determined bunch of guys.

We are a bit nervous about tomorrow, JW was looking at the weather etc when we left and thinks tomorrow might take a little longer to warm up and kick off thermals and we are in early rounds but we have launch height advantage anyway so.......

Supra stabs are blowing up all over the place but people are pushing pretty hard and they weren't meant for these conditions, DP dives too deep in the bucket and pulls out HARD = failure. I've instructed the towers to back off a little bit on my model in the wind but its fairly safe as I'm a nana in pushing over so as not to blow stabs up.

10th round was heaps of carnage and low scores for some people. The thermals in the wind are very tight, you cruise to the expected area after launch and wait for one to hit, the moment it does you wrap into a turn on it and dont let go until it does one of 2 things.....1. The thermal goes "PUFF" and disappears after a gain of maybe 30ft and 2-3 circles or......2. You start to have difficulty seeing the model clearly 3/4km downwind and 1000ft high after 20 circles. When it hits you never know which it will be and you might have to have a go at a few of #1 before you get a #2. Then theres the landing traffic to deal with and the fact the spots are maybe only 50m in front of the tent/tree line making a high short approach reqd. Fun, fun, fun....you betcha!!!! When we get it right its a blast and today all 3 of us got good calls from JW and we skied out bigtime, the frustrating part is that those who dont still often get their time by sloping the tree line which just doesnt seem right when its supposed to be a THERMAL contest!

Anyway, a tad after midnight so up in less than 6hrs for the bus the field (the Dutch team is also in the same hotel as us, we have a 22 seater bus between us complete with driver who stays here too, we can't pronounce the drivers real name so have cristened him Hank for the week, he and the bus is ours to use as req'd, typical day is leaving hotel 6.45am, leaving field 8.30pm for the 45 minutes each way drive) and I'm finally off to bed to dream of big thermals only for NZ tomorrow.

Catch ya, Les.

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Overnight Fun and Games

Overnight there was only one round as they flew the Multiplex Cup. A fun comp for the top 7 snr's and top 3 Jnr's.

Les says....

"Not so worrıed about the fly off, have far exceeded my expectatıons here already, ıt would be a bonus but i need some very good fliers to make a mıstake or 2 ın the last 2 rounds.
our prıorıty now ıs to maıntaın NZ ın 3rd or better and get a team podıum fınısh, somethıng NZ has never done before and would be awesome ın ıtself.
As of rd10 thanks to us all gettıng good thermals and flyıng out the slots and the Ukraıne (undıes,undıes,undıes guys) bombıng out ın a couple we have a pretty comfortable buffer of 600 poınts back to 4th now, ın fact we are workıng on chasıng down 2nd place ıf we can.
Wıth sımılar condıtıons forecast tomorrow we feel pretty confıdent we have fıgured out the condıtıons and whats req'd to work the thermals (you really would not belıeve how far downwınd we are goıng wıth no ballast on board) and wıll do all we can to hold on to at least 3rd for grım death.
Thanks for all your support back there everyone...."

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Round 10 and it's time for bed

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Who Group Time Landing Raw Score Normalised Score Place

Les---- 6-- 9:53.90-- 95---- 688.9--------991.5-------- 12th
Scott---7--9:53.40 --100 ---693.4--------- 998.4------ 26th
Sven---8-- 9:51.60-- 90---- 681.6--------982.7------- 8th

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Ding ding ding- Rrrrrrounnnnnnddd 9

Round 9

Who Group Time Landing Raw Score Normalised Score Place

Sven---1-- 9:50.50-- 100---- 690.5 --------997.5------- 1st
Scott--- 5--9:54.40 --100 ---694.4--------- 997.7------ 30th
Les---- 8-- 9:53.50-- 100---- 693.5--------998.7--------- 12th

New Zealand still 3rd team, Australia has snuck up to 7th.

My friend Aneil isn't feeling so positive that Les will make the fly-off but we in the Stockley House think he's dead wrong... there's still a whole lot that can happen in the next three rounds. and you never know what will be. Go Dad Go!

Not many Kiwi photos around on the website or emails but I did find these....

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The're up in....

• Today's slots...
  

Round 9
Slot 1=SZ, 5=SC, 8=LS

Round 10
Slot 6=LS, 7=SC, 8=SZ

Round 11
Slot 2=SC, 3=LS, 6=SZ

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That's not how 8's supposed to be Babe.

It's amazing what a bung landing can do to your score.....

Who Group Time Landing Raw Score Normalised Score Place

Sven---2-- 9:52.40-- 100---- 692.4 --------997.7------- 1st
Les---- 4-- 9:52.80-- 90---- 682.8--------982.7--------- 13th
Scott--- 7--9:53.20 --100 ---693.2--------- 999.4------- 32nd

Team Results for Round 7 (Discard) - F3J 2008 Seniors

GER			Total Points: 17950.50	Rank :1
	20	Feigl, Benedikt	5994.20
	22	Laemmlein, Tobias	5980.80
	21	Kolb, Philip	5975.50
CZE			Total Points: 17939.00	Rank :2
	19	Vostrel, Jaroslav	5986.00
	17	Duchan, Jiri	5985.00
	18	Sterba, Vitezslav	5968.00
NZL			Total Points: 17704.50	Rank :3
	51	Zaalberg, Sven	5997.00
	50	Stockley, Les	5987.30
	52	Chisholm, Scott	5720.20

The Aussie team are in 9th place.

Hey Les if you get 1000's I'll give you.....
Go Dad Go!!!! Love you babe...8

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Round 7

Who Group Time Landing Raw Score Normalised Score Place

Sven--- 4-- 9:52.60-- 100---- 692.6 --------1000------- 1st
Scott--- 5--8:00.30 --95 ---573.3--------- 835.6------- 40th
Les---- 8-- 9:52.60-- 95---- 687.6 --------992.2-------- 5th

I'm having an early one tonight... See ya!

Today's Kiwi Flights

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Round 7
Slot 4=SZ, 5=SC, 8=LS

Round 8
Slot 2=SZ, 4=LS, 7=SC

Round 9
Slot 1=SZ, 5=SC, 8=LS

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