I have just returned form a very exciting key grab flight. It was almost exactly the same flight as yesterday afternoon but this time I got it right!The sad news is that I missed all the keys so I did not get it all that right. We flew over the first one then just to the right of the Red key (7000USD) by maybe 20 ft then past another key at about 20 feet to the left. It was great fun and the crowd loved it.
It was pretty fast so making corrections was hard and you really only got one chance to line up.
I took Yosh, my number one Japanese crew for the flight. It was only his second proper balloon flight as he is always driving for me or his Japanese team. After we passed the launch site and keys I got him to fly the balloon for maybe 10 minutes. He showed very good control for a first time student and I think it made his week. There are so many people in the Japanese balloon clubs that getting a chance to actually fly the balloon is very hard or imposable unless you are in a position to become a student.
So after all that excitement we finally got to see some results! It looks like this morning was everything I hoped for!
I won the last task and got 965 points for the PDG - 1965 points out of a possible 2000! That is ignoring the last task that everyone got 500 points for.
So drum roll.................4th place!!!!!
What a way to finish a relaxing, no stress week of flying. I think I have remembered how to fly now. Lets go to Motegi with a full team and see what happens.
Paul also did well getting up to 6th place. We are the highest placed foreign pilots and I think/hope it will make an impression as to our intentions in Motegi.
Interestingly I was only 33 points from getting 3rd place and less than 100 from getting 2nd so it was really close.
Paul was also only about 150 points or so behind me so it was a very tight finish.
The top pilot was Takeo Mizukami so he is looking very good for Motegi. He is with out a doubt the best Japanese pilot at the moment. My old friend Endo Mamouru got 2nd so he is very happy too. This was also the Japanese nationals so the placings count towards the 2008 Worlds for them.
