Well, surprise, surprise. Another cancellation due to high winds.
Tonight we have the Sanyamanchi party which is basically a bit of drinking, some food stalls and chance to watch the local dance groups jump around and have fun.
I have always thought that the night was more about trying to dull the foreign pilots with plum sake one the night before the last competition flight - you never see the Japanese pilots there, they are always tucked up in bed resting.
Still no results up from this morning so the tension is growing....how did I go??? What do I have to pull out of the hat tomorrow?
I got lots of great photos during the flight this morning so they should be uploaded to flickr in a little while.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Saga '07 competition flight 5
This morning dawned calm with blue skys. Saga has turned on it's best weather for the weekend when the big crowds come to the banks of the Kase river.
Results from yesterday show that it was a missed opportunity with most people near the top messing things up. Going into today's flight I am in 11th place, 800 points from the leader and only 500 points from second place. It is very tight at the top and things will change again soon.
There was a brief moment of excitement when I saw four markers on the table - we have not flown a quad task in Saga for years. If there is one disappointment here it is the lack of tasks that are often set, when the location and weather would allow many more.
The excitement was short lived. It was still three tasks. Pilot Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal and a Maximum Distance Double Drop. The XDD requiring the extra marker.
Sadly the opportunity for another task or two was missed - why the first marker of the XDD was not a FON I do not know, even the last one for that matter to make it five tasks from four markers. Oh well.
The PDG was also set as a memorial to Masashi Kakuda. I would love to win this task and good goal selection may have made it a reality.
The flight into the PDG got very congested with three of us fighting for position. In the end I won out and dropped closest on that goal with 2.2m. I have not heard better yet so fingers crossed for the winning result.
The JDG presented some challenge and in the end I took the safe option of dropping from height rather than trying to bomb all the way onto the surface. The winds were starting their change and I did not want to risk drifting off. The drop was 18.9m but on this task it was not good enough - scores are already up and it looks like 665 points..
The XDD was to be flown inside a box 2km wide by 1km deep. I approached the north east corner of the box and entered about 100m further south than the ideal location. It was then an almost straight flight to the diagonally opposite corner. Again, the exit point was not ideal but with the available winds it was not to bad. The best result would have been 2225m and my result will be 1770m. I think there will be a few people with no results.
Results from yesterday show that it was a missed opportunity with most people near the top messing things up. Going into today's flight I am in 11th place, 800 points from the leader and only 500 points from second place. It is very tight at the top and things will change again soon.
There was a brief moment of excitement when I saw four markers on the table - we have not flown a quad task in Saga for years. If there is one disappointment here it is the lack of tasks that are often set, when the location and weather would allow many more.The excitement was short lived. It was still three tasks. Pilot Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal and a Maximum Distance Double Drop. The XDD requiring the extra marker.
Sadly the opportunity for another task or two was missed - why the first marker of the XDD was not a FON I do not know, even the last one for that matter to make it five tasks from four markers. Oh well.
The PDG was also set as a memorial to Masashi Kakuda. I would love to win this task and good goal selection may have made it a reality.
The flight into the PDG got very congested with three of us fighting for position. In the end I won out and dropped closest on that goal with 2.2m. I have not heard better yet so fingers crossed for the winning result.
The JDG presented some challenge and in the end I took the safe option of dropping from height rather than trying to bomb all the way onto the surface. The winds were starting their change and I did not want to risk drifting off. The drop was 18.9m but on this task it was not good enough - scores are already up and it looks like 665 points..
The XDD was to be flown inside a box 2km wide by 1km deep. I approached the north east corner of the box and entered about 100m further south than the ideal location. It was then an almost straight flight to the diagonally opposite corner. Again, the exit point was not ideal but with the available winds it was not to bad. The best result would have been 2225m and my result will be 1770m. I think there will be a few people with no results.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Saga '07, Friday Arvo
The flight was cancelled again this afternoon due to high winds.
It is bit of a bummer because we now only have three competition flights left and with the afternoons looking like this, it probably means only 2 flights in reality.
It seems like this morning will be interesting in the results with some very mixed bags out there by the sounds of it. The "No Result" for the fly in looks to have paid 383 points as less than half the field made it in, so while still not good, it is not the end of the world.
Onto the lighter side of life...
One of the fun things about coming to Japan is the difference in culture. Saga has had a mega shopping centre open on the out skirts of town since I was here last year.
Now I have seen these before near Narita and Motegi so in it's self it is nothing new but is quite the novelty none the less. Yesterday while exploring I found a barber shop like none I have ever seen before.
For 1000 yen (about $9.30 Australian) you could get a hair cut in ten minutes. Obviously the price is very good but that was not what drew me in, it was the actual shop that was the interesting part.
This place was lit up like an operating theatre with six individually sealed glass booths with a very funky chair in the middle of the open space. On one wall was a series of shelves with a TV screen and what appeared to be a vacuum hose on a flexible arm.
At the entrance to the shop was a vending machine where you put in your 1000 yen note and get a ticket. The barber takes you to your booth and sits you down. After a few hand signals common to all hairdressers around the world we were under way.
Now the thing about this is that as a guy who mostly gets his hair cut with clippers, no matter how good the bib and how little circulation you have left from the paper towel wrapped around your neck, hair gets into everything. Enter the vacuum cleaner!
As this dude is clipping away at my locks, he is hoovering at the same time. When we are finished he gives my head a good ruffle and vacuum at the same time and hey presto, not a single sliver of hair out of place, down my neck or on my shirt.
Brilliant stuff. No need for a shower straight after, no need to change the sheets if you forget to shower before bed that night. I am sure it will never catch on back in OZ but it is a bloody great idea in my books.
It is bit of a bummer because we now only have three competition flights left and with the afternoons looking like this, it probably means only 2 flights in reality.
It seems like this morning will be interesting in the results with some very mixed bags out there by the sounds of it. The "No Result" for the fly in looks to have paid 383 points as less than half the field made it in, so while still not good, it is not the end of the world.
Onto the lighter side of life...
One of the fun things about coming to Japan is the difference in culture. Saga has had a mega shopping centre open on the out skirts of town since I was here last year.
Now I have seen these before near Narita and Motegi so in it's self it is nothing new but is quite the novelty none the less. Yesterday while exploring I found a barber shop like none I have ever seen before.
For 1000 yen (about $9.30 Australian) you could get a hair cut in ten minutes. Obviously the price is very good but that was not what drew me in, it was the actual shop that was the interesting part.
This place was lit up like an operating theatre with six individually sealed glass booths with a very funky chair in the middle of the open space. On one wall was a series of shelves with a TV screen and what appeared to be a vacuum hose on a flexible arm.
At the entrance to the shop was a vending machine where you put in your 1000 yen note and get a ticket. The barber takes you to your booth and sits you down. After a few hand signals common to all hairdressers around the world we were under way.
Now the thing about this is that as a guy who mostly gets his hair cut with clippers, no matter how good the bib and how little circulation you have left from the paper towel wrapped around your neck, hair gets into everything. Enter the vacuum cleaner!
As this dude is clipping away at my locks, he is hoovering at the same time. When we are finished he gives my head a good ruffle and vacuum at the same time and hey presto, not a single sliver of hair out of place, down my neck or on my shirt.
Brilliant stuff. No need for a shower straight after, no need to change the sheets if you forget to shower before bed that night. I am sure it will never catch on back in OZ but it is a bloody great idea in my books.
Saga '07 competition flight 4
The good news first. After the first 7 tasks I am in 5th place and only 200 points from 2nd place and 600 from first. This is a good place to be.
The weather was fine again this morning. Unfortunately my flying was not. No Photos today either - it was all too busy.
The mornings flight was to be a Pilot Declared Goal, Fly In and another Pilot Declared Goal.
While only three tasks, the trick was always going to be the selection of the first and third goals as they had to be chosen before take off with the final goal being between 6 and 9 kilometers from the launch point.
The winds were generally from the north with some westerly component near the surface and even some southerly at times. It was very fluky and there was a lot of head scratching going on.
After choosing a launch site I got off to an early start with the intention being to use the higher and in theory more reliable winds to get into all the goals before it all changed. I was near the front of the pack and happy with that position.
At only 1.6km to a suitable PDG I had little time to correct and ended up at nearly 2000ft and still to far left of the goal. A quick calculation and I dropped the marker in to a rice field about 320m from the goal. Not a good result but as close as I could get from where I was.
The Fly In to the field was another limited scoring area and again I was approaching from high, sitting on about 3000ft to get a good run in. The surface winds were picking up from the south so I had to fly past the goal before descending into the lower winds and flying back to the north for the drop.
As can happen I got a little greedy and hung onto the marker in an attempt to make a correction as I was looking like being a few hundred meters from the goal again. I was also skirting the edge of the scoring area so a drop would have been risky as I was still around 1000feet up and had just watched a marker slide out of the scoring area right near me. It did not pay off as I did a big arc around the northern end of the scoring area and never made it back in. No result for that task.
It was then back up to 3000 feet again to see if I could get to the last goal that was chosen at the start of the flight. Sticking with the upper wind plan seem to pay off and I flew due south to the final PDG. Again, with a high approach and winds nearly 180 different on the surface it was hard to position the balloon exactly but eventually I got it down in more or less the right spot. As I flew towards the goal just above ground height, what little westerly had been there evaporated and I ended up 133m off to the west.
So, the last task may get some points but I don't expect much. There were lots of balloons hanging around fighting to get to something but you never know how they did until the results hit the wall. The same can be said for the first PDG. There will be some good ones but it was so fluky that you just never know.
The Fly In was may disaster for the day. I had the joy of watching balloon after balloon correct their approach after my mistake. Now I just have to hope that more than a hand full missed so I get some points.
I am off to find a decent coffee and some lunch...
The weather was fine again this morning. Unfortunately my flying was not. No Photos today either - it was all too busy.
The mornings flight was to be a Pilot Declared Goal, Fly In and another Pilot Declared Goal.
While only three tasks, the trick was always going to be the selection of the first and third goals as they had to be chosen before take off with the final goal being between 6 and 9 kilometers from the launch point.
The winds were generally from the north with some westerly component near the surface and even some southerly at times. It was very fluky and there was a lot of head scratching going on.
After choosing a launch site I got off to an early start with the intention being to use the higher and in theory more reliable winds to get into all the goals before it all changed. I was near the front of the pack and happy with that position.
At only 1.6km to a suitable PDG I had little time to correct and ended up at nearly 2000ft and still to far left of the goal. A quick calculation and I dropped the marker in to a rice field about 320m from the goal. Not a good result but as close as I could get from where I was.
The Fly In to the field was another limited scoring area and again I was approaching from high, sitting on about 3000ft to get a good run in. The surface winds were picking up from the south so I had to fly past the goal before descending into the lower winds and flying back to the north for the drop.
As can happen I got a little greedy and hung onto the marker in an attempt to make a correction as I was looking like being a few hundred meters from the goal again. I was also skirting the edge of the scoring area so a drop would have been risky as I was still around 1000feet up and had just watched a marker slide out of the scoring area right near me. It did not pay off as I did a big arc around the northern end of the scoring area and never made it back in. No result for that task.
It was then back up to 3000 feet again to see if I could get to the last goal that was chosen at the start of the flight. Sticking with the upper wind plan seem to pay off and I flew due south to the final PDG. Again, with a high approach and winds nearly 180 different on the surface it was hard to position the balloon exactly but eventually I got it down in more or less the right spot. As I flew towards the goal just above ground height, what little westerly had been there evaporated and I ended up 133m off to the west.
So, the last task may get some points but I don't expect much. There were lots of balloons hanging around fighting to get to something but you never know how they did until the results hit the wall. The same can be said for the first PDG. There will be some good ones but it was so fluky that you just never know.
The Fly In was may disaster for the day. I had the joy of watching balloon after balloon correct their approach after my mistake. Now I just have to hope that more than a hand full missed so I get some points.
I am off to find a decent coffee and some lunch...
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Saga '07, Thursday Arvo
Strong winds caused the cancellation of this afternoons flight. Currently it is still overcast and blowing a good 15knots at ground level.
Rumour is that the morning will be fine though.
Some more results are up from the flight this morning. Task 5 (2.25m) was good for second place and 999 points while Task 6 (3.85m) was good for 6th place and 988 points.
A few quick calculations puts me in 6th place overall and about 600 points behind the leader and only 250 points from second place.
It is looking very tight at the top as always.
Rumour is that the morning will be fine though.
Some more results are up from the flight this morning. Task 5 (2.25m) was good for second place and 999 points while Task 6 (3.85m) was good for 6th place and 988 points.
A few quick calculations puts me in 6th place overall and about 600 points behind the leader and only 250 points from second place.
It is looking very tight at the top as always.
Saga 2007, Competition flight 3
An overcast morning here in Saga but no threat of rain. Light winds were blowing from the west, north west taking balloons in the direction of the Saga Airport and Metabaru ATC area. As such only two tasks were called, Pilot Declared Goal and Fly On.
It took me a while to decide how I wanted to fly these tasks and ended up waiting towards the end of the launch period to watch the first balloons launch and see what they did. It paid off with a good PDG selection that was towards the maximum distance, making it easy to fly to with lots of time to work the various winds. I had a few problems identifying the intersection with so many white Hi-ace vans and people waving at balloons but got a visual fix early enough and cruised in for a 2.23m gravity drop from about 70 feet up.
Yosh can be seen here relaxing next to the marker as I am obviously making life too easy for him.
On the way in the the PDG I had selected a fly on a little further south of track based on the directions I had seen on the way into the first goal. I climbed to 600 feet expecting to be right on track but needed more right. Fortunately by 1200 ft I had found what I needed and hung in until quite close to the goal before a fast descent into the lower winds. I again had to make a slightly higher approach than I wanted but was able to steer directly over the goal for another 3.85m drop.
All in all it was a very good morning that will score at the top of the pack.
Some results were up from yesterday. Task 1 was 972 points, Task 2 was 1000 points and task 3 as expected was only 264 points. No one scored on the afternoon flight so I think we all get 500 points for that.
The good weather is set to continue. lets hope I keep nailing targets like today!
It took me a while to decide how I wanted to fly these tasks and ended up waiting towards the end of the launch period to watch the first balloons launch and see what they did. It paid off with a good PDG selection that was towards the maximum distance, making it easy to fly to with lots of time to work the various winds. I had a few problems identifying the intersection with so many white Hi-ace vans and people waving at balloons but got a visual fix early enough and cruised in for a 2.23m gravity drop from about 70 feet up.
Yosh can be seen here relaxing next to the marker as I am obviously making life too easy for him.On the way in the the PDG I had selected a fly on a little further south of track based on the directions I had seen on the way into the first goal. I climbed to 600 feet expecting to be right on track but needed more right. Fortunately by 1200 ft I had found what I needed and hung in until quite close to the goal before a fast descent into the lower winds. I again had to make a slightly higher approach than I wanted but was able to steer directly over the goal for another 3.85m drop.
All in all it was a very good morning that will score at the top of the pack.
Some results were up from yesterday. Task 1 was 972 points, Task 2 was 1000 points and task 3 as expected was only 264 points. No one scored on the afternoon flight so I think we all get 500 points for that.
The good weather is set to continue. lets hope I keep nailing targets like today!
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