Long day, hot weather, nothing to eat etc etc.
Had a good draw in the early afternoon, but 33 laps in the other pilots had mishaps on takeoff putting me into a redraw.
So, late this afternoon I flew my heat with an Italian and a Swedish team, but only put down a 3:12. Personally, I was hoping for a little more than that, but the tune was undercomped and we had to wait for landing models to clear our segment before release.
However, Trev & Steve put in a solid 3:30 with room for improvement, while Fitz and Mellins came through in a reflight to record a 3:07.
So, at the end of day we have 2 Aussi teams in the semis, at P3 and P7, surrounded by various Russians, Ukrainians, and Frenchmen.
Kram/Chayka put in a 3:01 too, with a few bad restarts, though the race was largely two-up.
Anyways, I'm up with the French and the Poms tomorrow, which should be good.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
So tonight I'm gonna party like I just did a 3:09!
After round one we're in P4 with a 3:09, behind Sur/Sur, Alo/Ing, Bon/Ler, which feels pretty solid. I had originally guessed that the semi cut-off time was going to be 3:15, though it looks like it's going to be a lot less than that!
Still, the Aussie team is bringing the smack-down with a 3:14 from Fitz and Mellins and a 3:33 from Trev and Steve. All had some bad luck in the race, so these times should improve, too!
The jury has been excellent, along with the general level of piloting, which I think has contributed to the number of quick times put up yesterday. It was also great to see Wingetner/Devenish and Fluker/Lambert get quick times on the board with 3:13 and 3:11 respectively.
There was a bit of a screw-up on the flight line before our race which lead to Asher/Asher getting DQ'd for overlength lines, so the organisers put ourselves and Mihinov/Sobko in the reflies instead. However, I drew the Russians again, though with a Swedish team as well. It was a smooth race with good airspeed and flying, which no doubt encouraged fast times.
Today we clean the engines up, go out for official practice, then fly our second round with Surugue/Surugue (FRA) and Richter/Tetjukov (GER).
Before all of this, however, I need to find me a croissant.
Still, the Aussie team is bringing the smack-down with a 3:14 from Fitz and Mellins and a 3:33 from Trev and Steve. All had some bad luck in the race, so these times should improve, too!
The jury has been excellent, along with the general level of piloting, which I think has contributed to the number of quick times put up yesterday. It was also great to see Wingetner/Devenish and Fluker/Lambert get quick times on the board with 3:13 and 3:11 respectively.
There was a bit of a screw-up on the flight line before our race which lead to Asher/Asher getting DQ'd for overlength lines, so the organisers put ourselves and Mihinov/Sobko in the reflies instead. However, I drew the Russians again, though with a Swedish team as well. It was a smooth race with good airspeed and flying, which no doubt encouraged fast times.
Today we clean the engines up, go out for official practice, then fly our second round with Surugue/Surugue (FRA) and Richter/Tetjukov (GER).
Before all of this, however, I need to find me a croissant.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Random events
So the championship is now under way, and we've spent the last 4 days getting up at 6am, practicing and working on the planes until 12-1am every day. So, I'm understandably tired (I think).
We had some issues getting the gear to work at first but they seem to have been figured out in time for processing and the first heat tomorrow. I've drawn a Russian and an American team, which should be heaps of fun.
Some other events have happend to ourselves and the Aussie team too, including, but not limited to:
1. Nipple-crippling the father of the current F2C world champions
2. Tricking our Hungarian friends into "holding" our empty beer cups while we scampered off to the car.
3. Being accused of stealing dinner plates by the competition organiser.
4. Subsequently being stalked by 15 year old security staff.
5. Being dragged off the combat field by aforementioned matrix-esque security staff.
All in all, I think we've so far lived up to our reputation as convicts...
We had some issues getting the gear to work at first but they seem to have been figured out in time for processing and the first heat tomorrow. I've drawn a Russian and an American team, which should be heaps of fun.
Some other events have happend to ourselves and the Aussie team too, including, but not limited to:
1. Nipple-crippling the father of the current F2C world champions
2. Tricking our Hungarian friends into "holding" our empty beer cups while we scampered off to the car.
3. Being accused of stealing dinner plates by the competition organiser.
4. Subsequently being stalked by 15 year old security staff.
5. Being dragged off the combat field by aforementioned matrix-esque security staff.
All in all, I think we've so far lived up to our reputation as convicts...
Monday, July 28, 2008
Photographs!
Monte Carlo!
Boats!
Pole position!
A bus tackling the hairpin
Lots of smart cars in Monaco, though this one is a Brabus (!!!)
Something from Modena, I think
This was the only part of the factory I was allowed to take a photo of!
We drove over those mountains - 150km of hairpins. Not recommended.
Generally this is the result.
Those buildings were actually rendered concrete with the details painted on...
Our designated, but not dedicated driver.Grand Prix
Unfortunately, we couldn't practice on the Friday before the grand prix, so we had to wait until the next morning and fly at the practice site some 15min from the main field. We played around with the top ends a little bit, and managed to get the 2 practice models going okay.
Round one went well - we drew Sosnovsky and Dhozodaev and still cranked out a 3:13 with a couple of bad starts. We figured this would make the semis so we switched to our slowest model to get some flying practice. Unfortunately, we cooked pretty badly in the sound round and had to retire.
The next day we got decent settings on both the engines, and put in a 3:14 or 15 with the old model and psyched up for the semis.
These went badly imho. The weather changed dramatically between the rounds and the semis, and so we went up lean into the first round, dropped some airspeed, and only did a 3:20. The second heat was going well for a 3:10 or so, when the tank stuffed up and caused the motor to quit on the second stop. So, DNF and no final place for us. We wound up in 5th, behind Surugue-Surugue, Samellson-Axtillius, Ougen-Surugue, and Sosnovsky and his pilot.
But it wasn't all bad as Dad came 18th(!!!!!!!!) out of over 70 entries (!!!!!!!!) in F2B, so it was his shout at the bar.
Opening today, so I think we'll take it easy, and maybe go through the rest of our tanks to make sure the same problems don't repeat themselves.
Au Revior!
Round one went well - we drew Sosnovsky and Dhozodaev and still cranked out a 3:13 with a couple of bad starts. We figured this would make the semis so we switched to our slowest model to get some flying practice. Unfortunately, we cooked pretty badly in the sound round and had to retire.
The next day we got decent settings on both the engines, and put in a 3:14 or 15 with the old model and psyched up for the semis.
These went badly imho. The weather changed dramatically between the rounds and the semis, and so we went up lean into the first round, dropped some airspeed, and only did a 3:20. The second heat was going well for a 3:10 or so, when the tank stuffed up and caused the motor to quit on the second stop. So, DNF and no final place for us. We wound up in 5th, behind Surugue-Surugue, Samellson-Axtillius, Ougen-Surugue, and Sosnovsky and his pilot.
But it wasn't all bad as Dad came 18th(!!!!!!!!) out of over 70 entries (!!!!!!!!) in F2B, so it was his shout at the bar.
Opening today, so I think we'll take it easy, and maybe go through the rest of our tanks to make sure the same problems don't repeat themselves.
Au Revior!
I can has interwebs plz?
So. It's taken this long to find an internet connection...
Monaco was nice, but a little lifeless and way too pretentious in my opinion (what did we expect, right?). It's mainly just a place for old rich people to show off their expensive cars. The defribrilators on the lamp posts should give an indication of the average age of the population there... Still, we walked the track, which was pretty cool.
We left pretty early and travelled west along the coast until reaching St Raphael, which is a beachy town where noone speaks english. Kind of like a french version of Noosa, I guess. Actually, I think it's been the best place we've visited yet - people were friendly, the beaches were nice (Australia still has them beaten, though), and the food wasn't overly expensive. We got lost for about 5 hours on the first day while looking for Shellite (don't bother looking btw), and eventually retired to the local pub. 6 Desparados later I found myself in bed the next morning with a terrible headache. Went to the beach the next morning, and basically stayed there all day.
Oh! And we tried Escargot!
After St Raphael we continued west to Marseille, but I think we were too tired to enjoy it fully - It's a big city (bigger than Sydney), and we had trouble navigating it without the GPS. After getting ripped off by a Taxi, we reached the hotel, where we stayed up all night finishing propellors on their shiny porcelain sink.
6:30 TGV the next morning, which took us to Metz by 12:00 in great comfort at 300kph.
Monaco was nice, but a little lifeless and way too pretentious in my opinion (what did we expect, right?). It's mainly just a place for old rich people to show off their expensive cars. The defribrilators on the lamp posts should give an indication of the average age of the population there... Still, we walked the track, which was pretty cool.
We left pretty early and travelled west along the coast until reaching St Raphael, which is a beachy town where noone speaks english. Kind of like a french version of Noosa, I guess. Actually, I think it's been the best place we've visited yet - people were friendly, the beaches were nice (Australia still has them beaten, though), and the food wasn't overly expensive. We got lost for about 5 hours on the first day while looking for Shellite (don't bother looking btw), and eventually retired to the local pub. 6 Desparados later I found myself in bed the next morning with a terrible headache. Went to the beach the next morning, and basically stayed there all day.
Oh! And we tried Escargot!
After St Raphael we continued west to Marseille, but I think we were too tired to enjoy it fully - It's a big city (bigger than Sydney), and we had trouble navigating it without the GPS. After getting ripped off by a Taxi, we reached the hotel, where we stayed up all night finishing propellors on their shiny porcelain sink.
6:30 TGV the next morning, which took us to Metz by 12:00 in great comfort at 300kph.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monaco
Exchanged cars for a Seat and drove to Monaco. We tried to take the Autostrade, but missed it and wound up taking the scenic route again. We made it to a little beachy town between Genova and somewhere else, had lunch, then found the Autostrade and drove for an hour across to Monaco.
The traffic there is crazy. Kinda like Valladolid but more confusing and with more suicidal scooter riders. After an hour of doing practice laps around the Grand Prix track we found our Hotel, which isn't on the track, but you can see bits of it from the window.
Looking forward to flying in a few days time, though.
The traffic there is crazy. Kinda like Valladolid but more confusing and with more suicidal scooter riders. After an hour of doing practice laps around the Grand Prix track we found our Hotel, which isn't on the track, but you can see bits of it from the window.
Looking forward to flying in a few days time, though.
Monday, July 21, 2008
At last! Computer!
We're in La Spezia, which is a big town full of sailors.
Arrived in Milan after a boring flight, got lost on the Autostrata, found our way to Moderna, and discovered how cheap booze was.
Yesterday we went to Maranello for the factory tour, which was pretty impressive - not just a bunch of guys in front of Bridgeports. We were allowed to walk on the shop floor, amongst all the workers and machines, which was interesting. Folloing lunch at the factory restaurant we decided to take the scenic route from Moderna to La Spezia - big mistake. It was 150km of hairpins and 4m wide roads with crazy drivers. 3 hours in to it we had a head-on with a bus, which trashed the front of our Peugeot 407. Everyone was okay but the driver didn't speak English, while we didn't speak enough Italian, so sorting out insurance details took forever. Eventually we made our way to La Spezia, where we had multiple (full) glasses of Sambucca (at 2 Eu a glass!) before bed at some our this morning. Can't remember much more than that.
The weather is fantastic - 29 degrees and sunny.
Heading to Genova this morning to exchange cars and drop dad off before heading off to Monte Carlo, but without the scenic mountain passes!
Arrived in Milan after a boring flight, got lost on the Autostrata, found our way to Moderna, and discovered how cheap booze was.
Yesterday we went to Maranello for the factory tour, which was pretty impressive - not just a bunch of guys in front of Bridgeports. We were allowed to walk on the shop floor, amongst all the workers and machines, which was interesting. Folloing lunch at the factory restaurant we decided to take the scenic route from Moderna to La Spezia - big mistake. It was 150km of hairpins and 4m wide roads with crazy drivers. 3 hours in to it we had a head-on with a bus, which trashed the front of our Peugeot 407. Everyone was okay but the driver didn't speak English, while we didn't speak enough Italian, so sorting out insurance details took forever. Eventually we made our way to La Spezia, where we had multiple (full) glasses of Sambucca (at 2 Eu a glass!) before bed at some our this morning. Can't remember much more than that.
The weather is fantastic - 29 degrees and sunny.
Heading to Genova this morning to exchange cars and drop dad off before heading off to Monte Carlo, but without the scenic mountain passes!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Avant de partir
Bags are pretty much packed,while the models are in their boxes and surrounded by bubblewrap. Bet the baggage handlers will still break it, though.
The flight leaves at 3-ish tomorrow (sat) afternoon on an A380, with one stopover in Singapore before reaching Milan.
Hopefully I'll find enough wifi in Modena to update with Ferrari photos.
Adios.
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