Practice Day #2

Both Mark and I were up well before the alarm clock and headed for IHOP for a quick breakfast & coffee. A quick loading of the gear and we were headed out once again... see a trend here? We set the cruise control and waited for the van to make it’s way to the flying site... it knows the way now!

Paul carries John's plane back after a sortie.

 

Team Ireland (without Angus Balfour) were already flying and Mark quickly got his plane assembled and ready to fly. Team Liechtenstein arrived moments later and so did Dez and Nel. I think everyone wanted to start early and beat out the heat because today was a scorcher ... 101 degrees!! The Irish team must of thought there was an invasion!

Chad & Nedim arrived and got a good natured ribbing about sleeping in... all in fun of course. The teams took turns flying as both myself and Paul Houlihan managed to successfully complete the paper work for processing our respective teams.  This allowed me to stay in the shade as long as possible :-)

The winds were brisk out of the west and everyone seemed to handle it without any problems. I witnessed many flights from all the pilots and they all showed definite improvements from yesterday.  I believe everyone is getting more accustomed to the flying site and the weather.

I had brought my bib I wore in Argentina and made Mark wear it for his last flight. I remembered that it felt different when worn and I want Mark to have the experience before he flew at the worlds... one less “new” thing to experience. He looked good in it to. LOL

After the lunch hour we all packed up and headed back into Muncie for some R&R. We stopped at the local ice cream shop. Paul had mentioned that his team had stopped there and highly recommended it.... well those Irish were right! It was so good and we plan to stop for lunch tomorrow... anyway I am getting off topic.. sorry.

The AMA site allows open flying after 5 pm so we loaded the van and headed out for a quick drive around the site. We ended up at Site #1 as Mark wanted to put a few rounds in having never flown here. Chad just yawned :-) then put in a burner round. He seemed very comfortable today and in his element.

The Japanese team starts to assemble their planes.

The Japanese entourage arrived en mass and we were once again treated to some great model construction eye candy. These guys never cease to amaze me with their spotless planes. They put some flights in but fuel issues plagued them as the fuel that was shipped to support the team has not arrive. They made due with some “other” fuel and I suspect they will find the correct blend in short order. I heard today that the French team had similar problems as well up in Peoria.... see their blog.

Xavier arrived and called a round for Dez then after watching the Japanese team fly again, we packed up and headed to the hotel to put Mark’s #2 airframe together. Hartley and Pat finally checked in and were in El Paso, Illinois. I suspect that they should arrive tomorrow afternoon and Camp Canada will be in full swing shortly thereafter. The Clark’s were at the Smithsonian in Washington as they worked their way west.

The gals start their adventure to the Worlds tonight on the red eye out of Victoria, BC..... but that’s another story yet to be told.

I have added additional pictures to the team section so check them out... I will get the captions done as soon as possible. I will log off now and hit the rack... it’s ground hog day again tomorrow!