26th WAC Italy - Lessons Learned

Here are some notes on what we saw and discerned from our trip to Italy.   Hopefully it will aid those who wish to travel this route in the future:

1.                  Ideally need an authoritative coach for training at home and guidance at the comp.  How to fund it?

2.                  Aircraft differences will always exist from what you train on at home, and rarely will you be able to change settings on a hired aircraft to suit you.

3.                  Budget on at least a weeks training in-location prior to comp overseas.  Adjust to the time-zone, weather, food and aircraft.   Possibly send Team Manager in advance to scout arrangements.

4.                  Take copies, soft or hard, of all your docs and Free sequences.   Invariably the organisers ask for them repeatably.

5.                  As newcomers, we need to really nail the Q flight to maximise our chances of getting into the 1^st or 2^nd group.    Similarly for the Free.  Aim should be an 80% flight in both, and then take what you get.

6.                  Stay cool and fresh.  Natural desire is to hang around airport, socialise and watch the flying.   Schedule time away, stay hydrated and rested.   Roster team members/manager/coach to check in-tray, attend briefings, check score sheets etc. so others can stay away from airport when not required.

7.                  Establish comms and transport plan to reduce stress when timeline is critical.

8.                  Established teams use all tools at their disposal to favour their pilots.   Eg. Have a warm-up pilot to report back conditions and gauge aircraft performance for start heights.   Influence schedule to favour your pilots. Video flights, protest if necessary.

9.                  Set-up of aircraft ailerons/spades and elevator, locking the trim prior to flight.

10.              Putt all ¾ snap figures so the snap finishes edge-on to the judges.   Wing low or side drift after the snap will not be seen.   Offset positive or negative in plan on entry vertical line to finish vertical when side-on.

11.              On looping figures with snaps, offset nose during looping segment so that you finish on-axis (if that’s what you need) after the snap without a lot of pedalling.

12.              Use ‘N’s and half loops or Cubans as linking figures in Unknowns.   Adjust altitude and position during these low k figures.   Also saw positive depth-charges used by USA.   These linking figures get horribly abused in order to position high K figures correctly.

13.              Top pilots fly to the bottom of the box (or maybe below).   Positioning right in front of the judges is very important for a top score.

14.              Extra 330SC and Su-26/31 perform well and present well if flown well, but appear at a performance deficit to hot Experimentals like the MXS and Edge.   Estimate is that Rob Holland’s MXS has significant margin over the 330SC.   Ivanoff’s Edge 540 and Illes’ 540T exceeded 330SC by a fair margin also.   Sbach goes well, but did not appear as energetic for some reason, and some opinion that it does not present as well as the MXS/Edge due to short fuselage length.

15.              Sat next to a judge at dinner.   Opinion that in general judges favour slower flying Sukhoi’s?

16.              Need to nominate judges through CIVA rep to CIVA.   Is it likely we will actually send a judge and assistant??   First 7 judging teams paid for from entry fees (if selected), last 3 by organisers if able.   Need JPD to support.

17.              Raw scores and scoresheets are released immediately after data has been entered into scoring system.  It is the Team responsibility to check their sheets and sign them off as correct – or protest.   I detected two score entry errors, both were corrected without drama by office.

18.              Each Team has an in-tray and all official correspondence will be deposited there.   Time sensitive operational matters are communicated verbally (in our case by Christian on his pushbike!) or via SMS.  Each team was issued a backpack with a mobile phone pre-loaded with all Officials and Team numbers, good for calls to those numbers only.

19.              Rolls were precise and stops hard.   Rate of roll varied depending on objective, but was consistent throughout.   We need to develop this technique more.

20.              Varying power was used by the high-performance aircraft to shorten up lines and slow down lines.   All good for minimising drift and keeping the sequence ‘smaller’, in the box,  and in front of the judges.

21.              Without line judges, many pilots exceeded the box by a large margin, and it appeared this was done consciously during Unknowns if it favoured presentation of key figures and the sequence overall.  The lesser of two evils approach.

22.              We didn’t have much wind, so didn’t see many wind correction techniques on the main axis.  Most correction was being done cross-box, to and away from the judges, to position figures.

23.              Many top-level sequences don’t have any cross-box figures.   Pilots rely on other techniques to move sequence toward and away from judges.   Crabbing, flying off-axis, spiralling during looping segments and non-vertical lines.

24.              Many Free sequences have more than the minimum number of flicks.   Possible advantage with simpler figures to judge and less busy for both pilot and judge cf. lots of point rolls.   More research needed here.

25.              Looping figures with roll elements at top/bottom are always positioned on the main axis for scrutiny by judges in unknowns, never cross-box.

      26.       Diamond loops down should start downwind conversely those going up should start into wind.

WAC Day 10 - 4 Minute Freestyle

Just back from the 4 minute Freestyle.   Great flying on show with Hannes Arch, Ramon Alonso and Eric Vazeilleadded to the classic competitors.   I don't expect any results to be announced until the closing ceremony this evening,    My picks were Kairys, Sonka, Holland and Marmy (maybe not in that order).  A lot of variety, Marmy followed Holland - rock'n'roll to classical!   Arch and Ivanoff's displays were BIG, grand music, large in space.   Some were tight and in the judges face.   Truly a mix of styles on display.   Spoke with Aude Lemordant  afterward, and she took off without a watch.....so she just had to wing it!  Her first 4 minute Free.  She did the HSC in Pennant Hills, started aerobatics in 2005, flies for Air France, and is now the Vice-Female World Champion.   Makes me feel pretty slack.

I got some video so will try and upload a bit later.

Day 9.1

Well, the results are out for the technical contest, and with some surprises.   I missed Francois Levot's HZ for a positive crossover snap instead of a negative snap (downward iverted 45 leg of a humpty).   This dropped him down the standings considerably.  Phillipp's HZ also cost him - same applies as at home, NO DONUTS.
Some lovely flying in the last seven, with the cool morning I think the Sukhoi's could start 2-300ft lower at least.   Svetlana and Chmal and Oleg certainly had it in the bottom of the box.
Hats off to Olivier Masurel finishing 2nd in the CAP-232, he flew well and consistently all comp and certainly deserved his scores.   He, Alexander Leboulanger and Nicholas Ivanoff ended up leading the way for the French, ahead of the Armee de l'Air - possibly the loss of Renaud Ecalle has affected them more than we might think.

Tomorrow, the 4 minute freestyle, with some big names flying in:  Ramond Alonso, Jurgis Kairys, Hannes Arch.   Also flying are Rob Holland, Ivanoff, Marmy, Steinbach and Vazeille.

WAC Day9

The final seven have flown.   The re-fly's went first.  Victor Chmal had a solid flight, but Tom Cassels' problems reoccurred and he again landed and went to the technical area.  I doubt he will fly again, but this has not been confirmed.
next up was Oleg S. and it was a neat flight, though I missed some figures.   Gerald in the Sbach flew well, Eric V. said he had some errors, the greatest being overflicking the 3/4 flick on the starting figure, as did many who came in with heaps of smash.

Svetlana flew impeccably, and very low, and no doubt will regain her WC status.   Francois leVot again flew a very measured and correct sequence, and will hold his position near the top.   Unfortunately for Phillipp S. he 1/2 flicked the start figure instead of 3/4, but recovered and flew on well.  The zero will drop him down the table.   We will have to wait until scores are posted.

WAC Day 8

Day 7 was a rest day and the organisers put on a trip to the Italian Air Force Museum in the morning and Trevi on the way back.   The family and I went to Siena, Florence and San Gimignamo instead.  Tuscany in a day, as Annette says!

From the SA Team....thanks guys!   Just wait 'til the World Cup

Again, the weather fine and beaut for flying with 37 pilots to get through, plus the warm-ups.   The remaining top 75% of pilots were again split into three groups, with the lowest ranked group flying first, so they got the cool of the day.
Mike Vaknin flew the 300S around cleanly but had to start quite high.   Jeff Bourbon and Goody Thomas both flew neat sequences in the 330SC.   The Sukhoi's seemed to struggle and didn't impress, until Mikhail Mamistov had his turn, and it was a precise and impressive flight deserving of the score.   Tamas Illes in the Edge 540T flew well, again.  The aircraft is ugly on the ground but presents well airborne and has plenty of performance.   As do the MXS-RH and Edge 540 of Rob Holland and Nicholas Ivanoff, respectively.   The MXS has gained the close attention of the French and others, with it's clean lines and obviously greater performance than the stock 330SC.   Rob flew well only suffering with scores due to over-flicking the first figure, the same error Ivanoff made on the same figure, but 2nd in his sequence.   Late in the day Olivier Masurel and Castor Fantoba flew impressive sequences.  The two CAP-232 left in the competition both have -580 engines.   And Castor is one of those pilots who just looks at home in his aircraft.
Some drama occurred when Tom Cassels had a problem and landed prematurely.   Similarly Victor Chmal had engine problems and landed safely, his aircraft now out of the comp.   Both will re-fly tomorrow morning, along with the five pilots who did not get to fly today.  Yes, we didn't get finished as the judges were tired and called a stop after Castor's flight.   Additional factors no doubt were that two of the Russian pilots needed an aircraft change after the U/S of 'their' Sukhoi, so were entitled to a limited test flight in their new aircraft, which they did this evening.   So fitting this all in today was not possible.
So, to fly in the morning are: Oleg Shpolyansky, Gerald Cooper, Francois leVot, Phillipp Steinbach, Svetlana Kapinina, Victor Chmal (re-fly) and Tom Cassels (re-fly).   An interesting morning.

WAC Day6

We watched the first group fly the 1st Free Unknown yesterday morning.   Some very good flying, a credit to the pilots.   Conditions were about perfect.   To us at the tents the standout flights were Nicholas Ivanov in the Edge 540 and Mikhail Mamistov in the Sukhoi 26M3.   I missed some Olivier Masurel's flight (CAP-232), but he obviously continued on his form from the Free.  Ivanoff's flight was such that the pilots applauded him as he walked back past the tents after the flight.   He flew with speed, accuracy and energy, and right in front of the judges - a great flight.   Francois Levot also flew very impressively - a very measured and correct performance.   Full scores are up on the results page for viewing.
After flying was over the Spanish did their paola and sangria thing, which was much appreciated.   Unfortunately I had family commitments also, or I could have settled in for a while longer.
Tomorrow Groups II and I will fly the 2nd Free Unknown.   Another complex sequence ( see earlier post for link to sequence diagrams) that will be a test for all.   The French and Russian designs are smart, both using a linking figure to commence the sequence.  That said, I think the Czech sequence is the best, it will be ineteresting to see which sequences the pilot's choose to fly.

WAC Day5-6

Day 5 we  had a few raindrops and we stopped flying for it to clear.   That afternoon we got one flight in and then it stormed, shutting everything down.   Everyone pitched in to secure aircraft and tents and no damage was done, but no more flying took place.   At this point we were only halfway through the third group of pilots.  Yesterday briefing was slid until 1030 due forecast unsuitable weather early, but of course it was fine!   Then we flew the two warm-up pilots, one competition flight, and then the judges video camera broke.   So it seemed like the wheels were starting to fall off and the good lead on the schedule we had built up was slipping away.    After the obligatory 2-hour lunch, we started flying (with a warm-up pilot! - the by now Known Unknown).   The we got down to business and flew the remaining Group III and all of Group II.   Results are now up on the civa-results page.
The temperature yesterday after the change was appreciably cooler and aircraft performance was noticeably increased.  Mike Vaknin, the USA pilot in the hired Extra, flew a very neat Unknown.   Vittorio also got the knife around without a break, but did not do as well.   The scores tally with what we saw, but the 'cheats' on the b-axis from our view point are quite apparent.   These are the tricks we need to learn - cross-box positioning figures are a luxury in many cases.   Using all your opportunities to correct for wind or position figures for the best viewing by the judges is the key to success.   Oftentimes the highest K figure on the sheet is positioning.   Another feature of the top scores is energy.   Flying with panache and speed, without sacrificing accuracy.
All the Free's and Unknowns sequences are available from the WAC website at 
http://www.wac2011.it/wac2011eng/?page_id=24After flying last night the Czech's hosted beer and nibblies, after flying today the Spanish not-the-Spanish-Team is hosting.
Today it is cool and clear, light northerlies forecast, so the direction of flight is opposite what it has been.    The plan is to fly all Group I today, then stop and have tomorrow off before the 2nd Free Unknown.   Also, it has been briefed that only one warm-up pilot will fly - the Russian - and the French are not happy!
The 25% cut after Programmes 1 and 2 looks like being enforced, so 11 pilots will be dropped.   Paul has 7 behind him, Richard only two, so it is unlikely we will go through unless there are is some absolute carnage today, which seems unlikely.