Monday, August 29, 2011

WAC Training Terni

I'm still on the Grand Tour of Italy, but have been in contact with Paul and Richard

via text and skype this morning.
Temperatures in Italy have been pretty warm, with 38-40C in Rome and the lowland
areas. Hopefully it will be cooler north at Foligno for the comp. Weather has been
fantastic though, with very little cloud and light winds only.
The Team is flying regularly and yesterday had a practice in the competition box at
Foligno. Word is the box layout is OK from an orientation viewpoint. The training
airfield,Terni, is a tight runway and the surrounds are very hilly with few good
horizons. The rented Extra is running OK, but doesn't seem to have the performance
of Paul's 300S. The 4 blade prop and small spades make it handle and accelerate
differently, but the boys are adapting and compensating. The US Team and the South
Africans are also at Terni, and Rich and Paul have been assisting in some of their
maintenance issues. Generally a good bunch, with Rob Holland showing the way in
freestyle mode flying his MXS-RH. The SA Team, sharing the MXS-RH, have strugggled
a little with the aft CG Rob has set up. Today's plan was another run in the Foligno
box, and general airwork.
The Russians have had some technical issues which grounded them, thus freeing up box
slots. Rumour has it that the French were grounded after upsetting the locals at
their training field. Training will continue until Wednesday, with the opening
ceremony that night, competition starting the next day. Be sure to follow this blog,
as the primary means of communication, with key info being repeated on the AAC FB
page and AAC website.
Looking forward to it!

1 comment:

dean nesbitt said...

From all the guys back home at SAAA chapter 5 we wish the Ozi team all the best and will be reading Grants blogs to get the updates.
Good luck guys.