Tonight Al arranged for all the Americans here (pilots, crews, observers, and officials - over 40 people total) to have an "American" dinner and a local restaurant called Raimu. The menu included:
Here are the top 10 after tasks 1-23 (with total points included):
1 PETREHN, John USA 17866
2 HEARTSILL, Joe USA 17814
3 DONNER, Nick USA 17484
4 SCHNEIDER, Uwe GER 17235
5 MIZUKAMI, Takao JPN 17216
6 KOSTIUSKEVICIUS, Rimas LTU 16214
7 BOLZE, Stephane FRA 15808
8 MESSINES, Francois FRA 15782
9 PETREHN, Paul USA 15487
10 ENDO, Mamoru JPN 15299
For complete results: http://www.balloon2006worlds.com/results/HABWC06index.html
With a little time to spare before our Thanksgiving dinner, here's some random pictures from the past week.
First by popular demand, some more of Al Nels (Team Manager) and his group:
Next a couple of Maury Petrehn sumo wrestling some Japanese baseball players:
And finally, here's a homeless Johnny Petrehn and Nick Donner (their teams had to switch hotels multiple times this week as well) hanging out in the lobby waiting for the evening briefing:
I can't help but wonder if the participants in the World Poker Championship have to spend their time between games sitting on a hotel lobby floor checking e-mail and Skype'ing because they're changing hotels for the 3rd time...
Friday evening's flight was cancelled due to surface winds that were forecast to be 15 knots at sunset. For the first time this week, Al and his gang relaxed:
Joe checked the scores:
But the results of morning's flight still haven't been posted.
There have been a few mid-air incidents this week, including one that resulted in significant envelope damage. No one was hurt, and none of the US pilots were involved in any way. However as a result, the event director has indicated that the remaining flights will likely bring an absolute limit on ascent and decent rates (possibly 600 ft/min) to be enforced using data from the GPS loggers. Pilot opinion is falling on both sides of the issue, with some being more vocal than others regarding the possible new rule.
Tonight all the Americans are going to a belated Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant here in Motegi.
A four part task from individual launch sites in the Motegi area was presented for Friday morning: FIN (judge-declared fly in), JDG (judge-declared goal), FON (pilot declared goal), FON (pilot declared goal)
Nothing tricky about the tasks or planning on this one. However the winds above were on the quick side (40 kmph+), so coming over the ridges and into the calmer winds in the valleys presented some challenge. Each member of Team USA dropped in the measured areas of the first 2 tasks, and all markers were recovered (important because of the provisional coordinated written on the tails). We only had to go tracking through the bamboo for a couple. Some other teams are going to have problems this morning though, as many were still searching when we left. On the way to find one of Johnny's markers on a thick bamboo-covered hillside, we saw at least 4 other markers dangling in trees and bushes.
They're saying the weather looks good for the rest of the event. There's 3 more competition flights left (tonight, Saturday morning, Saturday evening), then a separate "prize flight" on Sunday. There's an optional glow on the race track tomorrow (Saturday) night, and believe it or not we actually signed up for it. They pay 2,000 yen to glow (about $200), but the real reason is that Joe gets to drive our chase vehicle around the track.
Because we had to check out of our temporary hotel this morning:
We're now homeless until after this evening's flight. They're VERY strict on check-in times here. A posted time of 3:00pm does not mean 2:30pm or even 2:55pm. It's not so bad though, because we need to leave Motegi by 1:00pm or so for the 2:00pm briefing in Haga Town. It will be nice to get up tomorrow morning at a leisurely 4:15am and only have to drive 5 minutes to briefing.
Here are the top 10 after tasks 1-19:
1 DONNER, Nick USA
2 PETREHN, John USA
3 HEARTSILL, Joe USA
4 SCHNEIDER, Uwe GER
5 MESSINES, Francois FRA
6 MIZUKAMI, Takao JPN
7 BOLZE, Stephane FRA
8 KOSTIUSKEVICIUS, Rimas LTU
9 PETREHN, Paul USA
10 GIBBS, Paul AUS
For complete results: http://www.balloon2006worlds.com/results/HABWC06index.html
These include all the tasks we've flown so far. Not a significant shake-up like I'd thought, but more shifting around of the same names. The top 4 have separated themselves from the rest by 1000 points or so.
Today looks like another decent morning.