Still waiting...

There's a lot of "nervous energy" and impatience in the air.

At 8:30pm, everyone got tired of waiting for the online scores, which the competition director explicitly said would be updated at 8:00pm, exactly the same time as they're posted at the Competition Center. Everyone is driving up to the Competition Center right now to figure out what's going on. I suspect that the German team will be there as well..

UPDATE 10:10PM - Still no word or updates. I won't be checking again until about 4:30am, but maybe you can find out sooner from the official site: http://www.balloon2006worlds.com/results/HABWC06index.html

The waiting is the hardest part...

At tonight's briefing, they said that the latest scores would be posted online at 8:00pm. It's now 8:15pm, and still no update. Everyone is literally bunkered in a room clicking the Refresh button every 5 seconds:

The glow

Tonight there was a balloon glow on the front stretch of the Twin Ring Motegi oval track:


Special thanks to Andrew Nels for his help:

Task 28

Saturday evening, the last competition flight: a single JDG fly in from individual launch points in the flatlands west of Motegi

Nothing unusual, a typical evening fly in with light and shifting winds. Paul took off earlier than the rest of the Americans, primarily to assist the others with picking their launch sites. He ended up missing the field to the right, but many others did as well. However, Nick, Joe, and Johnny all scored on the field, so perhaps it worked.

Still no scores from this morning. They indicated that the next update would be at 8:00pm local, or 6:00am Michigan time. I'm guessing that will include this morning's tasks, but not this evening's. They'll probably wait until tomorrow's rewards to reveal the winner.

The balloon glow on the race track starts in about 45 minutes. We stopped by a convenience store on the way back to the hotel and spent 11,000 yen (about $100) on various beverages.

Just one picture tonight:

Your next World Champion?

Tasks 24, 25, 26, and 27

Saturday morning: PDG (pilot declared goal), JDG (judge declared goal), JDG (judge declared goal), FOT (pilot declared fly on) from a common launch site in Motegi

Preface: In an attempt to deal with the 4 or 5 pilots who have caused the incidents this week, the event director instituted a 600ft/min vertical speed limit for all pilots. Any excess of this limit over 30 seconds in length would result in a "reckless flying" penalty. Penalties for incidents that necessitated this limit have varied from 150 to 500 points.

Translation of preface for non-balloon people reading: Congratulations for making it to the last 20 laps of the Daytona 500. Because a couple drivers have caused accidents, for the first time ever we'll be enforcing a 55 mile per hour speed limit for all of you. We realize that you all qualified for this event by performing in a certain way, and that it was your understanding that you'd be able to continue under those parameters. We also understand that only a small percentage of you are having difficulty operating safely. However, rather than deal with these exception drivers appropriately on a case-by-case basis, we have no choice but to develop a policy that will be applied to all. Now let's go out there and see who the world's best driver is!

The winds this morning were very light. It took many pilots over an hour to go 3000 meters to their first pilot declared goal. By the time they got into the valley for the first of the judge declared goals, the winds had light and variable. Some pilots were able to salvage a good score (word is that Johnny did well), but many had to drop several hundred meters out in an effort to continue working on the other goals. The second judge declared marker had coordinates for the fly-on included, so recovery of that marker was crucial. That meant that some (including Paul) sacrificed any sort of maneuvering toward a very unlikely southern goal in favor of getting a recoverable marker on the ground and making some progress toward their final goal. Compounding all this was the time factor - most flights were 3.5 to 4 hours long, and goals closing was a motivating factor for many.

It's the kind of morning when median scores for some targets could be in the hundred or thousands of meters. That means that, as always, it's impossible to make any projections.

The briefing for the final flight is in 2 hours. Most likely it will be a 2 part task in the western flatlands. After that, we have a balloon glow on the race track and the Sionara Party. I'll certainly get an update posted before I go to bed, but it might not be right after the flight.

A BIG day...

Saturday brings the last day of competition for the event. This morning's flight will be big. Only 650 points separate the top 5. Less than 1000 points separate positions 6-10. And while the names in the final top 10 are probably relatively set, there's lots of opportunity for any individual pilot to gain (or lose) 1-3 positions based on today's results. The consensus is that we'll see 4-5 parts this morning and 2 parts this evening. There also some agreement that ending a world championship on an evening flight isn't the preferred method.

Everyone in our room was in bed by 9:00pm last night.

Of course, everyone wants to finish as high as they can as a personal achievement, but there's also a broader context to place today in. The results from this event will largely determine how many American positions are available for the 2008 Worlds in Austria. A 1-2-3 finish here by Team USA would allow something like 10 US pilots to make the trip in 2 years.

Imagine being Joe Zvada or Al Nels today. Joe was the 2006 BFA US National Rookie of the Year, finishing 5th in this year's Nationals. He's also here crewing for Paul Petrehn. Al is already a 2-time World Champion, finished 4th at this year's Nationals, and is the team manager ("coach") for this year's team. By and large, today will determine whether or they'll go to Austria and fly in the next Worlds.

Also, I'd again like to thank everyone for all their comments and feedback regarding my posts. I never imagined that the scope of the audience would be this large. The blog was conceived as a way to keep my family updated on what was happening here. As many of you know, I have 2 small children and a saint of a wife who actually encouraged me to make this trip. Google Talk has been a great tool, but the 14 hour time difference can make it hard to connect. The posts have allowed me to both relay practical information and feel like I'm sharing this experience with them in some fashion. It's worked quite well, and the fact that so many others are enjoying it is truly icing on the cake.

Like I said, today is a big day...