Day 5, PM Flight

A three-task evening from a common launch site was on the menu for tonight. Another wedding-cake variety 3-D Shape Task followed by two Hesitation Waltz tasks. Gravity drops were called for each (except the logger-scored 3D task) and as usual the tasks could be flown in any order. So the question was where to put the 3D goal - before the Hesitation Waltz's or after. Team USA opted to put them after, which made for uninterrupted approaches to the marker tasks. Paul, Johnny and Nick were all able to make it into the top layer of the cake. On nights like this it's impossible to tell how one scored relative to the field, so I'll avoid making any predictions.


Tomorrow morning is the final flight of the event.  Because the awards aren't until Sunday, we should be able to run a full slate of tasks (4-5?) and avoid the use of limited-area scoring.

We've now flown 13 tasks, 4 in the morning and 9 in the evening.  Strange.

Updated Results

Updated results are now posted (click here). Team USA retains position 1, 2 and 3, with a 1000 point spread to the 4th spot. Paul is now in 21st, with the top-10 still within striking distance (assuming we get 5-7 more tasks in).

Random Photos III - Grocery Store Edition

After returning to the hotel this morning I took a walk down to the local SPAR grocery store. Here's some of what I bought:

	Croissants are good.  Chocolate pudding is good.  Why not fill one with the other?  The answer to a problem that doesn't exist.  Cost = $0.75 USD.  They also have vanilla and strawberry pudding varieties, as well as pudding-filled muffins.
	There are all kinds of fresh-baked items available.  This one is a soft bread with bacon and melted cheese on top.  You'll notice the two bites - I ate part of it while walking back to the hotel.  Cost = $0.80 USD
	Focaccia bread with cheese and lots of herbs.  Cost = $0.60 USD
	Pear juice is common here.  So is peach juice.  Cost = $1.00 USD
	More of my favorite European candy.  Breaks the bank at $2 USD per bag.
	Here's a line-up of all the Hungarian coins that I've come across.  On the left is a 200 HUF (Hungarian Forint) piece, worth about $1 USD.  Next to it is a 100 HUF.  Both are two-tone, which makes it easy to quickly tell the "big" coins from the small ones.  They proceed down through the 5 HUF coin, worth about half a US penny.  As in other countries, the use of coins here is more prevalent than in the US.  The smalled denomination of bill is 500 HUF ($2.50 USD), so lots of transactions are made using only coins.

Day 5, AM Flight (aka "Mornings Bad, Evenings Good")

It's windy at the hotel right now, an hour before the 5:30am briefing. We'll have to wait and see what happens...

UPDATE: It's 10 minutes after my initial post above and it's gotten even more breezy. Brad just handed me a forecast saying it was going to be 35 degrees at sunrise, 22kph at 300 AGL.

UPDATE: 15 minutes before briefing and the conditions at the Competition Center are the same. Not necessarily un-flyable, but more wind than we've seen so far. No markers on the tables and no event officials or staff walking around.

UPDATE: Briefing area open, no markers. Just a weather sheet with pibal readings of 15k on the surface. They'll start speaking at 5:45am.

FINAL UPDATE: Flight officially cancelled. The weather officer is reporting that it should be flyable this afternoon. So far 6 of the 10 tasks have been in the evening. No scores from yesterday evening have been posted yet. You can check for them by clicking here.

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