A Championship Dinner

A tradition that dates back over 10 years, tonight the ~35 Americans associated with the event (and a couple international guests) gathered for dinner. The site was the Belgian Beer Café in downtown Debrecen.

Day 2, PM Flight (aka "Early Dinner")

No flight tonight.  The rain persists.  The forecast for the morning: drier, but perhaps windy

This was put on the video screen during the briefing. It's a track through last night's "donut" 3D Task, presumably one yielding a good result. However it's not an American track, as all of Team USA selected a different PDG than this competitor (we used PDG1 as shown on the graphic, this track scored on PDG2).  Click on the image to see a full-sized version where you can better distinguish the inner and outer circles.


One very nice aspect of the flight briefings is that there is plenty of seating for crew. There's an inner "cage" where a only pilot and one crew person is allowed, but outside of that there's bleacher-type seating for hundreds of others. A sound system is used that allows everyone to hear very clearly, and wireless microphones are passed around for the pilots to use when asking questions. This is unlike some other events where those "not at the table" are not privy to the information conveyed.

Rainy Day Lunch

The owner of the hotel had the restaurant make a special Hungarian lunch for the Americans today: caraway seed soup and mincemeat stuffed cabbage. It was excellent, enjoyed by all.


Outside of the food, the highlight of the afternoon was Owen-san (aka "The Gloved One") making an appearance in the restaurant, shown here with his number one fan:


It's raining right now, harder than at any point throughout the day.  They just kicked us out of the briefing "cage" and started putting down weather sheets.  Brad's being optimistic, putting the chance of a flight at 20%.

Random Photos II

	One of the really cool things about our hotel is that it's in a neighborhood. It's the large building on the right side of this photo. There are houses right across the street.  Most teams chose lodging in town closer to the Competition Center, but all of Team USA is here.  The gentleman that owns the establishment works here every day; they've been very accommodating of the "peculiarities" that balloonists bring with them.
	The hotel has a great restaurant, we've eaten there several times already. Last night I had a tonfish (tuna) salad. The bar serves 400 HUF($2 USD) tall beers and glasses of wine every day. In Hungary it's often cheaper to drink beer than soda.
	There's always a variety of desert-type selection in the display case at the hotel. Erica and Bonnie are working their way through them one at a time, although it may be a losing battle as the selection changes daily. I haven't purchased anything myself, but everyone who has says they're not as sweet as what they'd expected.
	Just down the road a couple hundred feet is a grocery store. Several of us frequent it daily. They have a bakery, a deli, and fresh fruit. Plus they tolerate our lack of familiarity with Hungarian shopping protocol. For example, here you weigh your own fresh fruit and print out a barcoded label. When we neglected to do that, they didn't complain too much about doing it for us.
	About a half mile away is an Aldi. I've never been to one in the US, but if they sell the little chocolate balls with rum inside them (this one does), I'll probably start going there more often.
	During the chases we live on Sam's Club house brand trail mix. It's been an overseas dietary staple since we went to Japan in 2006, and there's always one in our vehicle. This is a 3-pound bag, and Erica brought three bags over. So far we've gone through 1½ bags, so we're pacing ourselves pretty well. We also have a wide variety of energy/fiber/granola bars on hand.
	Most pilots here are using trailers, both open and closet. Many of the teams that couldn't drive here (like Australia, Japan, and the US) are using cargo vans, storing the equipment inside. Johnny is the only one using a pickup truck, which is of course very common in the US. There are no 15-passenger vans with hydraulic lift gates here.
	This is what the inside of our van looks like. The envelope bag is sitting on the orange pallet that was used to air-freight the entire setup. It's a cargo van, so there's a wall between the passengers and the back. The fan we're borrowing was sold to a pilot from Slovenian by Cameron Balloons US after we used it at the Austrian Worlds in 2006. It's made by Ken Tadolini and is the best fan I've ever used. It has a 6hp Honda motor, a multi-wing adjustable prop, and wheel locks. It inflates a ZL-60 straight out of the bag (no spreading by hand) in just a couple minutes. Officially on my Christmas list.

Day 2, AM Flight (aka "Sleeping In")

They asked us to make our banner
numbers more distinct.  We used blue
duct tape.  I wonder if this will affect
the ability to get the deposit back?

The Tuesday morning flight has been cancelled.  The call came at around 4:15am, just as I was getting out of the shower.  It's raining and will continue to do so for awhile.  This is despite the fact that yesterday afternoon the weather officer's briefing indicated that this morning should be very much like yesterday.  I believe everyone from Team USA is still asleep.

There's still no scores posted on the event website, and the official notice board at the competition center is a 15 minute drive.  It would be cool if the scores (including provisional) could be posted online at the same time they're stapled to a board somewhere.  Transparency and dissemination.  And the same with task sheets.  They're already copying 250 pieces of paper, so it's conceivable that one could be made available online at the precise moment that information is available in the physical briefing area.

As it stands right now when the briefing doors open Paul and I go to our table, then I take one of our two task sheets and walk it out to Erica so she, Larry, and Andrew can see what's happening and get the necessary info into their devices.  If the sheet is online not only does that process get easier but the whole world can then see what's going on.  If people are interested in following our sport, this could cultivate that.

Supposedly pilots here are going to be able to download their official track after each flight using a password-secured website.  We were previously told that instructions would be distributed yesterday, but they were not.  Hopefully that will be setup today, because it's definitely a step in the right direction - especially if the data is available within the protest window for a given task.

I will conceded that both the posting of scores and task sheets has been a challenge for events everywhere, so maybe I'm missing something.   The Austrian Worlds in 2008 did a great job of putting both online in a very timely manner.

Apparently there was an issue with propane last night, something about the event only allowing 3 tanks to be filled per balloon. After the morning flight they actually ran out of fuel, meaning that some competitors (including Johnny Petrehn) didn't get their tanks filled until just before the evening briefing.

Monday PM common launch field.

Impossible to avoid.

There's a couple of these here.

Monday PM refueling = 1 hour

So far we've used the same common launch area for both flights.  It's an airport south of town, less than a mile from our hotel.  However it's several miles from where the briefings are held, with a drive right through town required.  For both flights we've had "police escorts", which actually means officers are stationed at nearly every intersection between the two locations stopping traffic.  It's an amazing process, especially considering that's it's rush hour (both morning and evening) when it happens.  Really cool, like being part of a 50mph parade.

And speaking of the Debrecen airport, it's an old Soviet military base that was vacated in May 1991.  The city owns it now.  It doesn't appear to be very busy, but there's still these giant earth-covered hangers there - they look like 40' tall speed bumps.  And the coolest part is the giant radar system that still operates on the east side of the property.  It's an absolutely massive set of structures, and when it's in operation it's like a house sitting on a turntable - this huge thing spinning around really fast.  The system must not be too important though, because yesterday when the event officials suspected it was causing problems with the loggers a couple calls were made and just like that it's now going to be shut off when we fly from there.  I'm going to try to get a picture or some video of the whole thing, because it's like a history lesson.  And apparently the neighborhood that our hotel is in (just northeast of the airport) was military barracks for the base.

The chasing here is something else.  I've never been in a place where so many roads that are supposed to exist either don't or are nothing more than a farm trail.  Japan was a bit like this, but there a difference in road quality was usually indicated on the map.  In many cases a paved road and a two-track show up the same - both on the Nuvi GPS and the competition map.  And there's these new, modern, concrete bridges over the highway that go from one farm field to another, many with no way to get to them because either the connecting roads are too muddy right now or aren't drivable even in good weather.  Fortunately while I'm driving Erica is sitting the passenger seat with a moving-map laptop telling me where to go, so finding an alternate route (or in the case of yesterday morning 5 alternate routes) isn't a problem.

It's funny, when I try to spell-check these Blogger posts every word shows up as being incorrect because I'm not typing in Hungarian...

Day 1, PM Flight

A two-task evening: Pilot Declared Goal and 3D Task.  For the PDG competitors had to pick between three provided targets.  However, unlike a Hesitation Waltz each had to declare the goal she/he would be scored to prior to launch.  The 3D Task was a cylinder shape that extended from the surface to the blue PZ at 9000 MSL, with the goal being to fly as much distance within as possible.  Each pilot declared the center of his own cylinder, which could be placed anywhere on the map.  I believe that most (including all of Team USA) defined their cylinder such that the PDG was within the scoring area, and set it up so that they entered it very soon after take off.  The Americans did a good job of "bending" their flight around the donut-shape, including ascents to 8500+ feet.  However, the word is that some German pilots had incredible tracks, weaving back-and-forth through nearly half the shape.

Of the six tasks flown on the first day, only 3 have scores posted as of now.  So there's no way to tell who is doing well yet.  And it's especially unfortunate that no results have yet been posted to the event's website, despite the fact that they've been on the notice board for 10+ hours.  At the Austria Worlds of 2008 they excelled at having both the task sheets and scores posted online at nearly the same time as they were on the official board, and it's hard to believe that 2 years later we're taking a step backward...

Unfortunately I can't get a single photo to upload tonight.  The competition center has decent wireless, but if I don't have time to work there I have to rely on the hotel.  I'll try to catch-up tomorrow.

It looks flyable in the morning.  Today Paul and I guessed nearly every task call correctly, and my predication for tomorrow is four Judge-Declared variants and either an Angle or an Elbow.

Gas

Refueling here in Hungary is done at an stadium near the local university.  As you sit in line on the street waiting to enter, there a zoo right next to you.  Giraffes and monkeys are close enough that you can see them, and at night strange noises emanate from within.  It's not clear how old the facility is, but the juxaposition of the rubberazed track and shiny John Deere tractor with the bleachers is interesting.  The photo below shows the "premium" seating with wood surfaces - in the corners it's just cinder steps.  Like many overseas events we have to remove our tanks from the basket and haul them into the refueling area.  However, unlike Austria and Japan we fill them ourselves.  They have four large holding tanks, each with a manifold setup consisting of 12 Cameron-style fittings.  Today it took us 1 hour and 10 minutes from the time we got in the line until the time we pulled out.  After a quick lunch (in the hotel room, chips/salsa and a turkey/cheese sandwich) we're now getting ready to head back out to the 2:45pm evening briefing.

 

Day 1, AM Flight

Hesitation Waltz, Land Run Task, Hesitation Waltz, Judge Declared Goal from a common launch area and flown in any order. We took off on the south side of town, then flew north and northwest. Driving through the morning rush hour really slowed Erica and me down. Fortunately Larry and Andrew (in the lead vehicle) were able to assist at all the targets. When our van finally did get in the area of the balloons we had trouble finding a "road" that was passable (photo below was what the Nuvi said to do).  The Americans got lots of markers on the ground, but there's tales of some killer Land Run results by others.  Need fight for fuel with 118 other balloons, then get some dry shoes and be ready for a 2:45pm briefing.  We're going to try to get some lunch in there as well, but it might be trail mix and water.  Probably two more tasks tonight would be my guess, but who knows...

Random Photos

The Palma Pub in Debrecen, a dining
establishment we've frequented
several times.

Several members of Team USA
having dinner at the Palma Pub.

The chase vehicle setup for
a team from Estonia.  Honest.

There's a €40 ($55 USD) deposit
 for these basket banners. Honest.

Better Than Taking a Nap

The Master Briefing has concluded.  For the purpose of comparison, the duration was 1 hour, 45 minutes.  During the event the morning briefings will start at 5:45am, with doors opening 15 minutes prior (sunrise 6:34am).  The evening session begins at 2:45pm, doors open at 2:30pm (sunset 6:09pm).  Thus we'll leave the hotel at 5:00am and 1:45pm.  Officially there are 118 competitors.  During the briefing Event Director Mathijs de Bruijn took a vote asking in what units pilots would prefer the data to be presented in.  Winds will be TO, altitude in FEET, speed in METERS PER SECOND, and and so on.  Otherwise it was a fairly standard briefing.  The weather officer indicated that there are no storms or high winds expected this week  There's a chance of showers on Tuesday, and in general fog shouldn't be a problem.

The briefing area is in a large arena at the local university.  I believe that the original intent was to use the entire floor area.  However in the end we have only a portion of it, as the facility is also setup for team handball.  And it appears that there's a game tonight, as a crew of 10 worked to clean the floor throughout the entire briefing.  Only one crew person is allowed inside the "fence" with the pilot, but there is seating in the bleachers for others.  There's just a single 6' gate through which everyone must enter and exit, so ~240 people trying to rush out at the conclusion of a meeting will be a good time.

The final practice flight of the event is scheduled for this evening.  However Paul isn't going to fly, and I don't believe any other Americans will either.  We'll have a good dinner, refuel the balloon, and get a good night's rest.  The 4:00am alarm will come early tomorrow.

Still More Practice

Another practice flight this morning:
    

We're heading to the Master Briefing now.  Everyone is very much looking forward to (finally) starting the event.