Day 4, PM Flight

Overcast conditions and ceilings of around 1000' prevailed throughout the day.  It wasn't until during the afternoon briefing that the clouds began to clear.  A double Hare & Hound was called consisting of two tasks with one hare balloon carrying two targets. The plan was for the lead balloon to land, drop a target, fly on, then land again to set the final goal.  Upon seeing the improving conditions, the Event Director gave some consideration to changing the tasks to those of a Judge Declared type.  However in the end the original call stuck, with Deputy Director David Levin flying the Hare (red balloon shown below).  Anticipating shifting winds and heavy traffic, Paul inflated quickly and was the first balloon in pursuit.  He scored well on both, throwing his marker into the middle of a not-yet-unfurled target on the second task.  But as evident in the photos below the pack followed, so performance relative to others will have to wait for the measurements to be published.  A couple miles downwind was a small village that contained the nicest landing site in all of Hungary - short grass and firm ground.  Several of the American balloons landed there.
           
Several photos above courtesy of Larry Coan.

The skies have cleared out tonight and it's pretty cold.  Some moisture has already formed in the air, so hopefully fog isn't a concern in the morning.  With only 3 flights left we're hopeful for many more tasks.

Earlier in the week the owner of the hotel indicated that he'd like to host a special dinner for us.  So after refueling everyone hurried back for an authentic multi-course European feast, the conclusion of which was palatschinke with chocolate sauce.

What Does This Mean?

Below are the controls for the light (left switch) and fan (right switch) in the bathrooms of our hotel:


And here's the international symbol for radiation:

Day 4, AM Flight (aka "More Practice Laying Out")

Last night's flight to the west resulted in several stories of difficult retrieval. At this morning's briefing the Event Director put a map on the screen showing the general locations where groups got stuck (including near our landing site, where we managed a retrieve without incident). In fact, some competitors spent the entire night getting themselves and their equipment back to town, with a few even missing the morning briefing. Those experiences, combined with morning winds in the same direction, prompted those setting the tasks to pull a fourth marker from today's first flight. What we were left with when the briefing opened was a 3-part objective: Judge Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal, Hesitation Waltz. The targets were relatively close together, which would presumably allow landings to take place before reaching those worst sites. As 120 competitors caravaned to the common launch field, the first signs of daylight yielded an unexpected site - a low cloud deck. By the time we reached the airport Brad and Al were reporting pibals lost in the clouds approximately 500' above ground. A very lengthy hold ensured, after which yet another black flag was raised. Another cancelled flight.

Last night's tasks were posted on the official notice board just prior the morning's briefing. They're not available online yet. Nick Donner (USA) is still in first place, approximately 300 points ahead of Johnny Petrehn (USA). The provisional overall showed that a Lithuanian pilot had passed Joe Heartsill (USA) for third, however Joe's 3D Task from the previous evening had been scored incorrectly. With that correction made he should return to 3rd place, about 10 points behind Johnny. Paul continued his climb, moving up to 29th.


Below are Paul's tracks and results so far. If you click on the graphic you'll get a larger version that's easier to decipher.  Where the track is blue he was descending (light = slower, dark = faster).  Where it's yellow (slower) or orange/red (faster) he was ascending.

	Flight 1 (Monday AM) Task 1 - Hesitation Waltz = 33.65m Task 2 - Land Run = 1.16km2 (winner = 7.36km2) Task 3 - Hesitation Waltz = 7.86m Task 4- Judge Declared Goal = 282m
	Flight 2 (Monday PM) Task 5 - Pilot Declared Goal = 19.93m Task 6 - 3D Shape Task (cylinder) = 9,041m (winner = 17,832m) Compare Paul's flight through the 3D area to the winner's (shown here).
	Flight 3 (Wednesday PM) Task 7 - Pilot Declared Goal = 87.81m Task 8 - 3D Shape Task (cake) = 10,734m (winner = 12,045m) The track points immediately west of the rings show Paul's ascent/decent to 8800' searching for winds that might take him back to the east (re-entering the 3D scoring area).

Day 3, PM Flight

Two tasks tonight. A Pilot Declared Goal was first, with four pre-determined intersections to choose from.  Unlike the in the US, pilots here aren't challenged to choose their own spot on the map for PDG tasks.  The Director provides a very limited selection (usually 3-4) to choose from.  It ends up being like a Hesitation Waltz where you need to declare your target before taking off.  And on that note, all the declarations here need to be in before the green flag, not before an individual's take off.  When asked about this, the Event Director indicated that it's done this way so that pilots who choose to launch later don't have an advantage by watching those taking off ahead of them before choosing a goal.  It's one reason why common launch areas are used more.  In a situation like tonight where the launch time unknown, pilots are given just 5 minutes warning (the yellow flag time period) that their declarations are due.  So everyone is always running to the signals point to turn in a sheet.

The second task was a 3D Shape Task of the wedding-cake variety.  The bottom layer was a bit "thicker" than usual, rising from the surface to 3000' MSL.  The second layer spanned 3000' to 3500', with the top section reaching 4000' MSL.  Al and Brad earned every dollar of their salaries tonight, monitoring the shifting winds and providing data that allowed the whole team to change to a more appropriate PDG/3DT combo just minutes before the declaration period closed.

On the ground, the chase was probably more interesting than the flight.  Erica and I personally witnessed one vehicle accident (spectator car to balloon trailer), one red PZ violation, one yellow PZ violation, a pilot wearing a helmet land in 8' tall corn, and about a dozen vehicles stuck in the mud.  It's amazing what some people think is passable with a van.  We got to do a little mud-running on the retrieve, but nothing close to getting stuck.  However I bet I drove 2-3 miles in reverse tonight.  Oh, and we ate some trail mix.



Tomorrow morning will be busy, 5-6 tasks. Paul might actually break into his fourth tank.  Setting the alarm at 4:00am for the fourth day in a row, but today for the first time I actually took a nap (about 60 minutes total).

Up Next: Wednesday PM Briefing

The winds have calmed down and everything looks good for a flight tonight. It's pretty warm here - I have shorts on.  Hopefully this weather holds for the rest of the event.  20 more tasks isn't out of the question.

The photo at left is of the Debrecen University arena where the briefings are held.  It's fine, but it's certainly not the DeVos Fieldhouse.

Day 3, AM Flight (aka "A Chance to Practice Laying Out")

This morning's briefing started with five tasks on the sheet: Judge Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal, Hesitation Waltz, 3D Shape Task (pilot declared wedding cake). After receiving "input" from a few competitors the Event Director elected to cancel the Hesitation Waltz portion. The common launch area would be the same airport area that had been used for the previous two competition flights and all drops would be gravity. After another outstanding police escort teams began laying out in the somewhat breezy (and cold!) conditions. Despite reports from Al and Brad of multiple slow layers at altitude, as the minutes clicked off the surface movement continued to pick up. It appeared that inflations would be "sporty". Unfortunately we never got the chance to find out as the black flag was eventually raised signaling the cancellation of the morning's flight.


Our assigned launch position at the airport was moved from near the perimeter of the property to more in the center. We got a very good look at the earth-covered hangers, 8 or 10 of which lace the facility. After the photo below was taken a helicopter was towed out. The gray doors on the front are at least 48" thick.


The current standings can be viewed by clicking here. After six tasks Nick Donner (USA) is in first, Johnny Petrehn (USA) is in second, and Joe Heartsill (USA) is in third. Paul is in 39th out of 118, 1000 points out of the top 10. We need more tasks.

I have no idea what we'll do to kill time this morning. Afternoon briefing is at 2:45pm.

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.