Flagman GO, GO, Flagman GO!

I just didn't have the energy to update anything yesterday. So here is something that has been going on...

We finished the Frees yesterday and started the 1st unknowns today. Got up to 40 pilots, which is a good amount, since a bit of time was spent to the video checks during breaks. Since the programs flown today, were unknowns, there was unfortunately some mistakes in some flights and we had to make sure what happened after the flight from video.

We haven't had much of a breaks from judging, today we managed to get 40 flights done, yesterday 50 or so.. that is A LOT! So we've heard this FLAGMAN GO-call several times, it is always the Chief Judge who gives the permission to flagman to send the next pilot up when the previous ends the program and joins the downwind for landing.

Tomorrow in the morning we'll hopefully get the 1st unknowns done and then after lunch start the 2nd unknowns. Tomorrow evening we'll have also a Aqua party, so we'll see. Could be fun!

Here is few photos to end todays report too...

The muddy afternoon (eastern judging position), during a small rain... 

It didn't rain for long, but... 

there was a lot of rain at that short time! :D

 

The German team had some kind of photo shoot, so I of course used the opportunity too :D

Had a break today in the red bull tent after lunch. Well, got myself about 5 minutes but I really like this with sofas and everything!

A view from the eastern judging position, this is next to the corn field and is in use during the mornings. 

South judging line, this was in use yesterday the whole day, and the view to the airport is nice!

 

Chief judges tent...

And here we go with Free warm up pilot!

And you can really see and hear the planes taking off and landing! 

The best place to judge - definately!

Every cloud has a silver lining... This was the nice ending for today...

I didn't think I'd say this, but...

man it was hot today! (I'm not complaining tho!) Twice I poured a bottle of water on my head. Seriously. And once some coffee, but I don't recommend that.

We judged 45 flights today, that equals about 405 figures with a total of 15000 different things to say and judge. Must say, I am glad that I m just an assistant...

so, without any further speeches, I am going to bed. Known was finished today so we start with the frees... I would have appreciated them as a "night time study material", but no, must adopt all of the information of all of the flights and all of the figures just before they are flown. Now I will go stand in front of the mirror and keep repeating "I can do this, I can do this"...

Muddy afternoon!

35 flights down, well, actually 34 since one pilot had to come down due low cloud base and is now somewhere down the end. Or tomorrow morning, who knows. We saw some very nice flights, and some not so good, but no bad mistakes anywhere. And that I like. It is so much easier to work as a judge if the pilots are flying correctly. But dear Lord if they miss a figure or turn the wrong way. Then all hell breaks loose. Sorry for the expression, but so it feels. Power aerobatics is so fast and quick that you need to be alerted alllll the time.

Must say, it was a really warm day. In the afternoon we got also some rain. And the field where we're sitting turned into a smelly, muddy field. Well, not that bad, since the rain didn't last for long, but I seriously thought that there was a mistake in the contest program and the Aquaparty was today, not on the 1st as planned...

Sorry for the bad quality, but this was taken with my phone from under the parasol, and I was also trying to protect all still at least remotely dry things... :D

Anyway, after the contest day we had a dinner at the briefing tent and then a German evening, with some delicious dried ham and different types of cheese. And some wine. Finally got back to the hotel and took a looooong shower, it felt like the ants from the field were still crawling on my legs. Besides, I got bitten twice, I don't know by what but it itches like ****. 

Now I think it is time to get some sleep, breakfast at 6:30 and briefing at 8:00. Again.

Opening ceremonies

No flying today, due low cloud base. Well, some, but only for training, and calibrating judges. Eventually today, after several hours sitting, waiting and just hanging around, we were told to get ourselves to the judging line for some training. Before that, there was one briefing, which was held in a huge tent, that is also used as a restaurant at the airfield.

Anyway, after drawing the lots (we weren't there at that time, but drinking coffee and snoozing off at the judges lounge) there was more waiting, a lunch and finally after that we were called to the judging line. We got few practice flights and then to the hotel to get ready for the opening ceremonies.

We were transported to the city center where there was all these festivities with a marching band, a group of cheerleaders, a lot of speeches and a dinner. I will upload few photos from today here, so to keep things shorts, here we go....

The briefing tent - before drawing the lots

'

our judging line, with very nice chairs and parasols!

This will be my and Kimmos place for the next week

And next to us, the father-daughter combination from Hungary :)

Shuttle bus from the airfield to the hotel

Just before the opening ceremonies

The other Finnish judges, Timo & Tuula Bartholdi

Overall view, about to march to the openings... 

sorry for the horizon :D

Pilots and officials, line up!!!

Just a bit of audience! 

Nice speaches, nice people, nice weather... can't really hope for anything more. Well, can, but I won't!  (Like winning the lottery) :D

Arrival

It has been a long day. And I mean really long.

After finnishing the Nordics, I went back home for a few days. Doing the laundry, taking care of things, having my daughter back home for few days, sleeping...

This morning, about 00:40 I started my journey to Hungary. I took a bus from Pori to Helsinki (slept a few hours in a bus!!!), spent a few hours at the airfield doing the CIVA judges evaluation test, then took a flight to Budapest (and with a nice twist, our friend, one of the aerobatic pilots and our trainer was in the cockpit) and then 3 hours to Nyiregyhaza (again slept a bit, but not much due to 2 large coffees, 3 shots of  espresso and 3 redbulls), to the contest site.

We had a brief judging seminar, went to check out the judging line and then came the rain. And the thunder.
The weather is really nice, warm, humid and so on, can't really complain. Since it has been so cold in Finland.

Afterwards we had a long dinner at the hotel (which by the way, is very nice), few drinks and now I think is time to get to bed. Man, I am tired.

Breakfast 6:45, transportations 7:20 and 7:40 so, briefing at 8:00 am...

it's been rather busy...

First of all, sorry for not updating things here in few days...

It has been rather busy, since we finally got the weather for flying. We finnished the power contest in one day, which was a very good thing! You can find the results here.
After the contest, we had a nice price giving ceremonies followed by a rather cool - and long dinner.

Then the power guys went home and the glider guys came here.

On thursday we had a very nice weather for training flights, and friday morning we had briefing again at 8:00. We had to wait for a few hours for the clouds to dry out and cloud base rise high enough and then we started the contest flights, first with knowns and then with free programs. I was calling the figures to the danish judge, since his assistant left back home with the power team. That was good practise for next year.  Although a bit challenging since all the calling was to be made in english.

Well, we managed to fly 2 rounds today, so tomorrow we're going to fly the unknowns, starting with briefing at 9:00. The results are here, almost in real time...  and we'll have nice time to get ready for the closing ceremonies tomorrow evening.

You know, this is a lot of work. But I am loving every moment of it.

It's raining men, hallelujah

The weather is keeping us from flying, so few pilots went sightseeing to Turku, and the rest of the people just spreaded out like a flock of birds. Good day for sightseeing, relaxing, reading, and socialising.

I got a lot of office work done, and the SMS-system seems to be working mostly. Few typing errors have already been detected but other than that, works fine.

In the evening we got the last pilot here, he arrived all the way from Norway. Now we have pilots from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark! Excellent! 16 all together for Power.

Tomorrows weather forecast seems quite well, so briefing is at 8 am and we're going to fly!

So, hopefully a lot of flights!!!

First contest day

Yesterday was a good training for the pilots, and judges also had a lot of work checking the free programs and getting things ready.

Today was the first contest day and we actually managed to get one (1) flight done, the weather is giving us a lot of troubles. Clouds keep hanging too low and it has been raining almost all day...

We have almost everyone here, except still waiting for one Norwegian pilot to arrive. We'll see if it ever works, since the bad weather is basically all over Scandinavia. And it is cold. For tomorrow, the weather doesn't look too good either, but that allows me to do some office work and things ready for the Glider contest starting on the 20th.

Today I got help to the contest office, Mia started today and is a big help. Also one of the judges assistants, Tuula, is a VERY big help, since she made all the folders for judges ready before the contest. That is just not an easy job.

Nice thing too, we got some publicity. A few days ago, a local news paper Aamuset wrote an article about the contest.Today Turun Sanomat wrote an article about how the weather is giving us hard time, the link is here, but it is only in finnish. 

It has been very busy 1,5 weeks for me, but I am not complaining. Au contraire my friend, I enjoy this work very much. And there is one good thing about a rainy day. It allows you to get some sleep at decent time... well, decent and decent, but before 2am. Luckily also the weather report says, that our next briefing is at 10:00 am. So now I have some time to catch at least some sleep :)




So, untill tomorrow. 

2 down 3 to go...

Midnight sun air show and Jämi flyin & airshow are happily behind us, both were nice and fine airshows as always. Worked in both of them, volunteer as always. A lot of work and I would do it again any minute!

Actually, I am doing it all over again... After Jämi I moved myself, my car and all my stuff to Oripää, to get the Nordic Aerobatic Championships ready. Nordics is always organised in turns with Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Last year it was Norway, next year is going to be Denmark.

We started preparations last winter already, and we have received so far over 30 entries. Unfortunately also few cancellations due to technical, meteorological, medical or financial reasons. Things happen, no can do. I was hoping to see all the nordic pilots in Oripää, but you can't always get everything.

We have already some finnish pilots here, as well as danish and swedish. Also the swedish judges have arrived and tomorrow we can expect the Chief Judge to arrive. Maybe also some finnish judges and other organisation. This past few days have been really busy. I have been setting the contest office up, cleaning up the cottages and campers for the people accommodating here, cooking evening meal for people since the airfield restaurant will be open this evening, shopping, arranging accommodations outside the airfield, etc. etc.

Now we're having breakfast, press conference, training, cleaning, printing, checking papers etc etc. day. So, I'll get back to you later!

and btw, 3 to go... Nordics as a contest director, World Advanced Aerobatic championships in Hungary as an assistant judge and World Glider Aerobatic Championships in Slovakia as an observer. Huh.