Out of the rack at 7 a.m and joined the rest of the folks for breakfast. The weather was going to be an issue as we could not see past the edge of the side yard. Low cloud, fog & drizzle enveloped the house.
Harry was having connection problems with his new provider and was hunting down the problem… router reset etc. In the meantime Master Chief Marko Mechanico created a great scrambled egg dish that we all enjoyed. I handle the toast prep under the watchful eyes of Chef Marko. “Toast ready?” he asked..... “Yes Chef” I barked back.
With the vans loaded up we headed north to the Lindsay field with some trepidation. The weather was poor at best for our purposes but we hoped for a break later in the day.
Ivan and Diane Kristiansen, along with Chad Northeast arrived in their beautiful Dutch Star Motor coach. They had to do some maneuvering to get down the access road and into the parking lot but Ivan made it look easy. The Honda van, loaded with pattern planes, made for the ultimate tow vehicle behind the RV. Hope my wife doesn’t see the pictures!
Xavier Mouraux & Dezso Vaghy also arrived and we spent an hour or so under the canopy catching up on news and travel exploits. The weather improved little so they head into town for lunch. Richard Vignealt and his wife also arrived from Sept Iles QC but headed out after surveying the weather from the comfort of their van.
We hung out at the field and rested in the van awaiting the weather to lift. Our mini van has a neat back up camera built into the dash… check out this shot.
We had a nice visit with Ivan and Diane in their motor coach. I even had a little tour and was most impressed with the layout of the RV.
The skies eventually started to clear and Mark was the first one up after weighing his plane numerous times. The ceiling was still low so, after disappearing on a vertical, he opted for some trim pass and “lower air work”. Everyone else started to assemble planes and prep for some practice rounds.
With all the flyers present it was suggested to fly two flight lines but after some discussion we elected to just fly one. Everyone was ready and the flights progressed smoothly. Ivan had an issue with a bad lead on one of his stab servos and needed some repair time. Once fixed, he took to the skies and we all enjoyed seeing him back flying pattern again. He still has the hands!
I flew two practice rounds and Mark managed another 2 as well. The guys are all stoked for the competition tomorrow and a few had game faces on. It will be fun if nothing else!
We headed back to Harry’s place to prep dinner for everyone as we were preparing BBQ hamburgers with sweet potato (yam) fries. Charging was all done so its off to the rack for all of us… up at 6 tomorrow!
More pictures posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/Dave.Reaville/CanadianNationalsAndTeamTrials.
