Arrived back home yesterday evening and have now recovered from the trip so it's time for the last entry.

The closing ceremony was a typically OTT affair. Speaches in Romanian from the local mayor as well as FAI officials, Emil Geisendaner, Robbie Robrecht and Sandy Pimenoff (excuse spellings for each fo these!!). The winners all received cups, certificates and medals. We then had the Romanian National Anthem and the FAI anthem which ended the 11th Electric World Championships.

In the evening we were gathered in one of the nicer hotels outside the city for the banquet. I didn't take my camera but maybe someone who did can add a few photos here. There was unlimited beer, wine and vodka and I'm sure many will have woken up with sore heads. If the alcohol didn't cause this some of the local talent might have!! We were 'treated' to some traditional singing and for most of our western ears it was a painful experience. Midway through the show we had a shockflyer interlude when one of the young German F5D pilots took centre stage. I'd imagine this was quite nerve-wracking, flying in a relatively small space with everyone watching. He didn't show off but did some hovering, torque rolls and a few knife edge passes before catching his model to finish. The singing then started again and most of us hoped he had another battery on charge - but we were to be disappointed!

My trip home was a little bit of a drama. We got lost in Bucharest and spend over an hour trying...Continue Reading

It's all over now except for the closing ceremony and the banquet this evening. There were no surprises today and very few dramas. We had the scores posted at the start of the day for rounds 1 to 7 and it looked like it would be virtually impossible to stop a German one-two-three and this is the way it turned out. Some very spiritied flying from Heiko and Guntmar showed that they were still battling for second and third place but there was no way of stopping Wolf from retaining his crown.

George flew early this morning and managed 37 legs. Dave then flew but there was an odd noise so he landed early and found that his prop was beginning to delaminate. I'm sure he would have suffered some form of catastrophic failure had he continued. I was the last brit to fly and got 40. I think i'll end up in 18th place but everyone will have to wait to find out, hopefully this evening....Continue Reading

Due to Thomas's reflight at the end of the day we went out for food straight away tonight. But we're back now and time for a blog.

Dave Leitch included all the pertinent information about the days flying so I'll keep it brief.

We had a reasonable day with no major upsets. George did 38 and 39, Dave did 40 and 41 and I did two 40's. The organisers are not very good at updating us with scores and we have to guess how things are going. I think I might make about 18th place with Dave about 25th and Geroge about 30th, but we'll have to wait until after the last round which is being flown tomorrow morning. It looks like Wolf is going to be unbeatable but his main threat comes from the German camp rather than Thomas who did not do so well today. We were all expecting something special for his last flight but it didn't happen. He made lots of mistakes and ended up with just 41. We were very surprised that he was awarded a reflight due to interferrence after he continued to fly the distance task and a 10 minute duration task. When he went out for the reflight 30 minutes later some of those that had stayed to watch expressed their feelings with a slow hand clap as he prepared for the launch.

Earlier in the day we saw the usual variety of excitement. Stalled launches from the italians, motor problems and cells exploding. Jeff Keesaman took the main blast from the pack that exploded on the flight-line and was bandaged up by a doctor on-site. Apparently surface burns - nothing too serious. He was certainly OK to fly in the second round of the day.

Tomorrow is the last day of competition and I'll try to get lots of great photos but until then here's a few from the penultimate day.

It's not too late in the UK but bedtime her in Romania. Team UK have just spent the evening rebuilding George's S11 after the crash and I've taken some weight out of my RW2 and also extended the trailing edge. I'll get the model re-processed tomorrow and hopefully everything will be fine.

Day three and we had two complete rounds with some excitement thrown in. The leg scores were down to sensible levels and the highest today was 48 from Heiko Greiner and possibly Guntmar too. Thomas did 47 in round two and he's just told me he missed the landing too (20pts vs. 30pts). So it will be really close tomorrow when we see the scores - best 4/5.

In round 1 Thomas was doing well, but perhaps a little slow, when it literally exploded on about the 7th climb. There was a huge bang and the wing popped off. The fuselage carried on and was found a long way off in the corn field. While the US team were looking for the model the Italians took to the air again. Alessandro Mossa's Avionik made a strange noise which we think was the prop de-pitching. He did a couple of legs at very slow speed and then switched on again which caused the nose to snap off.

The Brits had an indifferent day. Dave was flying his B model after yesterday's crash and managed 40 in round 4 and 41 in round 5. George got 39 in round 4 and 39 in round 5 but then tip-stalled flying too low and too slow on the duration task. I did 40 in round 4 and then learent how to fly faster and did 42 in round 5. Unfortunately I was then called in to the processing tent to have my model weighed and was shocked to find that it was overweight. The guys in the tent were really helpful and did all they could to measure and re-measure my model but it was too heavy and I will get a zero for round 5. Back home I weighed it and it was 2040g. Today it was 2079g I know where the weight has come from...I swapped the HM195 for a CC125 and the thicker and longer cables have added a lot. I also put on a landing spike which added maybe 10g - it all adds up. Anyway, this will be my discard round and I must now make sure that I make no more errors flying as well as spending time tonight cutting out some excess weight and adding tape to the trailing edge to increase wing area.

We had another slow day on the F5B flightline. At first there was water in the cables and then it was discovered that a dog had chewed through the base B cable. We eventually got going at 12.30, having been there since 8am in perfect weather. After completing round 2 we then flew round three and finished at about 5.30pm.

The sighting devices are now realigned and the base B man has also been changed. I think the scores you will see from now on are a truer reflection of how fast this years models are going. Forget the 53's from the Pitesti Cup. Best flight of the day was Thomas with 49. I think his closest rival was 47 but could be wrong. There was a lot of reprinting of the results as error after error was discovered. Also attached are some scores. Please accept that these are provisional at the moment because there were many errors noted as they were posted

The Brits had mixed results. George was slow with only 37, Dave crashed (RW2b tip stall exactly like mine), but I did 42. Out ranks are Mike 14th, George, 21st and Dave 25th. After round 4 we will take out a discard and then a few good pilots with one bad round will leapfrog us....Continue Reading

We managed one and a half rounds today before rain stopped play. Now it is sunny again so we could have waited 15 minutes for it to pass and then carry on, but Emil (CD) announced that flying starts again tomorrow at 8am to complete round 2.

Round 1 saw a few hits and some misses. Highlight was Thomas doing 51 early on. I think we saw 50 as the next highers score from Wolf but this included a few errors, base a cuts and motor-on at A. Guntmar did 49 I think. The weather was not so good as in previous days and this is reflected in the lower figures. Also, the officials have changed the base B guy and this might mean that the figures we're seeing now are more realistic.

The Brits had an OK day. Dave did 41 and 36 with errors/cuts, George did 39 and 36 also with errors, I did 43 (no errors) and 41 (base B cut). We also came away with all models in tact which is more than can be said for the rest of the pilots.

Today we say lots of carnage often due to cells venting big time. The most impressive was Marco Cantoni's when it took out the rx and when the model crashed the cells exploded. A photo attached shows what an IB4200 looks like after venting.

We also saw a prop shear (or was it another IB failure?) and the front of one of the Italian models popped off. A couple of Italian planes were launched sideways and the stalled prop girations made the plane come straight back to the UK gazebo. First time it picked up and flew OK. Second time he had to switch...Continue Reading

A few photos from yesterday and this morning. The Pitesti Cup winners of F5F and F5B were Wolfgang Schulze and Guntmar Rueb respectively.

This morning we went to processing. As always the organisers did not know what was going on and took as just much advise from the competitors as the rule book. Surprisingly they did not want to measure all the wings. You could get it measured if you wanted but it was not compulsory. I assume that they will measure each wing in turn when they do the spot-checks during the competition. Not sure of this is a better methond or not? At least they don't measure all the 'B' wings that hopefully won't get used.

I have my RW2 set up for the competition and can use one of George's Surprise 11's if I have a complete disaster.

This afternoon we are going to have a few practice flights and then we're off to the opening ceremony

Round three went very smoothly. The organisation was superb and we got through the flights quickly. The air was excellent with a slight breeze blowing across the course. The scores keep going up and up. Marco Cantoni managed 50 quite early in the day and later on Wolf got 53 which included a motor on into the course, so we might see 54 or even more for the real event. Who can tell? But it will definitely be a battle between three or four pilots - Thomas wont have it all his way.

The Brits did not do so well! I crashed after missing a base B turn and then tip-stalling trying after going back. I was on track for 45 or 46 so it was more than a little annoying. Hopefully the weather will stay like this and I can prove that I can do 45/6 for real in the World Championships. Dave did 45 (I think) but then his cells vented and he had to land early. George did 43 (I think) but his motor decided not to switch on (possibly too hot), so he got a low score too. A frustrating day but better now than in the real thing I suppose.

I managed to get a picture of Heiko Greiner's model. Designed in collaboaration with Guntmar Rueb and Markus Moekli. It utilises a very thin fuselage, presumably to cut down on profile drag. The Raketenwurm's now look fat!

Today we had some flying at last. The competition started early at 8am in order to get two rounds flown with nearly 50 competitors. At first it was quite slow and then pilots started suffering with interferrence. An Italian plane spirraled in whilst flying legs. Manuel Ramos' plane continued climbing into the clear blue sky and was 'lost'. A few spectators saw it fly straight down into the distance whilst Manuel and his wife were still searching the air for it. He eventually found it in a cemetary and had to pay the locals to get it back. A few more crashes and the competition was stopped for transmitters to be checked against a specturm analyser.

When flying continued we had very few problems and the rest of round one and all of round two were flown, but it was nearly sunset when we finished.

The British team did OK, we all have models in tact. I put a small prop on for round one to save some current in the heat and did 41 legs. In round 2 the sun was a real problem and my turns were compromised. The model flew a lot faster with the bigger prop but I still only managed 39. Hopefully I'll do more tomorrow. George was all over the sky in round one and I can't remember if he got 39 or 40. In round two he flew a lot smoother and got 41. Dave had problems with his model in round one and aborted the flight. In round two he flew very high because of the sun and flew 47 legs but used 11 climbs so was only credited with 44. This is a massive improvement which is...Continue Reading

The Pitesti cup was supposed to take place today but typically slow organisation meant that there was no flying for most of the day. Eventually the F5F pilots had two flights each and some test flying was permitted inbetween. The F5D guys had minimal flying too. Hopefully tomorrow there will be lots of flying with F5B starting at 8am.
Here's a few pictures to give a flavour of the day.

Arrived at the hotel with all bags and models. One of the British team does not have his planes and the UK F5D team are all planes missing. We're hopeful that everything wil turn up in time for the World Champs, but as we are flying tomorrow in the Pitesti cup we don't think we'll all be flying tomorrow. We're in the Hotel Ambiance, which is about 2km from the flying field and serves beer and 'moonshine' till late!!
The town is surprisingly touristy - must find out a little more about the history before we leave.
I took a trip to the flying site late this afternoon but there was only a little activity.

In light of the new restrictions on hand baggage I have spent the day re-organising my stuff. The model box is now smaller because I decided to take two models instead of three. This makes it a lot easier to carry too.
Tomorrow I'll re-sort my 'checked-in' suitcase to be lighter and my 'carry-on' hand bag to be heavier and more sturdy. Both of these items will have to go in the hold and I still want to carry my laptop and camera. I'm expecting to use a larger case with lots ob bubble wrap inside.

Flights, accomodation and car hire arrangements have now been altered. I can now relax for a few days here in Dorset ready for another stressful day on the 15th. Hopefully I'll get away this time?

I though I'd make a start to my Romania blog. I should be in a villa in the hills of Transilvania near Dracula's castle. Instead I'm back home
Got up at 4.30 to get to Heathrow in plenty of time for check-in only to find that all domestic and European flights were cancelled. I'm now booked on a flight on the 15th but need to rearrange car hire and accomodation a little bit. One good thing is that I can check to see how well I packed my models and improve things if they've moved at all.