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Jet World Masters Report - Wednesday August 26

I sit here in New Amsterdam writing the daily update.
We have honored guests in the tent tonight with David Tappin (Chief Flight Judge) sitting to my left, Bill Grimsby (Static Judge) on the right, the lovely Agi Senn (Switzerland, better half of Reto Senn), and Karin (the hostess with the mostest) sitting across from me.
Ben is, of course, at the head of the table but Karin tells me not to read anything into that; that seat is just close enough to the electrical outlet for his laptop cord to reach.
The fabulous Claudia Westerholt, whose photographs you may have seen on the Dutch website (www.dutchjetteam.nl) has just returned to the party.

Dinner tonight was BBQ, Dutch style. No, that doesn’t mean that you use their shoes for charcoal, it’s more about the side dishes. We had turkey sate and beef sausage with Karin’s famous boontjes (green beans in sauce) which certainly lived up to its reputation. For once, I ate all my vegetables, Mum.

So here’s what’s been happening …..
I had late night last night in writing and uploading the report and got to bed at about 3am. It was going to be an extremely busy day and I arrived at the field just before 10am and immediately got to work addressing a scheduling conflict.
Scott had to call for David’s 2nd round flight while simultaneously having his plane static judged. We saw this issue several days ago when the schedules were released and I had addressed the issues with the judges and senior staff; no problem, the flight takes priority and Scott can static when he is finished calling.
I confirmed this again this morning, and ran to the flight line to help David and to be there for his flight. The flight went great. David’s MiG looks fantastic on those long low climb-outs after takeoff. The sun was a bit of an issue but David is a pro.

Now that David’s MiG was back on the ground, Scott was all set to go to static. An event volunteer approached us and said that there was a last minute change and Scott would now be moved to the end of the line and be judged at 10am tomorrow.
What?
Who are you and on whose authority was that change made? Similarly, there was a series of decisions, re-decisions, and re-re-decisions the other day with Andy’s trim flight. Making decisions and later changing them has been a bit of a recurring issue and I had a nice conversation with the organizers at the team managers meeting and stated that this has to stop. Other managers have also experienced this issue and concurred.

I did a walk through the vendor area and found an Aviation Design Rafale in 1/5th scale for twin 200 newton engines. Nice.

Andy had the L-39 static judged this afternoon. Graham Meers-built the jet and is eager to see how it does against is European-built kin. The aircraft owner, down in Oz (Australia) has been very helpful in providing paint chips and reference letters which proved invaluable for the documentation (proof of scale) booklets being provided to the judges. The static judging went well, but note to self: if you are one of the guys holding up the jet during static, make sure it is completely defueled. It’s a lot lighter to hold it in position for judging the top and bottom views not to mention that empty fuel tanks don’t spill fuel on the floor through the vent line.

Scott was up next on the flight line and turned in a great flight on the Sabre. Scott stepped up his game and flew the jet in “military combat” style, not just “combat” style, whatever those are. Check out the pic of Scott and David. Scott is sporting his game face while David is wearing his game shorts. David told us earlier that the blue pants he bought for the opening ceremonies were the first pants he's bought since moving to Florida.

I believe I attached a pic yesterday of Scott’s preflight routine which included a hug from Betsy. They are quite the couple, Betsy is a southern lady, and we enjoyed having their daughter Jenny with the team in Switzerland in 2013. Jenny, where are you?

I was walking through the pits and found Bert Hazeborg busy on his Javelin which unfortunately crashed on takeoff during round 1. Bert has the damaged fuselage pieced back together while other team mates are working on the wings and tail. It probably won’t be back together in time for round 3, but who knows. Hurrah for Dutch perseverance!

Jason flew later this afternoon and put in a great flight of the Eagle. No takeoff problems this time; indeed, Jason changed his maneuver list and added a touch and go. Ballsy, but it proved that the takeoff issue seen in round 1 was quite resolved.

The first 2/3 or so of the static results started being released this afternoon.

The IJMC Annual Meeting was held tonight. There was some routine business and elections but the major topic was the site of the 2017 Jet World Masters.
Italy’s proposal to host was approved by vote (woo-hoo). The site is outside the town of Udine on the very top of the Adriatic Sea. We would likely fly into Venice. I’m thrilled at the venue as I am sure that I will tack a trip to Rome on to my JWM 2017 adventure.

That’s all for tonight, folks.

Regards,

Jim

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