World Championships Second Day...

This is probably going to be short… It’s been a long week, and a few of us got back early after the flying, and I basically want to clean up, watch a bit of the Olympics (in German, but better than nothing…) and get to bed…

Same routine as yesterday… Up at 7, quick breakfast, into the vans, and off to the hall… Everything was on time today, and the 3rd round started at 9… Brett had the same thing happen on a steer as the first two rounds, prop tucked under the wing and down… Nick didn’t have a great time (BTW, I’m posting all of the times and semi-live updates on @jeffreyhood on Twitter, so I won’t go into detail on here…) and John had a 34:25… Some of the other fliers put up good flights (35+), so the US team was still in 5th or 6th place… Since we got done a bit early in the round (rounds are 4 hours, with 3 fliers during that time…) we got to lunch early and had some time to relax… Round 4 started at 3, and Brett went first and put up a nice 34:27 with one nice steer… Finally Brett got a good time on the board, and Nick went soon after since there was almost no drift, and put up a 25:08 to get him two times over 25… John launched right after that, and almost hung up at the top, but it slid off and dropped about 15 feet and he then did some nice steering to get it back on track… He landed at 34:29, which was another good time… On the junior side, Parker didn’t improve in the 3rd round, but did improve in the 4th round with 26:43… Spencer improved in the 3rd round with a 25:17, and Parker is leading his brother by about 2 minutes…

After everyone finished, it was nice to be able to watch some of the other fliers, and I got a chance to post the scores that they had on the board… I was talking to some of the GB team, and getting ready to go to dinner when Kagan told me to watch Schram’s flight… He was currently in 2nd place with a 35:11 and 37:01, but in the fourth round he was at around 50 feet at 32 minutes… So we all watched him finish with a world record flight of 39:10, which ended with loud applause from those who got to watch…

Tomorrow should be very interesting… Team USA was (by what was available at the time…) a few minutes behind the top team… If Brett can get another 34-35 minute flight, and Nick improves, the US will have a great chance of getting the top team spot… and John and Brett both have good chances to get on the podium for the individual medals…

It’s now 9 pm, the earliest that I have been back for I think the whole week… Time to get relax and get ready for the final day tomorrow…