Dez's Precision Aerobatics Page

The worlds in Argentina marks my fifth time as a Canadian team member representing Canada. This time I was fortunate to have a friend come along (an experienced and skilled pattern pilot) who helped me a great deal. For his calling, observations, kind help, and support I thank him. Xavier, you are the best. I'm more than sure that it must have been a frustrating time for him not being able to fly. Imagine hanging around a flying field not being able to but wanting to fly. He also took a huge amount of pictures some of which are posted on this page. Thanks again Xavier.

This year our journey was uneventful. We had good luck with the airlines, no damage to the airplanes, and all luggage was accounted for both ways. The potential for troubles can be great traveling with two airplanes, spare parts, and everything. Air Canada was great. Smiling faces inquisitive to what are in the 2 big boxes on wheels I'm dragging behind myself.

Arriving in Argentina I did not know what to expect. What I found about the land and the people pleasantly exceeded my expectations. I was all set for experiencing pick pockets, crime, high security and I expected to live with worry. Instead I experienced things a little bit different than I had imagined.

The people are by and large very family oriented. Proud of their land and social activities. On Sundays the city shuts down and the streets are mostly quiet. Thank goodness as we arrived on Sunday it gave us time to acclimatize to the traffic rules which are very strange yet most efficient. Like in Europe cars are much more efficient. Wonderful Diesels are available. North America should finally wise up.

I witnessed a couple of nice things about the people. Families did things together. I see it as their way of life. Friends and family greeted with a kiss (men and women both) Families spent time at the practice flying sites for instance. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and grandparents I'm sure. This was refreshing. To have an interest as a family unit. Now I realize that there may have been little choice perhaps for the women folk not to tag along, but it sure looked like they enjoyed themselves and were involved in the action. Hospitality. We were invited to a full scale BBQ at a practice site, just for showing up and practicing.

Yes there was plenty of poverty, a strong police presence, annoying squeegee kids, however every person that I saw presented themselves well dressing well. The lower end dwellings sometimes had no roof, or a hodgepodge door. In extreme examples it looked rather scary. But then several blocks away clean and spiffy dwellings surrounded by iron gates.

Our hotels were excellent and up to any standard found here. Food and drink were extremely cheep and good. Several fun things we noticed. Rare to find a stop sign. Traffic however flowed efficiently through these intersections. Person going the fastest had right of way. A bottle of water placed on the hood or roof of a car means that the car is for sale. Dinner doesn't start until 8:30pm. More commonly 11pm. The Siesta is a real thing. We talked it over with several local people and yes people go home and sleep between 12 and 4 unless their job in the service industry dictates otherwise. And yes Argentinean women are rather attractive.

Ok, on to the event and the flying part.

The team arrived early. We had almost a week for practice and setup time. This I found very helpful personally. To had a chance to purposely fly crosswind, in lots of wind, and to adjust the plane as much as I could. Finding the practice fields was fun as it always is at the worlds. I was surprised at how generously and with how much excitement we were met by each club president, or the club members who were there at each practice field to help, and who tried to communicate with us. We visited 4 different practice fields and were lucky enough to have a field to ourselves as a team on a couple of occasions. At the more popular places it was at least an hours wait time in between flights. Some times it was good to see other teams flying and to get a sense of what the skill level was like. Many good flyers, many nice airplanes, always a good experience. Below are some shots taken at the various practice sites we visited and of other teams we encountered while practicing.

Wind was a factor at these world championships once again. Some individuals warned me about the windy conditions in this part of Argentina and what they were predicting to me came true in a big way. It would have helped if I took the warnings more seriously. At times we flew in 40K winds always 90 degree crosswind. Again at these worlds we flew off airport taxiways. Funny; Taxiways usually don't point into the wind. This is the second worlds in which we are flying crosswind in rather uncomfortable conditions. This makes it more challenging yes, and if it is done on purpose then let it be written into the rules so we can expect it. Anyway, the key then was to have a plane that flew well in wind, was fast enough to penetrate, and was as smooth as possible in turbulent situations.

To me there wasn't that much variety as far as different types of models at this worlds. I had the only pair of Prestige's that I know of. I can almost count the model types on my fingers. Most people went along with the pack, or, the popular models this year just flew better. I saw lots of Osmose, Integral, Twisters, and Oxai product in general. Funny that how in the top ten there ended up being quite the variety of planes. I don't think that anyone was collecting stats on what team and pilots were flying. There usually is a man from a magazine publication walking around pestering pilots for a complete list of what they have in their setup. Not this time.

The concentration of glow to electric power plant was about 50 50. Some would argue 60 40 in favour of glow. Not on our flight line however. This time, electrics did not suffer from lack of power at all. I think that the lighter airplanes suffered from bouncing around in the wind a bit, and the lighter airplanes funnily enough tended to be electric, but even with the heavier electrics the power was there. Glow motors had their problems with flameouts, and not being able to start in some cases. In practice I observed catastrophic failures with a glow engine or two. This sort of thing I don't miss I don't mind telling you. I had successful flights with the Plettenberg 30-10 EVO / Thunderpower setup. No problems with power in my setup. The key always is running the right prop. In fact I was trying to cut manoeuvre size down to maintain better control and to attempt not to give too many points away because of the wind.

The level and quality of flying again was high in Argentina. In the wind I found looking at smoke trails of the glow planes distracting to the manoeuvre. I thought that for sure this would reflect on scores because how could it not? Only a few of the models I found to track nicely in the wind. The 2 biplanes I found flew extremely well, despite the wind. I cannot comment on the judging relating to my own flying, because I am not in the position to observe my flight as a judge, however I felt myself scratching my head wondering why some individuals who I observed flying very well got such low scores. I suppose that this is the same old problem observed in sports such as figure skating. It may also sadly have a little to do with pilot to judge exposure. Some pilots outside of Europe I hear want to overcome this problem by attending the big European competitions. Oh great, a new complexity. I saw innovation in several places: The building techniques of the Japanese team in both design and functionality / quality were superior, and different. There was a new dual rotating prop for an electric setup that the Italians were using, which worked well. Lots of power and a new dimension for down line breaking. Interesting new noise in flight. A newer more successful folding prop design for the Plettenberg motors.

It was fun. I'm still hooked.