Free Unknown flights started

The organisers, especially the scoring team, did an excellent job at processing the final results for the Free Programme and sorting out the running order and paperwork for the Free Unknown and we were able to start the next set of flights at about 1700 today. Tom has just finished his flight and he flew an excellent Unknown sequence - three or four of us watched the flight following the sequence card and couldn't see any zeros or major errors. It is a difficult sequence - we timed it at 11 minutes on average to complete the sequence (with no breaks) from getting in the air to final wing rocks, so its a test of skill and endurance. Tom got into a very good rhythm and flew all of the rolls and flicks accurately with good, solid clean stops. Very stylish.

The organisers want to get the first 14 pilots complete tonight, so they have got an extension to fly beyond 1900 tonight to get all of those flights done if possible, which would put us a third of a way through the programme. The CD, Thomas Korinek and his team have really pushed on whenever possible to get the flying going and the pilots appreciate this. So with some luck with the weather, we should get the Free Unknown complete tomorrow.

There is a briefing at 1930 today for selection of the figures for the Second Unknown and then sequences have to be submitted to the Organisers by 1000 in the morning. The Jury then select one of the proposals and all of the pilots have to fly that sequence - no choice this time!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is good, but poor for Wednesday and Thursday, so we may end up flying the second unknown on Friday and Saturday. But the Organisers have done an excellent job of moving things forward and that means that even if we have a day or two of poor weather we still have a realistic possibility of completing the second unknown.