The Saltmine Slanic Romania
The Team of Tony, Hans and Mark arrived a few days ahead of the Otto Hints Memorial Open International, as has become customary Team GBR used the two days to practice in preparation for the Championship.
The championships venue is an historic saltmine … located 15mm enters below ground, accessed by a 15 minute minibus ride…
The first official day is the Practice day (and the Opening Ceremony 24th November) which meant that all 3 members flew conservative flights 21-24minutes… all were very pleased with the preparations by the end of the days flying… tomorrow the contest starts …..
DAY 2 Contest Day
Breakfast at 7am, great selection of hot and continental, plenty of coffee to wake us all up.. the customary mini bus trip from the hotel down into the Saltmine.. the Romanian Federation have been amazing with there organisation and hospitality…
air temp outside just above zero down in the mine 12.5 degrees…
9am the first round begins 3 hours for each pilot to fly one flight.. sounds forever but with duration of over 20mins time soon disappears. Mark flew first and made a strong flight of 25.29 mins, this included steering the model with a helium filled Mylar ballon at 48metres. Hans flew next and after breaking a few motors made a flight of 18minutes, his propeller unfortunately became unbalanced on launch. Tony brought up the rear with a safe flight over 21 minutes..
After lunch Tony started with another steady flight just under 23 minutes … Hans improved on his first flight and Mark had a Tailplane that came dislodged on the ascent curtailing his duration rather dramatically…
In general a good steady start for team GBR … tomorrow we will look to improve..
