Post from Tony Gibson (team captain)
From day one that we heard the World champs was on, it has been a roller coaster of note. Choosing the team from performance and strengths in certain disciplines, to selecting the strongest possible Solo PPG, Solo trike and Tandem PPG team was difficult. We had unhappy pilots and very happy pilots too. One of the criteria was that from the selection only pilots who were able to afford to pay there own way could actual go with.
This team has its specialists and those who are consistent right through the range of tasks. The specialist are going to go flat out in the best events and the others will make sure that points are consistantly being added to the board. The objective of our team is to fly as a team and get a podium position for South Africa. If we are able to get podiums for the individuals that would be an added bonus.
This was incase we never got any sponsorship. This is exactly what happend. We recived R11000 from SAHPA for the contribution to the purchase of the clothing. this is R1000 per pilot. This is huge and we are very gratfull to SAHPA for this. I am now incuring as much cost as the other pilots because they are having to ship their aircraft to and from the event. Mine is sponsored by Nirvana and Dudek respectivly so have my motor waiting at the airfield already. with 15 hours of runtime on it when i get there. Thanks very much to Nirvana for supplying my Motor , Helmet, and Reserve for the event.
The team logo is great and looks stunning on our new team Flight suits (part sponsored by Flying Unlimited) the Luggage Sticked were donated by DMB signs for the team and will make it easier to recognise our luggage and kit as it comes off the planes.
I feel alittle numb right now with 2 days before departure and still organising spares and my work in the office. We are flying out from OR Tambo int at about 7pm on Friday the 24th July and will be at the airport from between 12pm (cape Pilots) and 2:30pm (gauten and other pilots). this will give us time to combine and check our luggage into The Turkish Airline check-in. Turkish airlines was the only Airline that would give us confirmed in Writing via Pen travel an additional 10kg of Sporting luggage free and an additional 10 kg for only 90 Euro if we require this per person. No local or other airline was willing to help, so from the team a big thanks to the Airline and Pen Travel in Hatfield for this.
2 weeks ago we finninshed testing the new Trikes the two Solo pilots (Riaan Struvig and Paul Jackson) are going to fly and litteraly just got them into the crate intime by one day for collection by Airmark and sent off to the Air field at Nove Mesto nad Metuji via Paris and then Prague. Our Kit is destined to land in Prague on the 23rd and delivered on the 24th to the field and stored for 2 days before we arrive. Anton and Mias our incredible tandem Duo have decided to purchase a new motor from H&E and have it delivered for them at the field it gives then enough power to fly tandem and then also to have weight shift in the thermals and for the slalom tasks. We made them a new Green Mamba with the New Simonini 2 Evo motor. There comments were it has stunning performance and unbelivable fuel economy but not enough weight shift from the harness so makes a great passenger tandem but not ideal for the tight turning comp flying. I am happy with this because i expect my pilots in the team to be up to the tasks and happy with there kit. The team all have new wings with stunning reputations and performance and have had some time not much to get to grips with them. They come from different manufacturers, Mac para, Apco, Ozone, Advance and Dudek so a broad spectrum of styles of wing are on there way with our team.
The team maember have had to pull finger in getting things organised so we can go over to have a fantastic comp. this includes organising, Air tickets with extra weight, visas, Documents for visas, 3rd party insurance, oil, accomodation, transport, fuel, entries to event, clothing (flight suits desighned and made, SA team clothes, data loggers, radios that comply to the comp standards, navigation software, maps, frieghting of equipment, collection of visas, international drivers permits, FAI licenses and currency of SAHPA licenses, shipping everyone there Clothes once recived and then also the air tickets, and many more smaller things. You have to know we are all buggered and we have not even arrived there yet and we are still having to work our normal jobs, train student to fly and try squeeze in a training flight every now and again. Alison(team manager) has taken alot of flack from the team because of the frustration of things not happening or being delayed due to some issue. She has been driving around collecting and organising and sitting for hours in the travel agency to get the best deal possible. Keith managed to save us a huge amont of time and money with some of his reserch and feeding it back to us as well as organinse a second data logger per team member for a very low price from Richard. paul has managed to get us the crate for shipping and also got great deals on frieghting. he also purchased the maps so we have a digital version ot the comp maps that we will be flying with and is busy stitching this together now so our nav planning will be better. Then he has also organised a few other things plus he was doing the whole advertising for his clients for the confederation cup at the same time and then just about every weekend he was out training his skills while the rest of us were teaching students working.
Well now the time is close just two days to go before we leave. The pressure is no off for organising as i think we have everything covered but are just needing to get there now.
Tony
