Greetings from Turkey. The US Team is on the ground (mostly). There were a few hiccups in the travel, and we are still sorting it out here on Wed. The plans for reception by the organizer were great and we had a guide personally waiting for us at the airport. We have our personal driver and it has been terrific. Most of the team made it in on-time and with all our baggage and planes. Unfortunately the contingent coming in from the NW had a number of problems. Our Tower was delayed in Amsterdam and wound up getting in at 4:00AM and had to wait until 6:00AM today to get picked up. Their good news was that their gear all arrived. The Rest of the NW crew was not as lucky. They made it in nearly on time, but neither their planes nor large baggage made it. After their 3 hour ride from the airport to the hotel, they arrived at between 3 and 4AM. Their van was not ready either, soooo they had to take the team car back to the airport (another 3+ hour ride) and persevere with the lost baggage folks to find the planes. Eventually the planes were found, a Van was rented and they are currently enroute to Adapazari, but too late for any practice for them today. We got whacked pretty good on excel baggage charges, but if we are able to have the same level of charges for the return trip, we should only exceed our budget by $400 or so.
The rest of the team arrived at the field to find our palatial estate. Other than the Turkey team, we have the largest tent area. Tent is an understatement. This thing is 2 stories high with plenty of room for all of our models and our 23 team members and supporters. The organization is fantastic, with everyone asking if we needed anything. We could not be more comfortable or welcome! We spent most of the morning getting the equipment organized. The afternoon was spent practicing. Our team is looking very good and very comfortable with the conditions here. Our timing drills were very precise so we should do well. Frankie and Phils practice tows were awesome. The other towers were still off retrieving model boxes they will get their workout tomorrow. Now the bad news. Rich Burnoski lost a Supra when the stab hit my hand during launch. It is hurt bad, but repairable. Daryl blew a stab off during launch, he flew it down inverted with flaps with no other damage. We need to find him a new stab. No other carnage to report. The weather here is as predicted, hot and humid. Light air in the morning, with the wind picking up in the afternoon and lightening up later in the day. The carnage happened in pretty good breezes. The hotel is great WITH AIR CONDITIONING Everybody is really nice from the hotel staff to the restaurants to the pubs. I took some GREAT pictures for you, but it appears that I left my camera cable at home, so someone else will have to post the pics. Tomorrow we have a serious practice, and try to keep our models intact. GO USA! Jim Monaco US F3J Team Manager 2008 RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
