Robbo – The Blog of Andrew Robertson 
I am currently in the US on the way to Boston for a week at our head office. I decided that on the way to Boston I would swing through Denver to hang out with my friends Chris and Anna for a couple of days. Chris is part of a new group of balloon pilots that have set up a competition ballooning club that are learning to be competition pilots. He asked if I would run a training seminar and be the director of their weekend flight. I graciously obliged.
After a 3am wake up, we drove an hour to Colorado Springs to meet up with the 14 pilots that were going to fly that morning. The winds were uncharacteristically calm and waffley, so none of the locals could really provide me with insights into what the weather was going to do. So I ended up setting an Fly In, Maximum Distance Double Drop (with loggers) and a Judge Declared Goal. I was pretty sure that whatever happened people would be able to at least get a result on a couple of the tasks.
The winds were so variable, that half the field took off in the north and the other half took of in the south. I spent an hour standing at one of the targets getting depressed that nobody was going to make it to either of the targets. But luckily some balloons eventually came of the horizon and nailed the target. It was a great morning and was really interesting to see how well these beginners could do. I think I certainly challenged them, but they coped well.
After the flight I had to download all the tracks and sort out the results for all 14 pilots and 3 tasks. It gave me a great appreciation of what the scoring team has to do at a nationals.
The seminar went well. Lots of interested people and interesting questions. They appreciated it a lot, because it is difficult for them to get any help and support of the US competition pilots.
So even though I had fun, I definitely decided that I would much rather be a pilot than a competition director.
A couple of months ago Adam let me know that Mick Thomas, the lead singer of our favourite band in the 90s, was going to be playing in Canowindra. It was going to be on a Thursday night, so it was a perfect excuse to take a couple of days off work and have a break. Unfortunately James had school and Saturday sport, so I had to leave Kath and James behind. So I packed the kayak and balloon on the car and headed West.
Since there was no particular rush to get across to Canowindra on Thursday, I decided I would kill some time by going for a paddle on the Hawksbury River. Rather than just getting in the water in Richmond or Windsor, I decided to head a bit further North and looked for a launch spot somewhere deeper in the bush. I aimed for the Colo River, but unfortunately it was flowing a bit quick and I would have struggled to get back to the car. So I launched where the Colo met the Hawksbury. By this time it had got pretty warm, so I only paddled for a couple of hours, but it was a great chance to chill out.
After a leisurely lunch and a short snooze in the Blue Mountains, I headed across to Canowindra.
The Mick Thomas gig was great. It ended up being a fairly intimate affair, with a sit down meal and oh about 40 people in the audience. Very different from the old days of jumping around in Weddings Parties Anything mosh pit.
Adam, Mick Thomas and me
After a leisurely (hot) day in Canowndra on Friday, we decided to go flying on Saturday morning. It is very rare to go flying this early in the year in Canowindra, because it is normally too hot and bushfirey. However we were treated with a relatively cool calm morning. The grass in the paddocks is very short at the moment, so there was no fire risk.
Adam kindly volunteered to drive while I took his wife, Robyn, for the maiden flight of the new balloon. Adam set a couple of goals to fly to, but really it was a chance for me to get used to the new balloon.
First flight
As we took off, Adam came over the radio informing us that the car would not start. It ended up being a flat battery, so after sitting around for an hour, his mum eventually picked him up and took him back to get his car. So by the time he got to us, we had just landed.
The balloon is fantastic. I need to get used to its responsiveness (being brand new), but it was really nice to fly. I got within 20 metres of the goals, but I was not really pushing it too hard. I can’t wait to get into it solo and see what it can do.
So it was a great few days off. A much needed break from work and great to get some flying done, considering the Nationals are only a couple of months away now.
Every year we head out to Parramatta Park (western Sydney) for the Australia Day ballooning. Normally they get about 15 balloons at the event, half of which free fly and the other half give tethered balloon rides to the crowd.
This year there was a new balloon on the scene… our new racer. Late last year we decided that it was time to sell the old balloon and buy a racer. This was for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I really did not like flying the lumpy 77. It used to frustrate the hell out of me, because it just was not as responsive as the smaller and more slender race. About the same time we were thinking about doing this, a guy in Byron Bay happened to post on the Australian Ballooning Federation’s website that he was looking for an envelope and a couple of weeks later he came down to Sydney and bought it.
So with that, I put in the order for a new Kavanagh Balloons EX65 racer envelope. James (my 10 year old sun) actually came up with the original design concept. I had to tweak it a bit to get the colours to link up. So the design is one that the whole family loves.
So once the order was in, then it was time to work out a name for it. We never really bothered naming the old balloon. We just called it “The Balloon”. I think that was mainly due to the fact we were not overly sentimental about it. However since we designed this one, we are more proud of it and therefore decided to name it “Shadowfax”.
Shadowfax (“Sceadufæx” in Rohirric) was the Lord of all horses. He was a descendent of Felarof, of the race of the Mearas, the greatest horses of Middle-earth. Shadowfax was capable of comprehending human speech and was said to run faster than the wind. Originally belonging to the House of Eorl, Lord of Rohan, Shadowfax was too wild to be tamed by the Rohirrim; eventually being granted to Gandalf the White by Théoden, the then-king of Rohan.
The balloon was finished a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I was in Brisbane on the day the test inflation was done. Kath and James went along and emailed me photos as it was happening. So Australia Day was going to be the first time I was going to see it.
All week the weather looked like it was going to be windy and rainy, however the weather gods were kind and Saturday morning end up being perfect (but warm). After a long week at work, I decided I didn’t need the hassle of actually flying, and I wanted to a chance to check out the new balloon and get some photos. So we just stood the balloon up and chatted to the crowds.
I couldn’t be happier with the design. I especially love the way the pattern came together in the top of the balloon. Considering that is pretty much all of a balloon I ever see when I am flying it, that is lucky.
So the balloon is now back in the garage for a month or so, waiting for the weather to get cooler, when we can start getting ready for the Nationals in April.
From the 4 cameras we were using over the week, we ended up with over 100gb of video. Here is the final compilation of the video. Note: The music might stop it from being viewed in some countries or devices.
I am currently sitting at my sister’s place in Salt Spring Island in British Columbia (Canada) a few days after the event, reflecting on it all. As you can imagine, the last few days of the competition became very busy and we were all walking zombies by the end of it all.
First let me tell you about the last couple of days, then I will go into some of my overall thoughts.
We had two more flights after my last post. Thursday afternoon was a bit of a tragedy. It was two pilot declared goals, and we hedged our bets on the wind backing before sunset. Unfortunately (even though our pibals showed it was) it didn’t and we completely missed both goals. So we only ended up with about 650 points in total for those tasks.
Thursday Afternoon
Friday morning was the last competition flight. We went to the briefing expecting them to can the flight because there were fast winds at just a few hundred feet. However the weather guy predicted a strong, thin inversion layer and David Levin called a Fly In and two Hesitation Waltzes. This was a fun flight, because we ended up doing about 35km at about 300 feet, but in the bottom layer it was completely still. On the first goal, my 7m result on got me 500 points. On the second I did a week throw and got about 10 metres, which only gave me 400 points. On the last target, the ground wind shifted and screwed a lot of the field (self-included) and I missed the target by 170 metres (370 points).
Friday Morning
So with very average results, I knew I was going to slide down the rankings significantly.
With the flying over, we spent the rest of Friday emptying and purging tanks, cleaning the gear for Australian Quarantine and rebuilding the van. Sean, Deano, Matt and I then headed over to Detroit Airport and packed off the balloons to send home to Australia.
Cleaning and Packing the Gear
Due to a suspension in the scoring times, the final results were not posted until 8am Saturday morning. Just to add some last minute excitement, when I looked at the results I was in 64th position and they had applied a 500 point penalty to Friday’s flight for Mid Air Collision. I had not touched anyone, so Sean and I charged into the competition centre with our in-flight video to prove our case. After about 20 minutes, the scoring team realised they had given me someone else’s penalty and I got my 500 points back. I ended up moving back up to 55th position.
Matt ended up in 10th position. He had a similar morning to me on Friday morning, but still managed to hang in the top 10. This is a great result for Matt considering it is only his 4th competition that he has flown and many of the tasks (Elbow and Land Run) were tasks he had never flown before.
The final results were as follows:
1 DONNER, Nick USA 24030
2 PETREHN, Johnny USA 23423
3 FUJITA, Yudai JPN 23423
4 DONNER, Chase USA 22508
5 SCHNEIDER, Uwe GER 22229
6 SCHWARTZ, Nicolas FRA 22125
7 BLOOM, Cory USA 22063
8 LATYPOV, Sergey RUS 22053
9 ZEBERLI, Stefan SUI 21852
10 SCAIFE, Matthew AUS 21849
55 ROBERTSON, Andrew AUS 15918
87 WRIGHT, Peter AUS 11001
On Saturday afternoon was the closing ceremony. Unfortunately Matt, who never imagined he would do so well, had to head over to Chicago before it started, so I had to get up on to stage with the top 10 as his proxy. So we managed to get to wave the Australian flag for the first time since 2004.
The Top Ten
So then it was all over as fast as it started. There were plenty of highlights of the week and a couple of learnings (lowlights). Here is a brief overview of them:
Highlights:
- The three Australian teams worked really well together as an Australian Team. Getting together at the start of the week and discussing how we would work together and being completely open with everyone was incredibly valuable. At no point was there tension or problems. Having spent the weekend in Canowindra together also helped us all work out how each other operated and flew.
- Team Robbo worked really well together. Everyone got on really well and whilst we were exhausted by the end of the week, spirits were high and everyone had a good time.
- I won a task. This was one of my big goals for the week. My 15 minutes of glory. Not only that, I also had 4 tasks in the 900s. This might not sound like much, but considering the calibre of the competitors, I am pretty proud of this. Considering there were tasks that 4 metre results would only give you 500 points.
- All our planning for tasks was spot on (except for Thursday night). We went into the flights having made the right decisions and all our launch sites and pilot declared goals were spot the right ones. This is so important because setting up a flight correctly means you can just focus on flying the plan rather than fighting your way back or changing things mid-flight.
- Logistically everything worked. Logistics can be a nightmare for an event like this. Getting the gear over there and getting gear organised when you arrive can be pretty stressful. Being organised early was such a big factor in this. I knew that I would be flat out with work before the event, so having most of the stuff organised a month out paid off.
- James did really well. A week of little sleep and sporadic eating is tough on an adult, let alone a 9 year old. He did not complain all week and had a lot of fun. The entire team was very proud of him and enjoyed having him around.
- We had a lot of fun. The team dynamic was so good that it allowed us to be serious when required but have some fun for the rest of the time.
Learnings:
- I didn’t make it into the top half of the field. Now that the event is over, I can share my goals :-). The dream was top 20, but the realistic goal was to be in the top half (top 50). So I was only a bit short of this, but I am not too worried about it. Considering the amount of flying others do and the lack of I flying I do, I am pretty happy. There are some pretty significant names below me in the list (including past World Champions) so I have to be happy about.
- I really need to work on my final 50 metres when approaching targets. Probably half my results could have been better if I had either come down lower, picked the ground wind better or made a better throw. In competitions in Australia, a result under 10 metres will normally get you 800 plus points. At a Worlds, it will only get you 400 points. You need to be consistently sub 2 metres. This has to become the focus of my training now. I have proven I can get near a target consistently, now I need to focus on the final approach.
One of the big things that came out of the week was that the entire team agreed we need to do more competition training. We all agreed that we are able to get in and compete against the best of the World, but we just don’t get enough practice in Australia. The grand plan is that we are going to organise half a dozen weekends over the course of the year where we run competition weekends (similar to what we did at Canowindra). If we want to be competitive on the World stage, then we need more competition practice.
There you go. That was the 2012 FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championships. Now it is time to spend the rest of the week catching up on sleep and eating in Canada.
You probably have noticed the lack of posts to the blog. We are getting to the end of the competition and are all getting pretty exhausted. So down time between flights has become a process of self-conservation, trying to get some sleep or food.
The weather has been amazing, so we have flown every morning and afternoon. The morning flights have been really long and hard work. Most of the flights have involved flying up to above 6000ft at high speed and then bombing into targets at crazy speeds. This sort of flying not only drains the fuel in the balloon very quickly, it also drains you mentally.
Flying the tanks dry
I am not going to bother posting how each of the tasks have gone. My results have been a combination of really good and really average. At the time of writing I am sitting in 39th position but the scores are really close between 25 and 50, so there will be lots of movement in the next 24 hours.
Matt Scaife is still doing well. He dropped out of 1st position into 5th position. So we are hoping he can keep in that top pack.
Spirits in the team are really high. Everyone is having a great time and the whole team has been getting on so well.
There are only 2 more flights left in the competition (tonight and tomorrow morning). Rumours are that the weather guy thinks that the weather may not be suitable for tomorrow morning.
After tomorrow morning’s flight (if we get it), the logistics start again. We need to clean the basket and gear (so it gets past Australian quarantine), burn out and purge the tanks, then head over to Detroit to drop it off at the freight depot. We will then have Saturday to sleep in, rebuild the van (replace all the seats and carpet), go to the awards brunch and relax in the afternoon. Sean is flying out from Detroit tomorrow night, so he will be able to drop the van off in Detroit.
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- Flying the tanks dry
Video from the CRAT the other day…
It has been a pretty full on 36 hours, hence the lack of blogging that has occurred. The entire team is pretty exhausted but spirits are high.
There have been three flights since the last blog post and my results have been very mixed. Let me give you a brief rundown of the last three flights.
Flight 2 – Monday Morning
David Levin called 4 tasks. The first was a Gordon Bennett Memorial (GBM), where you need to drop a marker in a scoring area as close as possible to the cross (which is outside the scoring area). The second was a Hesitation Waltz where we could select from 2 different targets. This was then followed by two Fly Ons.
My results were all pretty average. Probably one of the interesting things was that with the new rules around the use of MMAs (Maximum Measurement Area). If you are not able to throw your marker into the MMA (which is normally 100m), then you hold onto your marker and they measure your result to the nearest track point on your GPS logger. Where this gets interesting is when you need to declare your Fly On on that marker. I ended up slipping past the MMA at about 130m so I held my marker for as long as I could. This allowed me a lot more time to plan which fly on I was going to fly to. People are questioning this “loop hole” in the rules because it provides an advantage to those who miss the MMA.
The other thing that happened on this flight was that I dropped one of my Fly On markers in the middle of a corn field. Thankfully I put it on a distinctly dirty row in the corn and by using a GPS waypoint and filming the field with my GoPro, we managed to find it pretty easily in the shoulder high corn.
At the time of writing this, the Provisional results up to the end of this flight. I have slipped from 22nd down to 37th. Matt has been having some amazing results and has moved up into 8th place.
Standings: http://www.balloonworlds2012.com/images/results/Task1-Task7%20Standings.pdf
Flight 3 – Monday Afternoon
The afternoon saw us taking off from a common launch area to the north of town. The tasks were a Pilot Declared Goal and a 3D Wedding Cake shape. We were one of the first balloons off the ground and I opted to go high to get some left hand turn that people were struggling to get down low at the PDG that almost everyone were going for. Unfortunately I came down a little late and ended up dropping my marker into the middle of a forest about 230m from the target. I then spent the rest of the flight flying around in the 3D task. I did pretty well in this task, but it ended up that we did not get as many zigzags as some of the other pilots and only ended up getting mid-700 points for that task. Matt, who we always bag out about how he always makes mistakes with 3D tasks, ended up winning this task and picked up another 1000 points.
It was as I finished the task that the action really started. We finished the task at 8.15pm and sunset was 8.30pm. The direction we had flown had taken us over the worst area to try and land. There were just woods, lakes, railways and town. I spotted a school playground that another balloon had landed it. It was ideal, but as I made my approach to what was going to be very tight, I got kicked to the left right at the last minute. I ended up having to slam the balloon down into a tiny spot (the width of the balloon) on the other side of a 8 foot fence. The spot was right on the edge of the woods and there was no way of getting the van into it. Luckily I found a gap in the fence that we could get the fan into, and we inflated the balloon again and towed it over the fence into the school yard.
By the time we were packed up, it was pitch dark and we decided that we should at least try and find the marker in the forest. The observer had seen it thrown and had noted the exact time so if it was lost we could get an estimated result from my logger track, however I had thrown it towards the target so if we found it I could 20 meters or so. So Sean worked out from my GPS track line and the time the observer noted, then we stomped off into the woods with our torches. It was pretty exciting crashing through the bush, around a big pond, up a couple of hills, through blackberries and spider webs. Once we got to the point of the track that Sean thought it would be at, I did a quick sweep with my torch and there was the marker shining in the torch light. It was great to be out hunting for markers in the dark… it felt like the old days of competition ballooning.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was 11pm and we were completely exhausted. I was too tired to even eat anything. James did so was so tired, but he did so well.
Flight 4 – Tuesday Morning
It was really hard to wake up again at 5am this morning. We staggered into briefing to find 3 markers sitting on the table. David had called a flight down to the South East of town near the town of Marshall.
The first task was a Calculated Rate of Approach task (CRAT), where they have a target with 3 scoring areas around it. Only one of the scoring areas would be open at any one time and based on the time (e.g. 7.40-7.50am) one would close and another would open. I ended up making the perfect approach to this target (only a few feet above the ground) and managed to flight right up to the closest edge of the open scoring area. My marker landed about 20cm inside the scoring area at the closest point to the target. Rumors are that I had the closest marker for the task, so hopefully I have picked up the 1000 points for that one. I hope I have, because one of my goals has been to win a task at a Worlds.
This was then followed by two Hesitation Waltzes where we could choose any intersection to the west of the CRAT. This resulted in a lot of indecision, in that as you approached an intersection you had to decide if you were close enough to throw your marker or if you should hold onto it and go for the next. I did pretty average on these 2 tasks. I got 38 meters on the first and then a No Result on the second because I was outside the scoring area of 100m (despite going to 8500 feet to try and have another go). Matt did really well on these two tasks, dropping less than a meter on both.
So that is all the action in the last 36 hours. In half an hour we have to head off and start again. We are hoping to see some results soon and see if Matt has moved up the rankings in the top 10.
This afternoon’s flight was cancelled. At the briefing they declared a Hesitation Waltz and a Pilot Declared Goal. However they explained that there was a lot of big storm cells forming to the north of Battle Creek that they were keeping an eye on.
So we all jumped into our vans and drove up to a common launch area to the North of town and by the time we got there, they had put up the black flag which means the flight was cancelled. there was too much risk of wind gusts and turbulence from these massive clouds. So we are able to now have an early night and get ready for another morning (the weather is looking great).
Big Black Clouds – Photo by Martin Tregale
They have posted the provisional results for this morning’s flight. I did pretty well on the first (806 points), awesome on the second (978 points) and pretty crap on the third (414 points). So 2198 points for the first flight is pretty good and there are plenty of more flights to come.
So now we are going to take advantage of the early night and get some sleep.
This morning was the first competition flight of the championship. At the morning briefing David Levin called 3 tasks; a Hesitation Waltz (where we could pick one of 4 targets to fly to), a Fly On and a 3D shape task (a donut shape).
It was pretty obvious that the winds were going to be all over the place, because the common launch area was in the middle of the 4 hesitation waltz targets, allowing us to fly in any direction (at our discretion). Also, with the Fly On and the pilot declared 3D task, the task sheet really read like they were sending us out there to work it out for ourselves.
We headed out to a common launch area to the North of town. The team communication broke down a little bit and Matt ended up at the other end of the field from Pete and I. So Pete and I worked on the planning for the flight.
I made the decision to take off early because I thought we would start losing the right had turn that we had in the bottom 1000ft. This paid off because the wind did shift and also there was a lot of congestion in the rest of the pack. I know Matt didn’t particularly enjoy the flight because of the way some pilots were flying around him.
Above the launch site
When I took off I quickly realised I was not going to be able to the HWZ target that I planning to get to, so I changed to one that was more to the South. This meant that I was going to get a less desirable result for my Donut, because I would have to fly through the centre ring (which gives you no track points) to get to my Fly On.
The first target was just over a kilometre away from the launch site, so there was little time to muck about. There was a lot of steerage between 1000-2000ft and I managed to make my way to the target. I ended up having to make a high gravity marker drop (from about 1000 feet) using my clinometer and ended up with a 10.88m result. At the time of writing this looks like it was the 27th best result and should get me just over 800 points (out of 1000) which is not too bad for a first task.
Task 1 – High gravity marker drop using clinometer
The second task (Fly On) was better. I chose pretty much the only intersection that was achievable (as did most of the other 100 balloons). I had a great approach to the intersection, but unfortunately one of the Japanese pilots was below me and rocketed up under me, so I had to focus on getting out of his way rather than my throw. If you watch this video, you will see me using the double burners and throwing my marker all at once.
Task 2 – Getting blocked by an ascending Japanese balloon at the Fly On
Video: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150985352977085
The 3D donut task was a bit of a stuff up. I stupidly did not go up to 6000 feet or talk to Matt and Pete enough to find out what they had at that height. If I had I would have found out that if I went up high, I would be able to head back into the donut and get more points.
One of the interesting (not in a good way) about this morning was it was one of the first times when I have felt completely disoriented. Even standing on the launch site watching pibals, I was mentally about 90 degrees out. Even during the flight I just could get my mind around if I needed left or right. By the end of the flight I got my brain around it but it did suck at the time second guessing.
We had a short debrief with Pete, Matt, Sean and I, and sorted out the few things we did wrong. We had been working well during practice, but I think a bit of first flight jitters got to us all and now we can settle down and get into the swing of things.
You can keep an eye on the results here: http://www.balloonworlds2012.com/index.php/official-notice-board/results
Today was the last day of practice. Tomorrow the competition begins.
The weather this morning was fantastic for flying. It was much cooler than it has been all week and the winds were light and waffly. Championship Director, David Levin, declared 3 practice tasks. A Fly In, a Fly On and a 3D Shape (wedding cake).
The 3 teams worked really well together this morning. After we had all agreed on how we would communicate and operate on the ground, everything worked like clockwork. We were one of the first teams to find the best launch sites (all ways good seeing 30 or so balloons follow you into the spot you pick). Pete, Matt and I also were communicating and helping each other out over the radios really effectively.
Our launch site became pretty popular
I flew the first task really well. I was really low over the centre of the target but screwed up my gravity marker throw. I think I got so excited I was dead centre over the cross that my brain malfunctioned and I ended up dropping just outside of the arms of the cross. To make me feel worse, the Luxemburg pilot next to me, who had flown exactly the same flight as me, nailed the centre of the cross. Lesson learnt… don’t muck up 30 minutes of good hard work in the last 2 seconds by being an idiot.
Balloons approaching the Fly In task
The Fly On was crap. As the morning warmed up we lost all the left turn we had been banking on. So being a practice flight I then focused on setting an appropriate 3D shape. I changed my declaration of the shape about 4 times in the space of 10 minutes because the wind was changing so much. This was not helped with the fact I was having slight software issues with my computer. In the end my final declaration was a good one and I started working on the 3D shape. Basically you need to fly the longest track within a virtual 3D series of cylinders stacked up on each other (shaped like a wedding cake). I was flying the shape really well, but ahead I could see I was heading towards a big lake and the centre of town. If it was a competition flight I would have continued but it wasn’t worth the stress on a practice flight, so I landed early and was content with how I had planned that task.
The afternoon was spent at the Master Briefing. This is the official start of the competition where they take the official role call and then explain the rules and operations of the event. It was one of the quickest master briefings I have been too (which is good) and not too many dumb questions.
Finally tonight we had the Opening Ceremony at the Kellogg’s Arena. It had everything from speeches, anthems, dancing girls, and even trapeze artists. It was a great night. The highlight was when some of the Great Brits started attaching the balloons from the table decorations to our Boxing Kangaroo to try and make it fly. Before we know it, all the teams from around the room started bringing their balloons over and getting their photos taken. The roo was getting close to equilibrium when we left but I think it was a little heavy.
The (nearly) flying kangaroo
So tomorrow the competition begins. I think the team is all now ready to get into it. The couple of practice flights have proven that we have worked out how to fly in the area. So hopefully once it all starts we can continue with our good form and stop making the little mistakes that will cost us points.
My blog posts may get a little shorter over the next few weeks, because it is going to get busy and no doubt the focus will be on eating and sleeping (and Facebooking) when we have any down time.
