So we have an update, and some potentially exciting news....!
Linda and Barbara completed the handicap run this morning (while I completed my massage!), and all went well. They were able to fly the four sides of the square at the correct density altitude at full throttle, not much turbulence, and get good speed readings. The judges will take all this data and compute our handicap. We don't know what it is yet, but we have a pretty good idea just from our own observations during the race and during the handicap run itself. The handicap is important because the race is scored based on the average of how much you beat your own handicap by on each leg.
Now for the potentially exciting news... At the end of every race, the judges compute all the scores, and pull the top 12-14 planes or so for inspection. This is to make sure that the competition winners haven't tinkered with their airplane en route, or somehow put in a bigger engine or something! The call to these lucky few pilots from one of the judges comes late on Friday night. As the news gradually percolates out that one or other person has got "the call", and you haven't, it's difficult not to be somewhat crushed even if you aren't super competitive(and let's face it, we're all competitive!). I have never had "the call" in four races, and neither have Linda or Barbara in their two. Well, late last night Linda knocked on our door and told us she'd received "the call", and we were one of 14 aircraft that needed to be re-inspected. We were so excited, we couldn't believe it. Now, it's important to remember that the decision to potentially include us in the top 14 was made without even knowing our handicap yet. Furthermore, its made without everyone having signed their score sheets yet, and there could be some disputes that would make people's scores better if resolved in their favor. So we could still end up anywhere in the ranking, maybe not even in the top 14 at all. But you know what, it's really nice to have the feeling that you got the call and that placing is even a possibility! So we are enjoying the feeling while it lasts.
So, after the handicap run, the plane went straight into inspection, and did fine. The last thing that happened this morning was that we went to see the chief judge Marvin to review our leg times, which will be used to compute our scores once the handicap is available. We did great, zero penalties (yay!!), and our timing data agreed almost exactly with his. This is a result of the excellent job that Barbara did recording all of our time and elapsed time data from the back of the plane, with Linda duplicating it as a back up. So we signed off on our score sheets.
Only time will tell now. Remember, we are by no means guaranteed to end up with a top 10 or top 14 place because of the variables I mentioned above. But we are enjoying the feeling right now, and that's what counts! Go team Cool Beans!!
