Friday and Saturday turned into a game of āmusical airportsā. On Friday we sat and watched the fog and I drank teaā¦ just like flying in the UK winterā¦ and then after lunch there was a chink of light from the eastā¦ Jurg, the helicopter film pilot, decided to go and have a look and he then invited me to go with himā¦ the fog was sat right over our temporary runway but amazingly it was clear at the eastern end of the runway. So the decision was made to fly out of the car park and move the aeroplanes to Maia, our original mustering airport, where we hopefully would not suffer from the fog. The track all this time had been sat in blue skies and sunshineā¦ after we arrived in Maia, the fog which had previously not threatened the track decided to waft (good word āwaftā) up the river and obscured the bridge on the run-in to the track. It decided to do this after I had taken off for my training runā¦ so I enjoyed another little scenic tour of Porto from the air and ended up back at, you guessed it, Maiaā¦ we left the aeroplanes there for the night with the plan of running the qualifying day from there.
Qualifying day was fun. We flew a training session in the morning and then the Q flights in the afternoonā¦ I managed a 1:10:03 in Q1 and then got clobbered with a 2 second penalty in Q2 for turning early in a gate (it would have been a 1:09:85)ā¦ either way it didnāt matter as it was enough to clinch the one pointā¦ Yoshi flew extremely well in Q1 with a 1:10:97 as did Matthias with his 1:11:09ā¦ Kirby threatened in Q2 with his 1:10:26 as did Matt with his 1:10:78 (Kirby missed Q1 after he busted the G limit in the morning training session and spent Q1 completing an over-g inspection). By now weād all set up camp in one of the hangars at Maia and it was interesting seeing the other pilots preparing for the flights. It varied from talking a lotā¦ to sleepingā¦ to eatingā¦ to watching track videos. Sleeping was my choice of prep (always has been) and I felt pretty fresh after my napā¦ it seemed to work again on this occasion. At the end of the day, the music started again and we all got airborne and when it stopped we were all back at the TRW on the coastā¦ an interesting decision with the fog situation but one that was spot-onā¦
ā¦Race day dawned to hazy sunshine and the weather remained fair all dayā¦ It was the 13th of the month, there were, at the end, 13 pilots in the race (Kirby and Glen out for technical reasons) and guess what? We got 13 points for the weekendā¦ lucky for some! Notable events in the Top 12 round were Matthias posting a storming run putting him third in the Top 12, Kirby roasting around the track with a 1:08:88 and then subsequently going unserviceable (due to a fuel leak after the first roundā¦ this was a pivotal moment in my mind as Kirby could have threatened my win or on the other hand repeated his Budapest run and put a gap between Hannes and meā¦ lots of āwhat ifāsā here but it all worked out well for Team Bonhomme)ā¦ amusingly between the Super 8 round and the final four, I lost my aeroplane! I strolled back to the grid-stand, watching my last-run video, and looked up to find an empty grid-stand. It was back in the hangar, so I tried again and then got upset because I couldnāt find my parachute and life-jacketā¦ I was about to admonish the team for not having my kit when Wade reminded me that I was wearing itā¦ clearly my mind was on the track!
Also of significance was Hannesā run in the final fourā¦ if you look at the sector split times, he and I were posting identical times (+0.07, -0.33, -0.12) but from the video and the last sector time, itās my guess that heād got a bit of buffet in the last Cuban hence my final advantage of -0.94 of a second. This would have resulted from too much back pressure at some stage in the pull-up and his wing might have stalledā¦ this is where the airflow over the surface of the wing separates and becomes turbulent creating huge amounts of dragā¦ not a good thing when youāre trying to go fastā¦ either way it helped our path to the win. And well done to Matt Hall for his first podium (third)ā¦ Hannes and I joined teams on the podium and briefed Matt that we always sprayed the crowd first with the Champagne and then āif there was any leftā, we could aim for each otherā¦ like a duck to water Matt went for the crowd and Hannes and I managed to empty both bottles down his neckā¦ childish but fun!
So onto Barcelonaā¦ I flew my aeroplane to Barcelona on Monday morning in company with Brad Huelsman in Mikey Gās Edgeā¦ it was a gentle 2 hour 35 minute flight and we managed to avoid the early morning fog at the Porto end and the thunderstorms at the Barcelona endā¦ and once again we found some Buzzards soaring over the hills just south of Zaragoza. As for the gap between here and the next race, Iām planned to fly a Mustang at the Goodwood Revival this weekend, followed by a few days off before I go back out to Barcelona. The track there should be funā¦ itās an interesting looking track and one which will involve some turningā¦ I canāt wait to get racing there, Iām very pleased to be flying with a more powerful engine and one way or the other, we are looking forward to some post-season refreshmentsā¦