2014 WPC FS AE - Prostejov, Czech Republic


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Welcome to Omnibits for Wednesday, 27 August (Day 3)

0630

OMAR, the FS scoring computer, is in the ER, a crew of three local IT experts trying to bring him up to CHKDSK stage.

This SMS just in:

27.8.2014 6:30 UPDATE. 4WAY OPEN+4WAY FEMALE RELEASED TILL 10:45, THEN STANDBY FROM 10:45. 8WAY+AE+VFS+SP RELEASED TILL 14:45, THEN STANDBY FROM 14:45. NEXT UPDATE 9:30.

Yours truly now turns his attention to the database ...

Some photos from yesterday (last one this morning)

Team on the first load prepares ...

Bryan and Martin discuss the weather before the first load goes up.

First load getting ready ...

Gray skies that way too, but there is a hole overhead!

The fleet getting ready to spin props.

Old (!) friends Bill Legard of Aerodyne Research (L) and Chris Talbert of Sun Path Products (R) getting fired up before the first loads go up.

Computer surgeons George (L) and Tom (R) work on OMAR, the FS scoring computer. OMAR is head down since last night.

0800

Raining steadily. The judges are being fetched from their hotel to finsih judging Round 1 (4 teams, but two of them still need to recopy). OMAR is still undergoing a lengthy chkdsk procedure, SHERRY has been fetched to stand in for him until he's belly flying again.

There have been a number of complaints about the auto-refresh in this web page. Since most of those complaints have come from me, I've finally gotten around to correcting it. This means you need to F5 yourself :)

0850

Round 1 (4-Way) is complete except for 413 Germany, still waiting for their recopy. Wow ... the good teams are so fast these days you could swear the video is playing at 2x speed. Really something to see.

Anyway, Belgium holds the early lead by a single point over USA and Canada.

1000

An update from the Meet Director is due but I haven't received it. The judges just received the (successful) recopy of the last Round 1 file (413 Germany) and are judging it now.

Still raining steadily. I'll be surprised if we do any more jumping today.

A small bit of good news: the computer doctors succeeded in getting OMAR back from the dead. The hard disk had bad sectors and one of the two memory banks was bad. Unfortunately the motherboard requires both SIMMs to be present for proper judging operation, so they're getting a pair of new SIMMs.

Something I would like to be understood by the competitors here watching the live judging on DZTV: in the past this picture has been an exact copy of what the judges see. In fact, it was accomplished via real-time screen capture, with the DZTV component adding the graphics; what you saw was exactly what the judges saw (except for the graphics of course).

For this competition, as I've mentioned previously, OmniSkore!HD is using a new technique that runs the JukeBox software in a special "live" mode. This allows us to show the picture on more than one TV, in different parts of the drop zone. Another benefit is the picture quality is quite a bit better -- the JukeBox is playing the original video file, so no quality is lost in the screen capture process.

The only real downside is the picture you see is not exactly what the judges see. Normally it is very, very close. The scoring information is exact of course, but the freeze-frame location can vary slightly.

Bug alert: I did have one vary bizarre problem during the judging last night and this morning: the DZTV server -- a computer built to normally act as a JukeBox -- was playing some videos too fast. I have never seen that happen before. It resulted in the server's video getting ahead of the judge's video by the end of working time, so sometimes you saw the team breaking off before WT was over. I've not been able to reproduce this problem. Hopefully Murphy will take it with him when I kick his ass off the drop zone.

1200

Just in:

27.8.2014 12.00 UPDATE. 4WAY+4WAY FEMALE RELEASED TILL 14.45, THEN STANDBY FROM 14.45. 8WAY+AE+VFS+SP RELEASED TILL 16.30, THEN STANDBY FROM 16.30. NEXT UPDATE 13.30.0

1330

... and the promised update is:

27.8.2014 13:30 UPDATE- nothing has changed from the last update...4WAY+4WAY FEMALE RELEASED TILL 14.45, THEN STANBY FROM 14.45,8WAY+AE+VFS+SP RELEASED TILL 16.30, THEN STANDBY FROM 16.30

So, stand by to stand by.

The good computer doctors have finished putting the new SIMMs into OMAR and he's finally 100%. The organizer also ran a power cable from the big diesel generator up onto the second floor here and connected all of the judging equipment, including my laptop and OSHD firewall router, thereto. The only vulnerable piece not on the generator is the hub between my firewall and the big tent 100 meters away, but they're working on fixing that too.

So your crumble horrid spondent is finally breathing a little bit easier after last nights visit from Murphy. Teams are killing time in the tent now watching replays on the DZTV (automatic) and JukeBox (on demand). A few are even creeping. Love the optimsim!

1500

The weather is jumpable, but -- and this is a first for my ears -- "the runway is too wet". Send a crew out there with some towels!

1600

The day has been called, all events released. I think the wind is a problem too. First call is 6:45am tomorrow!

1630

27.8.2014 16.00 UPDATE. 4WAY+4WAY FEMALE RELEASED TILL TOMORROW 6.45 THEN STANDBY 6.45 AND 15 CALL. AE+8WAY+VFS+SP RELEASED TILL TOMORROW 7.45, THEN STANDBY 7.45.