Czech Is Best

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What's Your Definition of Lucky?

In my case it's having some time to take off work, some good friends in the Czech Republic (surely it's one of the best countries in the world) and a shiny new Brio to pick up.

 

The schedule was pretty demanding; spend four days enjoying myself and come back with a new toy in one piece.  I think it's safe to say that my mission was successfully accomplished!

 

My first challenge was to survive two days staying with crazy Roman (www.lomcovak.cz) Vojtech. Fortunately it turns out that although he is stark raving bonkers his lovely family and dog are relatively sane, so there was some sense to be had.

 
What did we do? We drank beer, we finished building his Corracho, we drank vodka, we flew his Big Sting at a the famous Czech Rana slope, we played at video editing (we both have the same computer video suite), we drank some more beer, we ate, we mountain biked around Prague sight seeing, we melted in the 32 degree heat and then, just for good measure, we had some more beer. Seems to me we had a good time!

Rana is a slope that I'm sure will work well for normal slope flying, DS, F3F and for the diving style of F3F. The day we visited there was a decent 10 m/s or so blowing and although it was cocked off by around 30 degrees it was still lifty enough to have some good fun with Roman's Big Sting.

Flying Euro-style, where you hold the sticks between finger and thumb like a nipple (except most nipples don't have switches on top to change camber settings), rather than the UK thumbs on top style, was weird but strangely erotic ;-)

My second appointment was with Samba  (makers of the Pike series of models) to pick up my Brio, take some photos of their workshop, drink more beer and generally experience yet more amazing hospitality.

 

The company is run by the father Jaroslav and two brothers, Vlastimil and Jaroslav. Together with 4 others, and the help of sister Jane as the translator, they loving craft Pike's from the ground floor of their huge family farmhouse in Sebranice.

Samba have had the same employees for quite some time and when you enter the factory it is immediately obvious why - I've never seen such a bunch smiling faces in a workplace before! May be it's something they put in the water but however this atmosphere is achieved it is clearly the way to achieve success. It was kind of like a big family but with the arguments replaced by jokes!

As you may know, I was involved in the design and testing of the Brio and was keen to see how my production version compared with the prototype that I used to win the UK F3F League.

Certainly I was very happy, to show why it's probably easier to list the advantages of the two versions.

The production Brio is considerably stiffer, lighter, has a new stronger and lighter fuselage and anyone can get one. The prototype did however have once distinct advantage, only I had one!

 

Time left for a few photographs, the female model is of course the lovely Jane (sister, interpreter and trainee exponent of British humour). Most of the pics speak for themselves but worth noting is the new easy launch fuselage, the carbon tube wing stiffening and the self-aligning fuselage to wing wiring connectors.

Finally, I simply must try to say thanks for the incredible hospitality shown by Roman and Samba but I know that no words will suffice. Anyway, thanks!