BAPIA asked Sara
Harris to summarise
the experience:
“
The competition itself was terrifying for
me. With it being the first time the UK had
competed at WBC, I was keen to ensure that
we didn’t look out of our depth and this was
my main concern. I had many, many horrible
dreams about the sculpture collapsing and
other teams laughing at us!! Once the build had
started, every worry I had had over the previous
6 months disappeared completely and, as a
team, we just got on with the job. Our team
were fabulous! Most of them worked solidly
for the 27 hours. I had to take a break ‘cause
the balloons broke me and I finished up in the
ER with a ‘popped tendon’ and a 600 dollar
bill!! Dangerous little blighters are balloons
you know! We had some issues through the
build - the main one being the aluminium rod.
It was so much harder than ours over here and
bending the frames for the planes took way
longer than expected. It was right at the start
that we made a call to reduce the planes from
the planned 5 to just 3. In hindsight, 5 planes
would have been too many anyway.
26 hours and 40 minutes after starting, we
finished. The emotion we all felt was incredible
- nothing can compare to it! We all just literally
burst into tears and hugged one another. An
experience that I will NEVER forget - ever!
”
BAPIA asked Mike & Sara if attending
WBC and entering t