US NATS daily report - Dave Reaville
Ok folks here are the updates I was sending our friends and family while staying in Muncie.
July 14th - Mark and I arrived in IND with all our gear at 8 pm local time. We headed over to the car rental place and picked up our Van then made the hour long trip to Muncie (checked into the Holiday Inn Express.) We then headed to Chad & Nedim's room at the Best Western to pick up our battery packs (they drove them out). To speed things up they offered to charge some of the packs for us :-) so Mark and I headed back to our hotel to get our stuff put away and unpack the planes. We discovered some damage to both planes around the engine mount area. It is repairable and we think was caused by to much weight in the nose section. (We will leave the motor off next time!)
We went back to Chad's place and luckily they had some CA glue and epoxy that we borrowed. We picked up the rest of the packs and headed to Wal-Mart for a few items. Chairs, cooler, drinks, and snacks :-)
We've decided to make repairs in the a.m. so it's off to bed.
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July 15th - We were up at 8:30 after a good sleep and headed over to the AMA Flying site to get some supplies for the repairs. 30 min epoxy, sand paper etc. They have a full hobby shop on site so supplies were plentiful! We drove around and stopped at the RC Combat venue wich is in full swing at the site. Looks like lots of fun except for the noise! Stopped by the FAI flying site #3 and checked that out as well. A very nice facility.
Back to the hotel after a stop at Starbucks then turned the hotel room into a repair shop and started going through the plane damage making repairs to the effect areas. Everything was fixed and declared airworthy by noon so we packed up the planes and headed to a flying site north west of Muncie at a field about 35 minutes drive. We met up with Chad Northeast & Nedim Bek (from Calgary) along with Derek Koopowitz, Scott Covey, Jon Carter and several other new faces in Mike Wickizer and his son, Brett. Got in 3 rounds each and then packed up for dinner. It was a nice day; clear around 28 c with northwest winds.
Met again with Chad and Nedim and hit a local Italian place for dinner (and the requisite shop talk) then headed back to the room to charge batteries for Monday. In the morning we will head to the HQ building at the AMA site and pick up our competitor packages. This will tell us who we fly with, where and when. Also our judging assignments will be published.
We are getting acclimatized to the area and look forward to the coming days of competition flying.
July 16th – Up early after a restless night answering text messages from some young pilot in Mali with a phone card! (My son Kris is based down there flying Twin Otter Float planes.) I guess three a.m. here in Muncie is about five pm there. Anyway we started to charge the last of our packs and then headed towards the AMA flying site to pick up the pilot packages.
The packages indicate when and what flight lines we were scheduled to fly at as well as the judging assignments. Both Mark and I are slotted together and will fly Wednesday afternoon. I will fly second after a well known US flyer named Chip Hyde. Mark follows in the 4th spot. We will fly our second round later in the day.
After getting the packages we met up with Chad & Nedim again and headed north to another flying site that they knew of. Having someone who knows their way around is a definite asset! Arrived around 1030 and had the place to our selves until 4:30. Put in 5 rounds and had lots of good coaching and critiquing. Weather was nice at 28C. We headed back home after some of the locals arrived to fly. Dinner was a “grinder” (toasted sub) that was highly recommended by Adam Glatt from his previous trips to Muncie) then went for a swim at the hotel. Harry Ells (Canada’s F3A Team Manager) arrived and we socialized until bed time. We will return in the a.m. for more practice before the pilots meeting scheduled for 17:00 Tuesday.
July 17th Up at 7 a.m. to load the planes and grab a bite of breakfast in the hotel. Free continental breakfast is included in our stay so we had some toast and yogurt etc before meeting with Harry Ells (whom is also in our hotel) and Chad & Nedim. We were on the road at 8:08 in driving rain, thunderstorms and lightning heading to our “special” spot to practice. Secrecy is a must as everyone wants a quiet field so they can get in as much flying as possible. With 10 minutes flying time for each flyer, is takes 50 minutes before you can fly again so a crowd really slows things down.
The skies cleared about an hour after our arrival and we started to get in steady practice rounds. We had to pack up early though as we needed to get to the AMA site for the 5 pm pilots meeting.
We met up with Quique and several other flyers after being briefed by Dave Guerin and Don Ramsey on the site rules, judging assignments etc. Pretty straight forward stuff but for some reason I was not assigned any judging duties so I will help Mark as his “scribe” Thursday morning.
After the meeting we headed to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Lots of other flyers had the same idea so it turned into a gab session/peanut toss. It was back to the hotel room to finish charging and get ready for the BIG day. We have planned an early 7 am departure to the practice field to get in a couple rounds. We will have to be back at the #3 flying site by 1230 or so. I fly second so I should be up about 1310 or so. Mark is using the same frequency as me and flies fourth out of nine in our group.
July 18th – Up early again and on the road to our practice spot arriving at 7:55. Mark and I got in a practice round before Harry, Nedim and Chad arrived. They all flew some rounds and Harry spent 10 minutes or so offering his thoughts & comments on my flying (In other words.. what to fix!) we headed back home to recharge and get ready for our first flights of P-07.
This short practice session was great as the winds at the practice site were almost identical to those we found at our #3 flying site.
After a quick shower to freshen up (and charge some battery packs!) we headed for a quick lunch and grabbed another Grinder. We then headed to our respective flying sites at the AMA field. Chad, Nedim, Harry and Des all flew off of site #1 and Mark and I were on our own at Site #3.
We arrived in time to impound our radio transmitters and get oriented to the flying site. We put the planes together and loaded the batteries so when we got the signal to start we would be ready. I flew second after Chip Hyde and Mark was #4. I had an ok round but got blown out a bit and took some downgrades. Mark had a solid round with some minor errors that he planned on correcting. Both of us were a bit nervous with everyone watching but we were happy overall with the flights. The second round was better for both of us and we improved on several elements. I had two bad elements but an otherwise pretty good round. Marks second round was much more solid with good speed control throughout.
Raw scores for us were:
Dave Round 1 – 1603 Round – 2 1632
Mark Round 1 – 1499 Round – 2 1610
Not sure about the other guys but I believe Chad said he was in 12th place.
We did not see the score board but Nedim said we were in the mid twenties out of 41 contestants. We both look forward to tomorrow’s rounds! We also had some pictures taken by the Nat’s News guy Bob Quinn so look for a picture tomorrow with the Twisters. After flying we loaded up and headed for site #1 to meet up with the other Canadians. Following a brief yak fest we headed back to the hotel and the pool!
Went to dinner at the Olive Garden and met up with the “Chicago Mafia”. (A group of pattern guys from the Chicago area.) Good dinner and then back to charge batteries…. Anyone notice a trend here! Hit Wal-Mart for some gator-aid and ice cream.
July 19th – Well it’s all over for Mark and I as we didn’t even come close to cracking the top twenty J. The quality of FAI flyers is unbelievable.
The day started with another early rise, load the van, head to the field to do our share of the work. Mark was judging Masters and I was his scribe (had to go with him so might as well do something). We had lots of delays as the weather was dreadful. Rain & wind throughout the morning gave way to windy weather and grey skies later in the day.
We set up our planes and prepared to battle it out at site #3. Chad, Nedim and Harry were all flying at the site as well so it was nice to see those guys on site. I even managed to get a nice photo of the group for the website. (I suspect we will see it on-line even sooner.) We both flew OK but really battled the winds. The top pilots really showed their stuff and it was clear that we have a long way to go…. Not out of reach but not an easy task either.
We have now packed the planes and will go out to support Chad in the Semi Finals on Friday.
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July 20th – We slept in! It was glorious! After showering we headed for the UPS store to ship the packs back. We then hit IHOP for a nice quick breakfast. We saw a server that worked there that could have been my daughter Lauren’s double. Very freaky as I swear I was nowhere near Muncie 21 years ago J
After breakfast we headed over to Chad’s place to see what was going on. He appeared to be sleeping as we peered through the window so we left him alone. We hit our first geocache nearby then headed to the AMA site to see what was going on. Hit our second cache in a cemetery right near the competition headquarters. Harry and Nedim had been judging the Masters rounds and we met up with them at Site #3. We decided to head back to Site #1 and see Quique, Chip and Shaun fly before jumping in the van and coming back to site #3 to see Chad fly. He flew pretty well but dropped out of his rolling circle and made a minor error in his stall turn. His second round of the day was rock solid and he scored very well.
We waited around for the results but Chad was pretty sure he would not make the cut. They finally announced them and Chad was in eighth place and would fly in the Finals on Saturday! The Canuck camp was very happy and we took lots of pictures of the group after each pilot’s planes were processed.
Chad & Nedim headed to the HQ for unknown selection. (Unknowns are elements of the schedule that each pilot gets to pick.) This makes up the schedule for 2 of the last 4 flights. Harry, Mark and I headed back to the hotel and then hit the Texas Roadhouse for a prime rib dinner.
About two hours later Chad phoned Harry and advised that the scores had been changed and that he was now in tenth place. Much speculation and discussion occurred until Chad & Nedim arrived for dinner. In short the scores changed several times and when the dust settled Chad was out. Very disappointing for us all as it was quit a rollercoaster ride of emotions for Chad…. Thought he was out, announced in, another change and finally out.
As Don Szczur was eating dinner with his family at the restaurant, Chad went over and advised Don (whom was oblivious to the news) of the change in the top 8 placing. Don was pleasantly surprised and headed home to prepare for the finals.
We headed home for bed and will meet for breakfast in the morning. We leave tomorrow so everything will get loaded into the van before heading out to see the finals sans Chad.
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July 21st/22nd Muncie update – Final one!
We packed up the van, checked out and headed over to the Best Western to meet Nedim & Chad for breakfast. Hit IHOP again and then it was out to the AMA site to see the final four rounds of FAI.
The flying was great and it was a pleasure to see the effort these guys made to put the schedules together. After the flying ended we said our goodbyes and headed to the airport in Indianapolis. We had a general idea of the pilot placing but nothing official at the time. All and all a great experience and motivator for us!
We had a quick flight to Toronto but unfortunately our Calgary plane went mechanical after we got all settled in. We had to get off and transfer to another plane close by. We left about an hour or so late at 1210 a.m. and arrived in Calgary about 2 a.m. local time. We “slept” in the terminal until our flight to Victoria departed at 0810, arriving at 0840 local… Robyn picked up Mark and then it was home to bed…. which is where I am right now. Zzzz zzz zzz zzz
What a week!
BTW Mark's bag went AWOL between Toronto and Victoria. He should have it this afternoon..... he better because my Plett 30-10 Evo is in it!!!!
More sites to check out:
Nats news
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews07/0718.pdf Page 3 starts
with Pattern stuff.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews07/0719.pdf
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews07/0720.pdf
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews07/0721.pdf
Site map here http://www.modelaircraft.org/PDF-files/Map2007.pdf
http://nsrca.org/competition/NsrcaNationals/2007/blog.htm
http://www.pauzuolis-rc.com/stories/articles/2007-nats.html
Great coverage by Scott Covey here http://www.nsrca.org/d7/nats07.htm