2003 Nationals chronicles - Part 3

[Henderson,Eric]

Today was the first day of competition. Great weather again even if the wind was a little too gentle and a bit hard to read.

Heard that we had 103 pilots.

After my first flight of FAI,(2nd guy up) Michelle and I went out and about the other three sites with a promise from the site-1 director that he would radio me if my turn got close, (last guy up). The Advanced boys were getting it going on the grass site and were more than willing to pose for pictures. Many seemed very happy that Tom Weedon was doing the scoring - wonder why...

The FAI guys were well organized on site three and it was easy to just go along the line and snap them one at a time. With luck they will all submit their data sheets and we will get a highly informative spreadsheet again. Chip was having a bad day. So far he had two zero rounds. One for not wearing his tag - a mandatory deal - and another because his DZ 1.60 threw a rod. It seems that it did it on landing after round one and he was not aware until he tried to start it up for round two.

Lamar Blair was last seen pulling the motor to make it well again. We did see a Bipe doing rolling circles as we drove off into the sunset.

Don S. won two rounds in one grouping and Troy and ?? won one each in the other group. It's early days. I think the system in 404 and 406 takes best round each day plus one best other round carries an average to the finals??? 

My afternoon was spent photographing all the pilots in Masters and Intermediate, the then getting the experience of my Van wheels needing a "balance job" - then finding out one rim was buckled, filling up the leaking power steering and then dashing back to site one to call for Earl and Joe, and then rebuilding a very sick 1.40L with dead cam and piston and worn out rod ands wrist pin. Somewhere in there some of my parts went over by runner to Chips DZ???

Tomorrow should be easy with a couple of flights and then 20 Masters pilots to judge. (NOT!)

A small protest blew up when some FAI pilots began practicing after the round was over and before Masters was due to fly.

I had a "funny" where when I checked my tear sheets and my first FAI take-off was scored a 7. It should have been a 0 or a 10. They soon fixed it but it sure made me check next one. The Scantron system can be blamed for some things but not for a 9, a 7 and a 4 for the same maneuver???

Another trip to the TEXAS Roadhouse steak joint and a jam session with Satalino and D4. Soon we were in our beds for an early start tomorrow. Hopefully we will get a gale or two to increase my scores. :-)

I doze off tonight enjoying my db rating of 86 db on grass. That felt very good for me and my OS 1.60...

Good night or good morning to you all..

Eric..
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