2003 Nationals chronicles - Part 3

[Derek Koopowitz]

Seems to me that the judges need a little education that FAI only scores 0
or 10 - garbage in - garbage out.

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org] On
Behalf Of Henderson,Eric
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 8:31 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: 2003 Nationals chronicles - Part 3


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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