Nats part 1

[Jason]

I think I've gotten over it...maybe...not sure. It's a new feeling for me.
1985 in Westover, Mass. was my first Nats, Sportsman class, when there were
80+ in that class alone. How times have changed...or have they? I remember
watching Chip, Ivan, Ron and the rest of the top F3A flyers fly. I still
watch Chip fly, although for different reasons now, as well as the rest of
the top F3A flyers. I guess now I am now being watched like I was doing back
in 1985.

Back in June I already knew that Quique and I were going to be on the same
flight line (same frequency) so that made the Nats even more exciting for
me. Here I am going against #2 in the World everyday of the Nats. What more
could I ask for. Although maybe it would have been harder against Chip, or
Sean or Don....but I will never know. All I knew was that a 2-time US
National Champion/Worlds runner-up and I were on the same line. Only thing I
had left to do was finish up my new Impact and focus on the task at
hand...the NATS/Team Trials.

We left on Wed. July 14th, Dave Stodart from Orlando and myself from
Phoenix. We met in Indy at 2pm and got a van and headed to Muncie. The drive
up was uneventful, just some discussion about what we're going to try and
accomplish while we're here, what movies we're going to see and how much
practice I'm going to put in. When we arrive at the hotel, I get my package
(batteries, charger and spare parts) and we unpack the crates and head to
the site.  Pylon and IMAC are going on, although it was just practice for
both events. At the IMAC site we run into a bunch of friends and socialized
around there for a few hours, took a flight on a friends plane and headed
back to the hotel to get the planes ready for practice on Thursday.

I put the back-up together, the Revolution Pro, and we headed out to the
site the next morning. We stopped back at IMAC to see how things were going
while we waited to hear from Chip about practice (he had to get Mike Caglia
from the airport). I "called" a round for the now 2-time IMAC National
Champion Mark Leseberg Jr. (I think he won them...lol) and then headed out
to the practice field. We met up with a local pilot mowing the field and he
told us we could fly while he was mowing. We got in a flight of P-05 before
Chip and Mike showed up and helped them unload and get their stuff together.
I flew another 3 flights and then headed back to the hotel so I could put
the Impact together.

Friday morning came and 9am we were at the field again, ready for some
practice. By 1pm we had 4 flights and I called it a day (good practice
session). Chip, Mike and Kenny Lauter had come out so we hung out for a bit
before heading back to the site. We went to Pylon to visit other friends
this time. We saw Fred Burgdorf (APC Props) do some racing (and winning a
couple of rounds), met up with Wendell Hammond (PowerMaster) among racing
friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Some more practice on Saturday. We arrived about noon with Sean and Mike
McMurtry. After a couple of hours practicing, Dave and I headed back to the
hotel and took a nap before dinner. Nothing special today, just a casual
practice day.

Sunday was judgment day....LOL. Dave and I went to the Judges Training
Seminar and went through the class with Sean, Mike, Kenny amongst others.
Matt Kebabjian did a great job with the class and handled the questions very
well, even when I was asking questions that didn't really have answers
(although did get some thinking). Afterwards we went to go practice but I
only flew 1 flight. Chip, Mike, Kenny and Sean were out there practicing and
I figured that if I didn't know what I was doing by then, I wasn't going to
learn it today. Dave and I left the field and headed to the hotel to clean
up. Both Pylon and IMAC were done, but on the way there I called Mark and
asked how he did...he won. Cool. He beat the likes of George Hicks (leader
after the first day), Mike McConville and Peter Goldsmith (TOC/Masters
Pilots) and Kurt Koelling and Baron Johnson (more up-n-comers in IMAC).
After cleaning up we went to the farmhouse and saw Dave Guerin, Eric
Henderson and Joe Lachowski. We chatted a bit, got in a pic and even weighed
my Impact...but it was 11lbs, 0.5oz. Great, I knew those stickers were too
heavy...<G>. Off to the pilots meeting. Chip and Dave did a great job with
it and was finished before any rain. There were a couple of questions about
electrics/batteries/volts that I need to answer to rest the minds of
management, but it wasn't a problem and everyone was happy. Dinner and
bed....the contest starts tomorrow.

more later.

Jason
www.jasonshulman.com










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