[NSRCA-discussion] Here it comes, guys

[george w. kennie]

My Nats Blast

Another year that the Good Lord has enabled me to be healthy enough to attend and I enjoyed it immensely.

I knew that there wouldn't be any Pattern activity 'til Tuesday, but I decided that the best traveling day would be Saturday so I left early that A.M. and arrived safely about 7:45 P.M. and to my surprize there were already some Pattern guys hooking up in the site 3 lot. Rusty came charging over and extended a big welcome lifting my spirits after the long drive. 

I set up the tent and went over to McGalliard for some grub and when I got back I turned in for the night and slept comfortably and awoke to a beautiful day with bright sun and nice temps and not a lot of wind ( could this be Muncie?).

I heard IC engines in the distance at site 4 so went over and found the R/C Combat guys enthusiastically engaged in battle. Interesting to watch. They fly a plane with approximately a 60 inch wingspan powered by an LA 15 O.S. motor, or equivalent, limited to a maximum RPM of 17,500, and there's an official checking RPM before every launch. An 8X3.5" prop provides fairly good performance and they dispatch 10 of them at once with stickum/glue smeared over the leading edge of the wing to snag a streamer about 20 feet long attached to a piece of twine about 5 feet long and fastened to the rear of the airframe. They fly a 5 min. timed event and long before the time is up there are only about 2 or 3 models still airborne. Replacement models are lined up in neat rows awaiting the next heat. They don't destroy the Universe, but there is much carnage and probably a few black holes created. Gotta be a terrific rush for the participants.

I hung around there for quite a while and in the early P.M. I noticed someone drawing some nice lines above the site 3 area and quickly set out to see who was practicing Pattern and discovered Tim and Ronda-Sue Tipton from Tucson. Tim was determined to get some practice in before things got really serious. Hung out there for the remainder of the day and after getting supper I rode a few laps around the facility on my bike to get a little exerxcise. 

Turned in for the nite with temps around 70, but awoke quite early shivering my butt off as it had turned quite cold during the night. I had an extra blanket in the car, but I toughed it out 'til daybreak which dawned clear and sunny and quickly warmed to comfortable temps. 

By the time I returned from breakfast there were already pattern planes in the air as there had been a reconfiguration of the frequency pins to allow for one third of the available frequencies to be used by the Pattern guys who wanted to prctice. The other 2/3 were still being used by the R/C Combat guys who surprisingly still had some flying hardware left.

Spent all day Monday hanging out at site 3 (This is where the pins were) meeting people who continued to arrive throughout the day. Spent some time also over on site 4 discussing design concepts with Mark Hunt who had his new Pentathlon and enjoying the antics of Chuck Hockhalter (really fun guy) who was employing an electric set-up utilizing 2-Dog motors. Had one fail in practice.

Some of the guys that flew electric last year had gone back to glow. Notably, Troy, Quique, Cameron among others. In spite of this the overall number of electrics continues to increase. 

Quique was present with his new bipe called the "Euphoria" which is huge and extremely striking. The fuse appears more voluminous than any thing else out there and at 1450 square" you can't help but wonder how he makes the weight. The plane is beautiful with great graphics and presents well and, to this viewer, had gobs of power catapulting him to the top of the box effortlessly.

Lance showed up on site 3 with his Symphony and flew only one practice round, but it looked really really good to me. Based on what he showed me in this practice round I was anticipating a great showing for him in the actual contest, but I really didn't follow the Master's guys that closely.

A few additional guys showed up late in the P.M., among them George Astearis who flew a practice round with an Oxai Astral and demonstrated that he still had the touch..............GOOD STUFF ! I think it was Joey Hayes that showed up late with a Brio and flew well also.

On my way back from supper Sunday nite Rusty flagged me down so that I could preview the new 90 size Focus that Dave Guerin had on display for those gathered around. It really looked gorgeous and I was assured that it was an exact replica of the production version due to arrive in about 3 weeks. It was also emphasized that this model would be coming to the purchaser covered in Ultracote,not Chinese Film. BIG PLUS! Rusty introduced me to a bunch of guys gathered and kinda gave them a bio of what I was there for (What a guy!). In spite of the fact that I had lots of difficulty with many names I was met with warm greetings all around,..........what a great bunch !!!!!!!!!!

Turned in feeling very full emotionally.

Tuesday dawned overcast with intermittent showers so I decided to audit the recertification class conducted by Don Ramsey who did his usual stellar job of dispencing the appropriate info pertinent to the 2007 rules modifications. He's special to me "cause we can disagree on specifics and still love each other. All of the big guys were there to get recertified so I got to see Chip ,Sean, Jason, Quique, e.t.c.

Oh, that Jason,............I had packed a pair of scizzors and I had assembled a team and we were going to tackle him down and take care of some hair issues, but he must have gotten wind of the plot and showed up clipped and shaven and looking more handsome than ever. You gotta love that Jason !!!!

I learned from Chip, in the class, that the 1/2 Clover is done differently from the way that I had been doing it and also why the 1/2 reverse cuban with 2/2 cannot be started before center (That's for another dissertation,wheew!).

Throughout the day people kept pouring into the site and eventually I found myself at site 4 where I met a 14 year old from Va. named Edwin Manson and his Dad Don and we talked pattern for over an hour. At home in Va. they fly with Don Szczur and the kid shows significant potential flying a 90 size Epsilon with a Saito 125. 

Hung out at site 3 for a while as guys practiced through the sprinkles with plastic bags wrapped around their Transmitters.Had a lot of fun teasing Cameron Smith as we hung out later in the Gazebo and got to know him in a way that I had never had the opportunity to do in the past. I had always felt him to be a little aloof, but he turned out to be a ton of giggles advising me that if I needed someone to harrass, he was available anytime. Almost felt like we made some kind of a connection,........neat ! Finally went to lunch and came back to discover Viscente and Charlie Rock had arrived and had a nice chat with them and many others. Tons more peeople arriving around 3:00 P.M. with many joyous greetings. Chuck Hockhalter was taking pix for some publication ( Giant something?) and I have to tell you, He is the neatest guy,.......not only a handsome dude, but full of the dickens and a real cut-up. Makes up one-liners on the spot and is lotsa fun to be around........worth the trip just for Chuck !!!!

At 1:00 P.M. there was a ceremony at the museum where Quique donated his Nats winning Brio to the Museum in a very emotional presentation. It was hung at the end of a line of historical pattern models that spanned a few decades of models that had been designed by the past greats of our sport. There was a Taurus, a Perigee, a QuickFly, an L.A. 1, and a couple I can't recall, all representing the advancement of technological design. 

At 4:00P.M. The Ice Cream Social went off and the Concourse D'Elegance was assembled with some very special airplanes including a "Work of Art" by Raiko Potter. You'd have to see this plane to really appreciate it. It doesn't Photograph with sufficient detail to do it justice and words will never be able to convey its craftsmanship. Really wonderful !!!!!!!!!

Immediately following was the pilot's meeting with Mickey Losardo, who was in great voice, leading off with the National Anthem. Anyone you hadn't seen previously, you now did, as everyone was gathered together in one place on the site 3 side lawn.

You should be aware that all of this pageantry was presided over and coordinted by none other than our fantastic representative Rusty Dose who was a solidifying force throughout the event. The guy is a Master !!!!!!!!!!!!

After everything cooled down, I took another bike ride and went for supper and came back for some shuteye. 

Wednesday dawned again overcast.Light rain commenced at 6:40 A.M. and continued 'til around 9:00 or 9:30 when a few breaks could be seen and the signal came to fly.

Masters were up first, so I decided to check in on my new friends over on the Intermediate site so I spent about an hour there meeting additional entrants and met the Li family, Larry, Jack and Jack's Mom, Yahou, a wonderful oriental family who were very warm and friendly. When Jack would go out to the flight line to put in a round, He would bow respectfully to the judges before beginning his routine (he came in second in Intermediate, BTW ).

After visiting the Chuck Wagon at lunch time on site 3 I decided it was time for me to get a little serious and do some practice scoring so I dug out the score sheets and decided to remain at site 3 as the guys that I really wanted to score were flying there........Andrew, Chip, Don S, Dave L, Pete C, Mike Harrison, e.t.c.

This year I had decided to try an experiment in my scoring regime. I purchased a digital voice recorder before I left home with the idea that I could view a whole routine without looking down to record the score and then transfer the scores after the flight terminated. I quickly realized that I couldn't press the record button at the beginning of the flight and let it run because the playback time was too lengthy, so I found that I could press the record button, verbalize the score and then hit the pause button 'til time to verbalize the next score and this did indeed work fabulously. However I soon discovered that some times I would become hypnotized by the maneuver and forget to press the pause button and then when it was time to verblize the next score I would press the pause button and the score would not be recorded. Big Snafu !!!! However, one of the things that this little device was terrific for was doing a running commentary throughout a routine and then playing it back afterward eliminating the difficulty of trying to remember what infractions occurred and when they occurred, and I did indeed do this with several individuals who when they heard the playback would invariably comment"Oh yeah, I remember doing that !" When it came to the finals, I had to resort to the old fashioned method of logging scores manually as I didn't trust that I could consistantly press the correct buttons without screwing up and I didn't want anything to misconstrue my results. I did quite a few running commentaries and everyone seemed to have a good reaction responding positively to the feedback. Spent the whole afternoon with these guys and after everything was wrapped up there, I wandered back to site 1 in time to catch Dave L in an F-07 practice flight which was better than wonderful !........the man is GOOD!!!!!!!!!!

After supper I drove over to site 4 where I met Matt Liprie. I had been exposed to him many times as he often contributes to this list, but had never met him in person. Enjoyed chatting with him immensely. He's a really nice kid and flies pretty doggone well too. I watched him fly his Genesis in a pretty strong crosswind and he handled it like a pro. Came back to the tent and called it a day.

Wednesday nite some severe electrical storms came through the area and I experienced a small one INSIDE the tent !

Thursday: Still raining in the morning which held up the start of things just like wednesday morning, but eventually things started to brighten and things got underway again probably before 10:00 A.M. Strong winds prevailed much of the day with peak gusts at ground level exceeding 25 mph in the afternoon and we speculated that it would be well over 30 upstairs and still everybody was getting through routines and getting bck down in one piece. Took in some more Intermediate in the morning as I was interested in how Edwin was faring and came back for some more unofficial scoring in the afternoon. Troy showed me some impressive numbers. I always seem to catch his better flights. Filled a few practice sheets and changed clothes and went to the Banquet. Had a nice buffet dinner and saw some of the Videos being made of the various events and sat in awe of Rusty's ability to pull off a great evening. He hosted a terrific time.

Skies finally blew clear around 6:00 P.M. and cool temps moved in for a very chilly night. This time I had the blanket, but I was still cold.

Friday: Checked in on Edwin (who ultimately finished 6th) and Jack over on Intermediate to cheer them on as well as some additional guys who were flying well and took in a few Master's flights. Saw one of Verne's flights in quite high winds and he looked awesome,...........really good flying!!!!

Decided to get as many of the semi-finalists as I could, knowing that I would not be able to see everyone as they were flying on both sites 1 and 3, so I caught about 7 guys on site 1 and then went over to site 3 and took in 6 more. I knew this would be an exercize in futility, but I used this experience to sharpen my judging eyes. Saw some really nice flights and some that were less than stellar. Someone told me that after the semis that Jason was in seventh place. Well, he must have had a really bad round that I didn't see, 'cause the round that I saw (only one) I had scored him higher than all comers. Andrew was right up there also. Once again it got really windy in the afternoon,....THIS IS A WINDY PLACE!!!

Saturday: Finals day dawned bright and sunny with very light winds making it "Duck Soup" for the first few fliers. Everybody was looking good with a couple of exceptions. Chip had a battery pak come loose in his Scandalous making the plane appear that he might lose it, but he got it down safely, however it cost him the last 5 maneuvers of the first round and Andrew flew a little off his normal superb form knocking him down a little on my score sheet.

Next came the first unknown and there was some wonderful stuff put up especially by Chip and Jason. Chip, now back in the game, flew extremely well. I think he thrives on pressure. These guys are all "world Class", but everyone of them have individual rounds where they sparkle less brightly, but to maintain the overall consistancy they're capable of is nothing short of miraculous, especially in light of the conditions they are subjected to (hurricanes). As an observer, you have high hopes for each one, so when they have a round in which they falter your hopes get a little dashed. As individuals they are all astounding people. Quique is so considerate of others it can make your jaw drop. I've told him about corrections I'd like to see him make to specific maneuvers, and through it all he remains extremely gracious.

One of the maneuvers that was consistantly BLOWN was the "reverse triangle with K.E. across the bottom. Everybody was executing the first leg of this maneuver at approximately 35 degrees to make it wide enough so that they could demonstrate "controlled K.E. across the bottom". Then after the radius they would fly too long a line before going K.E., hold the K.E. too long and then pull the radius in Timbucktu and climb back up at 30 degrees to an exit height that was way higher than the entry point. It's interesting that the best one I observed was flown by Quique.

The winds picked up again in the afternoon, but these guys were all pretty much unfased. Sean really shined on the rolling stuff, 1/2 loop, loop with one roll from inverted, circle with 4 rolls, the rolling S, the 2 roller, what a significant talent !!!!!! Brett had some outstanding maneuvers, especially as a first timer in F3A. I thought Andrews first F-07 and first unknown gave him some difficulty, but from then on he was a force to be reckoned with. I think that if he had been able to have had an "Andrew" first round, each case, we would have had to help him carry home the big bag of marbles.

Y'know, I talked at length with Andrew earlier in the week about the execution of the "F" sequence and I was impressed at the way he has really studied the required inputs, timing, and positioning and has got it all together. I see a world championship in his future. I'm sure glad he made the team.

I don't know what the point spread was, but I suspect things were pretty tight at the top officially.

When Jason got the news of the win, he was ecstatic and started jumping up and down athletically to the point that on one of his leaps he easily cleared the Gazebo and If Quique hadn't been there to catch him when he came down he would doubtless have been injured (kidding guys).

This year I was joined on the grass behind the judges by a cadre of very interested spectators all keenly focused on every turn of events regarding the ultimate outcome.

Before the announcement and immediately after the last flight I met Tim Jesky in the Parking lot and he asked me how I thought it had gone, to which I responded that I thought it was between Andrew and Jason. It, to me, was that apparrent !

Oh, ........The new Bipe! Quique's new Bipe was BEAUTIFUL !!!!!!!!! The plane was something to drool over ! However, In spite of the fact that the plane appeared to fly well and with more than adequate power Quique failed to score all that well on my score sheet and I overheard someone else make the statement, "I think that Biplane is hurting him". I don't know if Quique's form was off a little this year or if the airplane has some issues, but, to me, there was a significant difference in the precision aspect of his flying compared to last year and especially the year before. 

As always, my scores vary somewhat from the official results and only reflect things as the way I saw them, so I submit the following:.......................

Pilot............F-07-1...............Unknown #1..................F-07-2 ................Unknown #2.............

Jason..........1000......................995............................984.........................959......................

Andrew..........953......................935...........................1000.......................1000.....................

DonS............974......................946.............................926.........................951.....................

Chip...............736....................1000.............................929.........................939....................

Sean..............971......................948.............................907.........................945....................

Brett...............958......................957.............................889.........................938....................

Quique...........992......................937..............................903.........................898...................

DaveL............935......................860..............................937.........................898...................

This first column pilot order is the "ORDER OF FINISH" I arrive at after throwing away the low score round from each entrant and is only representative of my own personal scoring effort and should in no way be construed to impact in any way the official results as posted by the "official" scoring tally. For all you know, I may need glasses !

I just do this 'cause it gives me tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction and if you've followed this thing this far, I'm grateful for you interest and I thank you.

Georgie 









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