[NSRCA-discussion] F3A WC Trip

[Atwood, Mark]

Hey Everyone,

Now that I'm back home, semi-rested and back on Eastern Standard Time, I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for all the tremendous support we received before, during and now after our trip to South Africa.

As you all have heard from me by now, it was a logistically challenging trip to make, and without everyone that stepped up to help, I think we would have really had a hard time.  As it was, things went reasonably smoothly (there were a few dicey moments with cancelled flights and such but all worked out) and obviously we had a great result.

I would like to call out a few people that went above and beyond in their efforts.  First would be Linda Rice, our Travel agent, spouse of Jim Rice, AMA VP, who made all of our travel arrangements and spent most of her sunday (the day we were leaving) on the phone with Delta and South African Airlines, rearranging cancelled flight plans, and helping Don & Joseph get their equipment on board.   For 9 months she worked with me to find our lodging, arrange flights, arrange in country transportation, etc.

Next would be Lloyd Coleman, who was Linda's main resource, and eventually worked directly with me, in making arrangements with the South Africans.  Lloyd spent many a LATE night on the phone with SA to make our final arrangements.  He did all the leg work to arrange for appropriate mini-vans for us (that was a bigger hassle than you may imagine).   He also put together the one day Safari adventure that many of us stayed an extra day for, which was an amazing experience.

Last would be Geoff Dale, a fellow modeler and South African native who was our "host" club member at the practice site that we used.  Geoff made arrangements with his club to provide us exclusive use of their fabulous flying field for the entire time we were their.  He arranged for us to have generators to use, shuttled me around town for hobby parts, lettering that was needed, and other minor needs, and as well and throwing the team a big "Braai" (cookout) for lunch at the field.   Without his assistance and local knowledge, I think we would have been in a world of hurt.

None of these things changes the way the Andrew, Jason, Brett and Joseph flew…which was amazing.  But it did provide them with a somewhat stress free environment to practice and focus on the tasks at hand, rather than having to worry about all the potential issues.    Point being, we can credit a big part of our success to the efforts of Linda, Lloyd and Geoff.

I've copied them on this email, because I feel they deserve a huge thank you from everyone that was involved in this effort.

On a related note, I'd also like to again thank anyone and everyone that contributed to the team financially, either directly donating, buying a shirt or hat, raffle ticket, or whatever.  I have not finished the final financials yet (but I do plan to provide a fairly complete accounting), but it would appear that we'll be in pretty good shape for covering all of the major expenses.   That also sends a huge message to the team about the support that's behind them, and helps motivate everyone to do their very best, not just for themselves, but for everyone that's backing them.     It's an ongoing effort, with Switzerland 2015 a mere 23 months away.  But for now we can enjoy success and say thank you to everyone that helped.

Time to learn P15!!!

-Mark


Mark Atwood
Paragon Consulting, Inc.  |  President
5885 Landerbrook Drive Suite 130, Cleveland Ohio, 44124
Direct: 440.229.2502 |  Fax: 440.684.3102
www.paragon-inc.com<http://www.paragon-inc.com/>


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