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<P>OK Guys, here goes............................</P>
<P>2006 Nats is history and being there was, as always, a priviledge that I will
probably not be able to enjoy for too many more years, but the experience
creates an indelible memory event that burns in your psyche for an indefinite
period of time.</P>
<P>The really special part of the experience is the people. I think that this is
my 5th year and renewing aquaintances previously made and meeting new people is
fabulous. I arrived Sat nite and got my tent set up in it's usual place and
realized that it was still light out as this is the first year that Indiana has
gone on Daylight Savings time so it was light out 'til almost quarter to ten.
There was more than one nite that Sean McMurtry was actually flying at 9:30
P.M.</P>
<P>Sunday morning saw me out on the flight line early and Troy was putting up
some practice flights and we spent a few minutes discussing/sharing flight
elements and execution anomalies and corrective inputs. Received so many
familiar hellos from the likes of Earl, Robert G., Harry Ells, the Canadians,
the D1 guys, and so many that they are too numerous to mention. Also spent quite
a few minutes talking with Sean who is a real friendly individual and a real
gentleman, who informed me that he was competing with Naruke's actual airplane.
That thing was gorgeous and the detail of the craftsmanship was astounding.The
pipe mount was to die for! Instantaneously removable and absolutely foolproof !
What a work of art.</P>
<P>Up to now I had been at site 1 so I decided to go over to site 3 and see what
was going on over there. As I was driving over, I thought to myself, "it's only
9:30 and if this was over right now, I have already had the greatest time, and
the contest hasn't even started yet. At site 3 it was almost a repeat of
greetings and after a settling down period I started to watch some practice
flights. Jim Woodward showed that his efforts over the last year were not wasted
as his flying was top notch.Jim decided that his electric was not giving him the
best opportunity for the scores he felt he was capable of so after a couple of
days with the electric he made the switch to glow and felt that he did indeed
improve his standings.</P>
<P>At one point, I was sitting out under the judges sunshade during a practice
session observing the flyers executing their sequences and who pulls up a chair
and begins to chat , but Jason. Now I have to tell you that Jason really didn't
know me from Adam and yet he was the most affable friendly guy you could ever
hope to meet. I teased the daylights out of him about getting a haircut and
tried a whole bunch of stuff to rattle his cage and he would just come back with
a quick quip and put you totally at ease. What a wonderful kid !!!!!!!!!! I
love'im (and no, that didn't influence my scores)</P>
<P>All the old stand-bys were there to keep everything running smoothly. Bobby
Stout, John and Bill, Jerry P., line chiefs that I didn't know, but everybody
did a teriffic job of making it a well run event.</P>
<P>I met some neat new guys on site 4. There was a fellow flying a Nat Penton
Voodoo Express ( I think his name was Lewis). Another kid flying an Adrenaline
named Paul Futey. It was great to see again Carl Zavalney, and Keith Black and
it's impossible to remember everybody, but like I said, you really feel that
this is a special experience.</P>
<P>Monday morning I got into my trusty chair behind the flight line and did some
P07 scoring to try to sharpen up my judging skills in preparation for the real
serious stuff. I Scored the guys that I thought would be in the thick of it at
the end on site one, first round. One individual that impressed me was Chad
Northeast.Chad was flying an airplane called a Twister that I think is a Synergy
derivitive powered by a Plettenberg electric and it was balletic. The plane
flew, what appeared to me, to fly slower than anybody else's electric and Chad
was quite precise in his execution. I let him know that I thought he was doing
well after his flight. I discovered later when I checked my numbers that his
scores were a little lower than most of the top guys, but there's something
about his presentation that keeps you rivetted. His is indeed a very pleasant
presentation. After that round I went to site 3 and scored a few guys over
there, knowing that at this juncture in time, all that I was doing was getting a
feel for consistancy.</P>
<P>The first 3 days were spent trying to get my head to interpret what my eyes
were seeing, but on the 4th day things really got heated up ( of course Muncie
was it's usual high temp environment as well). I feel that being away from the
competition environment for a year and being a year older that I'm starting to
lose a little of my sharpness and judging ability as I was concious at times
that I was occasionally missing a few things, but I think the overall relativity
of the scores that I arrived at are still consistant within that envelope.</P>
<P>I found out that my position, 50 feet behind the judges does not afford me a
view of the box constraints and although I scored Troy quite highly, I was
advised later that he had quite a few box violations because he flew in too
close which knocked him out of the finals.Needless to say, I was saddened to
learn of this as he takes the sport very seriously and I like to see him do
well. He had a really nice airplane and flew it with the skill of the top
eschelon pilots. </P>
<P>Since returning home I have been quite busy so haven't had time to get to my
scoring etchings till now. Seeing as Vicente was kind enough to send us
Northerners a good dose of Kansas weather (it's 100 degrees here today) I have
been quarantined to the indoors with a little extra time so I thought I would
pull out my score sheets and run the numbers in order to see how I stacked up
against the official results.</P>
<P></P>
<P>This number thing is a real revelation. It seems to indicate trends and
weaknesses and consistancy of each individual. Sometimes as you begin to
tabulate the results it can get pretty scary when there are only 5 points
separating the first 4 guys you've totalled. I felt, before I left for the Nats
this year, that it was probably going to be a tight race, with Sean and Jason in
attendance and was looking forward to the outcome with great anticipation.</P>
<P>Last year I felt that Chip flew poorly and I was surprised to hear that he
had done well at the Worlds. Well I have to tell you that this year he
vindicated himself on my scorecard.He seems to have the ability to do better
when the pressure is greatest and really comes through.</P>
<P>The day of the finals was a nightmare !!!!!!!!!!! The day started out
overcast, but not excessively windy, so the first round of F07 presented no more
problems than anticipated and everyone flew O.K.</P>
<P>Next came the first unknown and you begin to see in the scores areas of
weaknesses and strengths in the different individuals. Some individuals
displayed tremendous consistancy no matter what was thrown at them with their
scores staying within close proximities (Chad, Chip, Jay, QQ). It's probably
unfair to some individuals to rate them in exactly this way due to rthe extreme
weather that blew in for the last couple of rounds.This contest may have had a
totally different outcome without the extremes of weather that these poor souls
had to tolerate. In the final round, Dave L and Don were required to fly in
winds that were just under the threshold (40mph) and it hadn't let up very much
when Chip flew last and almost won the round on my scorecard.</P>
<P>Please remember, these are only MY reflections, and there is no way to verify
my qualifications for my conclusions or even indicate that I know what I'm
talking about, however, what is certainly true is that these eight individuals
flew very difficult sequences in a manner that was exemplary and with extremely
closely matched performances. This was tight flying my friends !!!!!!!!</P>
<P>Here's what I have:</P>
<P></P>
<P>Andrew, F-07-1 = 1000, F-07-2 = 1000, Unk -1 = 937, Unk-2 = 942 Total =
3879</P>
<P>Chad, F-07-1 = 895, F-07-2 = 894, Unk - 1 = 895, Unk-2 = 911 Total = 3595</P>
<P>Chip, F-07-1 = 964, F-07-2 = 971, Unk - 1 = 989, Unk -2 = 997 Total =
3921<BR></P>
<P>Dave L F-07-1 = 905, F-07-2 = 946, Unk - 1 = 959, Unk -2 = 903 Total =
3713</P>
<P>Don F-07-1 = 965, F-07-2 = 954, Unk - 1 =1000, Unk -2 = 923 Total = 3842</P>
<P>Jay F-07-1 = 998, F-07-2 = 961, Unk - 1 = 989, Unk -2 = 1000 Total = 3948</P>
<P>Sean F-07-1 = 960, F-07-2 = 984, Unk - 1 = 978, Unk - 2 = 879 Total =
3801</P>
<P>QQ F-07-1 = 959, F-07-2 = 958, Unk - 1 = 987, Unk - 2 = 942 Total = 3846</P>
<P>My numbers indicate an order of finish as follows: 1st = Jay, 2nd = Chip, 3rd
= Andrew, 4th = QQ, 5th = Don, 6th = Sean, 7th = Dave L., 8th = Chad .</P>
<P>I had no idea what these numbers were going to show until today and am as
surprised as anybody. I think Chad's one point consistancy over the first three
rounds astounding. Chip worked at keeping his scores up every round to win a
well deserved second. Andrew, make yourself up an unknown sequence every week
and work on unfamiliar stuff. It's obvious you nail everything you get to
practice (you surprised me). Don was unfairly sentenced in the final round. Just
wait 'til next year.</P>
<P>Great work you guys !!!!!!!!!!!!!!</P>
<P>Georgie</P></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>