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<P>My Nats Blast</P></FONT>
<P>Another year that the Good Lord has enabled me to be healthy enough to attend
and I enjoyed it immensely.</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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?).</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 !!!!!!!!!!</P>
<P>Turned in feeling very full emotionally.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 !!!!</P>
<P>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!).</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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
!!!!</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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 !!!!!!!!!</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 !!!!!!!!!!!!</P>
<P>After everything cooled down, I took another bike ride and went for supper
and came back for some shuteye. </P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 ).</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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!!!!!!!!!!</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>Wednesday nite some severe electrical storms came through the area and I
experienced a small one INSIDE the tent !</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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!!!!</P>
<P>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!!!</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>I don't know what the point spread was, but I suspect things were pretty
tight at the top officially.</P>
<P>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).</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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 !</P>
<P>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. </P>
<P>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:.......................</P><FONT size=5>
<P>Pilot............F-07-1...............Unknown #1..................F-07-2
................Unknown #2.............</P>
<P>Jason..........1000......................995............................984.........................959......................</P>
<P>Andrew..........953......................935...........................1000.......................1000.....................</P>
<P>DonS............974......................946.............................926.........................951.....................</P>
<P>Chip...............736....................1000.............................929.........................939....................</P>
<P>Sean..............971......................948.............................907.........................945....................</P>
<P>Brett...............958......................957.............................889.........................938....................</P>
<P>Quique...........992......................937..............................903.........................898...................</P>
<P>DaveL............935......................860..............................937.........................898...................</P></FONT>
<P>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 !</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>Georgie </P>
<P></P>
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