<div><strong><u><font size="4"> My Take on the World Championships </font></u></strong></div><div><font size="2"></font> </div><div>Yup, I'm back !</div>
<div> </div><div>Not feeling up to the 950 mile trip any more, I have passed on attending the Nats for the last 2 years, BUT</div><div>due to the fact that this was my chance to see a World Championship event and also due to a knawing desire</div>
<div>to see a flyer who had been able to pull off such a fantastic series of wins over the last few years, yes, Christophe</div><div>I decided I would try to pull together the rescources to enable me to make the trip</div>
<div>.</div><div>I had in my posession a classic aircraft with a brand new YS-61 AR and pipe which was highly desired by a flying </div><div>buddy so I decided to let it go for $400, thus the funds became available.</div>
<div> </div><div>I knew I would be sleeping in the back of my car and realizing that we were currently experiencing a period of very</div><div>warm weather I knew I would be subjecting myself to some pretty hot nights so I made up a couple of screens for </div>
<div>my rear windows to prevent bugs and to enable some air to cool my boudoir, which worked out O.K.</div><div> </div><div>I left on Saturday the 23rd @ 6:00 A.M. and arrived somewhere around 9:00 P.M., just in time to pump up my air </div>
<div>mattress and get some shuteye.There was a pretty good squall blowing thru making me appreciate the fact that I </div><div>hadn't brought the tent as I never would have been able to set it up in those conditions.</div>
<div> </div><div>Sunday dawned with O.K. weather and after some breakfast I got back to the site to find competitors already showing</div><div>up and shared greetings with old acquaintances (nice).</div><div> </div><div>Some of the competitors were throwing down some practice flights and some of the demo pilots were trying to get in</div>
<div>some additional polish. AC, Andre, and Dave were exemplary in their execution giving the judges real meat to work with.</div><div>Late in the afternoon Chip flew P like noone has ever flown P before. If only it had been videoed, .....it was textbook. The </div>
<div>first stall turn in the M made my jaw drop to about my knees. The plane went up about 800 feet and came to a complete</div><div>stop and just hung there for about a full second without moving and then after this interminable hesitation began to pivot</div>
<div>around the CG without gaining or losing a millimeter of altitude. I know I uttered an audible exclamation of awe followed</div><div>by the thought that "I bet he can't do that again" whereupon he proceeded to duplicate the feat on the other side of the M.</div>
<div>When he got to the turnaround stall he did it again proving it was no fluke. The whole flight was stellar and was the best</div><div>flight of the week for me and I have a tendency to be a little tough on Chip (he doesn't appreciate my corrective inputs ), </div>
<div>but I understand his personality. We're both type A so we clash a little, but I still like him.</div><div> </div><div>When I saw Andrew's practice flight I thought he looked a little rusty and didn't have great hopes for his results in the face</div>
<div> of such strong competition. When I observed the 1/2 square with the upline snap he performed , I said "What was that?"</div><div>To me it looked like a flick roll, but I was informed that it was indeed a snap. Well, somebody must have said </div>
<div>something because when competition started he had fixed it.</div><div> </div><div>Speaking of snaps, Ola Fremming had a snap that was slow enough that you could easily count the turns and it was </div><div>easy to recognize the stalled condition of the airframe. It was very pretty. When have you heard anyone say that about a </div>
<div>snap.</div><div> </div><div>Monday was offficial practice and each team was allotted approx 30 minutes for their team members to familiarize them-</div><div>selves with the physical surroundings of the sites that they would be flying on.</div>
<div> </div><div>Now all the International teams were showing up and making their presence known. It was a wonderful experience to </div><div>observe people whose language was total gibberish to your ears and enjoy their spirit of happy interactivity as they joked </div>
<div>and laughed with great frivolity ( especially the Germans ).</div><div> </div><div>All these teams seemed to have people in their group that spoke quite good, if not excellent, English and came across as </div><div>extremely friendly.</div>
<div> </div><div>About this time I took the opportunity to approach Christophe and laid on him my theory of rudder center of pressure as </div><div>regards pitch and roll coupling and was surprised that he agreed with my concepts. I got a pic with he and I together with</div>
<div>the Axiome which was gratifying.</div><div> </div><div>A bit later I got to see both he and Benoit put in their practice flights and having observed several execution errors I talked </div><div>with both of them regarding required corrections and they expressed their thanks for the tips. On their next flight I noted </div>
<div>that there was an attempt to make those corrections, but on the subsequent flight they were both back to making the same</div><div>errors and concluded that they had probably been practicing for a long time making these errors and they had become </div>
<div>ingrained.</div><div> </div><div>I also talked with many of the other teams offering suggestions and found them all to be very receptive ( I think they felt</div><div>it best to humor the old man).</div><div> </div><div>
The Austrian National Champion was Gerhard Mayr and he was most receptive of all soaking up everything I could feed him,</div><div>No matter how tough I was on him he would come back for more everytime and I spent many evenings in long conversations </div>
<div>with he and his Dad and really got close to them. Wonderful folks ! Gerhard flew electric and at a flying speed much slower </div><div>than everybody else, making people aghast at how he could perform such a deep snap with such a low level of energy. He </div>
<div>is a 26 year old Young man who flew an original design aircraft that was somewhat radical in it's use of canalysers on the </div><div>wings. I see him as a young man with a bright future.</div><div> </div><div>The most obvious errors that were most apparrent to my eyes were the integrated roll in the M which finished much higher</div>
<div>than it started as well as it's centering, 1/2 square loop on corner lacking a line after the 2nd 2of 4, radii in the triangle, centering</div><div>of roll elements as well as combination maneuvers.</div><div> </div>
<div>The weather was not typical Muncie fare as the winds were not the usual Oklahoma variety. There were periods where the </div><div>winds would build in the middle of the day only to subside after and hour or so. On Thursday Onda came to the line just after</div>
<div>a rush of pretty strong air pushed through only to have things calm down shortly thereafter, which I thought was unfair.</div><div> </div><div>During the prelims there were some comments regarding seeming bias relative the scoring of the french team which I chalk up</div>
<div>to impression judging. Without actual numbers it's very difficult to assess who is hitting the high K-Factor maneuvers.There was</div><div>even a bias protest which was apparently resolved. I have to confess that I also felt that there was some favoritism being shown</div>
<div>to the big name pilots, but kept realizing that I wouldn't know the result of appearances until I ran my numbers.</div><div> </div><div>I come away from this amazing experience with the feeling that if Chip had been able to fly the finals like he flew the prelims</div>
<div>the outcome could have been quite different. I scored one of the semifinal flights where he was 35 points above the next closest</div><div>competitor.</div><div> </div><div>I spent a good part of the day on Friday, after I got home running my numbers and here's what I have. Despite what it may seem </div>
<div>I can assure you that there is no favoritism here.</div><div> </div><div>Andrew........Finals # 1 = 590 ........Finals # 2 = 636 .........Unknown #1 = 497 ..........Unknown # 2 = 520..........................................</div>
<div> </div><div>Kogi.............Finals #1 = 616.........Finals # 2 =599............Unknown # 2 = 480..........Unknown # 2 = 513..........................................</div><div> </div><div>Bernd...........Finals #1 = 610..........Finals # 2 = 580...........Unknown # 1 = 469..........Unknown # 2 = 537............................................</div>
<div> </div><div>Onda............Finals # 1 = 577.........Finals # 2 = 585...........Unknown # 1 = 468..........Unknown # 2 = 531................................................</div><div> </div><div>CPLR...........Finals # 1 = 581.........Finals # 2 = 580...........Unknown # 1 = 474...........Unknown # 2 = 518..............................................</div>
<div> </div><div>Mayr.............Finals # 1 = 556.........Finals # 2 = 571...........Unknown # 1 = 481...........Unknown # 2 = 528...............................................</div><div> </div><div>Kaiser...........Finals # 1 = 540.........Finals # 2 = 609...........Unknown # 1 = 475...........Unknown # 2 = 490...............................................</div>
<div> </div><div>Chip..............Finals # 1 = 593.........Finals # 2 = 559...........Unknown # 1 = 462............Unknown # 2 = 486...............................................</div><div> </div><div>Matt..............Finals # 1 = 540.........Finals # 2= 589............Unknown # 1 = 456............Unknown # 2 = 482...............................................</div>
<div> </div><div>BPLR............Finals # 1 = 575.........Finals # 2 = 563............Unknown # 1 = 432............Unknown # 2 = 496................................................</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>It's interesting that there is only a one point variation in the finals scores of CPLR and the finish of Suzuki was a total shock to me.</div>
<div> </div><div>The finishing positions are as listed from top to bottom.</div><div> </div><div>I have no axes to grind and found those French guys to be wonderfully friendly people, but I think that with accurate judging that </div>
<div>particular dominance may be short lived.</div><div> </div><div>I would add that there was a very high level of competency displayed by all competitors which was evidenced by their proficiency in </div><div>the rollers.</div>
<div> </div><div>If you've read this far, thanks for listening and be encouraged that this will be my last time.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Georgie </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>