Semi's are over!

Just finished 4 hours in the chair judging Master (Mark was on the other line). We are now awaiting the official weigh in of the finalist. Chad came eighth and is in! Not 100% sure what is going on but there are now 10 finalists instead of the announced 8. Seems that with two ineligible competitors (for the US Team) they added two more spots. Both QQ and Chad are the "ineligible" fliers.

I took some pictures of the planes on Site #1 and posted them on the Picasa site (see the link on the right of the blog... Nats 2008 pictures)

We will get some shots of the weigh in and then split for dinner. Chad and Nedim will attend the special meeting to draw the schedule for unknowns. Everyone will fly 2 rounds of F and 2 rounds of "Unknows" on Friday... starting early at 8 a.m.

Update - Weigh in and processing.

We headed over to the Headquarters building and watched as the top 10 guys went through the weight and size confirmation. I took several shots of the different planes getting done. I did not stay for all of them as once you see a couple you get the idea ;-)

Nedim and Chad prep for weigh in. Both are obviously very happy to have made the finals




Chad gets the Integral weighed. 4782 grams

Lots of banter.

We headed back and cleaned up a little before picking Harry and Ivan up for dinner. Dez reappeared and we all went to the Texas Road House for dinner and RC related discussions.

Chad called looking for Mark's stick plane to practice the unknown routines, which he said at the time, was almost finished being chosen...yikes it's 9 PM here. It will be a long day for the boys tomorrow. FAI starts on Site #1 at 8 am.

Day 3 Round #1 of Semi’s

Schedule of the days flying.

We were up early after a good nights sleep and headed to Site #1 were Dez was first up. After the demo flight Dez was up with Harry calling. He had a so-so round and you could tell he struggled a bit with power and maybe some nerves. All in all a decent flight but one you would definitely want to build on.

Site 1

Dez gets ready.

We jumped in the van and headed over to site #3 were Chad would be flying. Right now Brent Wickizer is flying followed by Chip Hyde (Chad is scheduled last) All pretty solid rounds so far….

Site 3.

Chad & Mark watch the flights

I’ll update shortly... more pictures in Picasa.

Ok continuing to the judges break…Jason Shulman flew second last and had a very solid flight… the best I had seen this morning. Chad was up next and basically followed Jason’s lead with an equally impressive flight. We will see how the scores fall out but Chad had a solid 1st flight. Always good to nail the starting flight as you can build on it going into round #2.

Flight line shot.

Chad flies his first round.

Jason had great power as he is now running a Plett 30-10 Evo in his Integral. He seems impressed with its simplicity and performance.

Jason chats with Dennis Kirby.

Raw scores are out… phone calculators are going….. stay tuned. Chad had a raw of 1677 so it will be a 951. Jason had a 1762.. wow.

Rumors from flight line #1 has QQ zero his last 45 downline snap due to time. Also heard that Ivan is onsite over there. We will investigate :-)

Ok Ivan is here and we hade a good visit with him. He stopped by on his way to Oshkosh.

Round 2

Both Jason and Chad had solid flights and are awaiting the last pilots to finish flying. Todd Blose just landed. Jasons raw was 1836! ...still waiting on Chads scores.

Jason & Chad with their Plett powered Integrals.

Ok Jason scored an 1836 and Chad had a 1754.. at the request of Chad I have posted it below for his wife Agnes in Calgary. The gang all say Hi and you should be very proud of hubby... best 6 rounds I have seen him fly!