Last day of practice.

Marko Mechanico Checking In!

Hi everyone. Hope you have been enjoying the antics of the Canadian pilots here in Muncie. Every day there has been lots of laughs as we prepare for the competition which starts tomorrow. The FlightPower F3A packs are performing flawlessly even in the conditions that we are flying in. Dave “Puff Daddy” Reaville is all smiles with his latest batch of batteries and there should not be any visits to disposal sites on this trip. ;-)

One of the biggest factors that we had to adjust to has been the weather conditions. Unlike the crisp cool air that we fly in at home, the air is very thick and can be compared to flying through slush. The humidity isn’t a problem from a comfort level but our airplanes have a very distinct “fuzzy” appearance out at 150 meters. So if you are used to looking at a particular part of your airplane the chances are it will be blended in with everything else on the airframe. On top of this are the strong winds that make rudder corrections a must otherwise your airplane will be in the next county. Practice has paid off for the boys and we are ready to bring it all to the table over the next couple of days

Mark gets in the zone for his practice flight. He learned this technique from one of the other Canadian fliers.

We are now less than 12 hours away from our first official flights and I get the honor of flying first at 8:00am in the morning. This morning the weather was dead calm at the Nats site when we put in a few rounds so I plan to take full advantage of the conditions and dial in a solid flight in the morning. Chad is flying 6th and Dave flies 8th, on the same site while Harry, Dezso and Nedim are on the other. The reigning world champion Quique Somenzini is also flying on the same flight line as us so it will be great to see how he flies P-09. Wednesday afternoon all the Canadian pilots will be flying together on the same site but different flight lines which will be really cool!

I think Dave will be doing some live blogging from the Nats site starting tomorrow so check back in the morning. For you west coast folks this means by the time you have had your first cup of coffee at around 9 am, we will be finished day one of the event.

Dave's slant on the day....

Puffy Daddy? Sheesh... I hope I don't screw up the calls tomorrow :-)

Up early as we wanted to basically practice at the time we are scheduled to fly on Tuesday. We loaded the gear, grabbed a bite at the hotel and headed to the AMA site. The winds were very light and the skies just partly cloudy. Mark is up first and in an effort to ensure his ESC (Electronic Speed Controller for those non E types out there) was functioning properly he loaded a set of packs in for a quick engine run. It was perfect so he decided to just go for it with a round of P-09.

The air was very thick and bump free, quite a difference from the wind conditions we have been experiencing. He flew very well and put in a solid round of P… which features two negative snaps. After landing he went to remove that packs and realize he had forgot to strap the packs down. The velcro on the bottom of the packs and tray was all that held the two together! We now consider the velcro “tested”.and will refrain from further testing in the future.. Gulp!

Chad had quite a crowd of judges watching his morning flight.... notice the various arm positions of the "judges"... yeah no consistancy at all :-) (not posed BTW). More consultation after the flight as we pick it apart.

I really enjoyed getting to fly on our site again and the practice today will help us with our acclimatization. Chad, Nedim, Dez & Harry all put in rounds but the crowd swelled so we decided to cut and run to the practice field. We met up with some familiar faces and had some good conversations with several of the pilots… Joe Lachowski, Dave Lockhart just to name a few. Mark and I also stopped at the AMA headquarters and picked up some shirts for us and the gang back home.

A big weather system was starting to move into the Muncie area so we left just in time. Harry decided to stay and get a few more rounds in and Dez was going to get new tires for his SUV.

Dave Lockhart and his dad Ron joined us and received a complimentary Precision Aerobatics Geometry Site for being the first guests of the Canadian contingent! Just a nice goodwill gesture from the us Canadians. We had invited others but they never showed up… oh well.

Charge station in action!


Mark thinks this looks good on him. Ron's JR TX.

We packed up and headed to the pilots meeting at site 3... well that was the plan except the tent at site 3 was gone due to high winds! We all meet at sight 1 and got the usual briefing from the CD and his staff. All good stuff.

As I was attending the NSRCA board meeting tonight, Mark got a ride back to the hotel with Harry and I took a bunch more pictures... they are on the Picasa pages.

Had an interesting talk with Todd Blose about his Passport's rudder system. Two separate panels powered by separate servos... for normal rudder inputs only one half moves... flip a switch and the two halves work in unison for stall turns, spins etc.

I enjoyed the board meeting and it was nice to gather with all the VP's and the executive. Even got to say hi to D-8's Rex Lesher on speakerphone! The guys have a lot of passion for the NSRCA and it was certainly evident to me. Your in good hands boys.

BTW Mark and I made the front page of the Nats News.... check it out at http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/NatsNews08/0721.pdf

We are over on the far right, Mark is flying, I'm calling and Dez watching.