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!

Day 2 – Rounds 3 & 4

Up early again as I am up third on Line 1 followed by right away by Mark. Wind was now blowing in and everyone was working hard to maintain distance. Both Mark and I had solid 3rd rounds. Chad was on his game and flew well. Dez had a good flight and both Nedim and Harry flew pretty well but got blown in quite a bit.

Round #4 was probably my worst round as I missed both snaps due to snap switch (brain) not engaged arghh. Anyway that’s sort of been the theme for me this trip. Mark had a solid fourth round along with probably the best round of P flown by Chad on the B line… very nice from my vantage point.

Dez had a pretty good round with Nedim improving as well as Harry. We all thought Harry was going to take out the pilot station as he made his approach in the strong crosswind!

We had a group shot taken and then planed to have lunch at the field. The Semi-finalists will be announced at this site so we will await the results. I’ll post them as soon as I see them.

The Masters guys are starting to show up and get ready for the afternoon flights on this site so we are packing up and giving them room.

Ok change of plans… off to the practice field to watch Chad & Dez practice F-09. We know Chad is in for sure (he uses his cell phone calculator to compute the data) and are 99% sure Dez made it as well although we did not stay until the semi-final competitors had been announced. Mark and I took the opportunity to discharge our packs and I muddled my way through F a couple times in a strong blowout condition. It was fun and I provided some additional humor to the afternoon!

We have now flown for the last time at the 2008 Nats and after 60 some odd flights between the two of us we are better off for the experience. It was a great time and although I wish I could have done better, we look forward to cracking the semi’s some day… until then its practice, practice, practice.

We packed up and headed back to the hotel and dinner at Chilli's … I even made it to the pool for a dip! Planes are all packed, batteries ready to ship and chargers put away.

Results to date have been posted on RCU at http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7709356/mpage_3/tm.htm
See the last post by Jason. Chad finished P-09 in 10th, Dez 19th, Mark 26th, myself 27th, Nedim 30th and Harry in 32nd position.

Both Chad and Dez move to the semi finals tomorrow morning and then both Mark and I judge Masters in the afternoon. It will be another long day for us!

Mark's up first!

Up at 6 and at flying site # 3 for our first flights. Several of the contestants are already setting up when we arrived. We are sitting beside Quique on the flight line so if we need tips we will just ask!





Blogger Dave

Flight line.





Standby for more from the flightline... Mark is up first on line A.....

Ok Mark had a solid first flight... minor errors but a good showing even though I could hear his knees knocking :-) Chad was up next had a solid round as usual. Once again minor issues with some elements shaved some points off but a decent flight. I once again struggled with the rolls (too slow) and had a generally poor round. Just not going to happen this flight. Anyway my second round was much better and I leave the 3# site with mixed results. Mark had an ok round but had a few rough elements. We decided that our dropped rounds are gone and we have to work hard on tomorrow's flights. Chad had a better round and scored better. A mixed day all around.

No info on the other line.... yet.

Chad on the Site 3 “A”flightline

Chad readies for his first flight of P with Mark calling. Chad had a pretty solid round….those books must be helping… wonder if I can borrow them ;-)


Chad flies, Mark calls.

The flight line was finished by about 10:30 so we got our scores and headed for lunch with Dez. Never did see Harry or Nedim but Chad was off to judge Masters on site #1 so we left. IHOP again for lunch… hey it’s fast :-)

Off to practice as my three rolls and down line snap need some attention. We met up with the club president and his buddies and joined in for some flights. They were in awe of the super quiet electrics:-)

Headed home after numerous flights and met up with the other canucks. we went to the Olive Garden and then back to Chad's place to review scores...

Chad 915, 958

Dez 898, 890

Nedim 851, 788

Harry 806, 738

Mark 822, 787

Dave 785, 836

We will update as time permits tomorrow.

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.

Ok Marko’s doing heavy maintenance on his ship but will log on later to update flight orders and other details… seems one anxious fan wants to hear from him. (See comments section)

Until he comes on I guess I will just have to do …

Hit the IHOP again for an early breakfast and was joined by fellow team pilot Dezso Vaghy. We also met up with some other flyers as well. Chad & Nedim joined us and following breakfast headed to the practice field.

Dez has a few new modifications on his Prestige as he looks for any and all advantages he can get to make his plane perform. These include a new large Canalizer that is attached to the fuse to increase stability in knife edge.

He also attached a strip type leading edge device that creates more drag on the clean wings of his Prestige. This is to solve some turbulence penetration issues he has had.

We found the new canalizer wing most advantageous when it came time for lunch… as you can see it doubles as a convenient table. In fact we have now renamed it the “Table-izer”!

Sorry no table cloth…. It was the one thing Chad did not bring!

Chad also had Dez bring down some graphics for his Integral… Nedim helped out and they had it all done in less than an hour. Here is a picture of it all done up.

We put in numerous practice rounds and I tried my best to unravel my crappy three rolls (opposite). Seems I have forgotten how to do it.. arghh. With help from Chad & Mark I managed to sort it out and will hammer it hard tomorrow.

With threatening skies we packed up early and headed to the AMA site to pick up our pilot packages. This shows all the groups in the matrix and who flies where and when. Both Mark Chad and I will fly together with Dez, Nedim and Harry on the other line.

Dinner was at the Texas Roadhouse and once again I ate way too much. One more stop at Wal-Mart for liquids and clothes for Mark and it was back to the hotel to charge and do some maintenance on Mark’s Twister. (Connector issues between the ESC & motor.)

Harry Ells arrived and we had a little gab session while Chad did some soldering on Marks motor connectors. All good!

We plan to hit the AMA site tomorrow and pick up some Nats shirts and other goodies… may even get a flight or two in as well. I am hitting the rack… Mark will update probably tomorrow sometime with info on the event flying.

More pictures posted on Picasa.

Second practice day

Up at 7:40 to shower, shave and load the planes & gear. We headed to the IHOP again then met up with the boys for breakfast. After that Mark and I headed for the field while Chad & Nedim met with Jason to get even more packs… never have enough you know!

We meet up with some of the D-7 boys outside the hotel... Jerry Budd, John Carter and Krishlan Fitzsimmons were heading to the AMA site then off to another practice field. Not sure if we would meet up with them later today.

For markers at the field (to help lay out the 60 degree box lines) we had picked up some broom handles and foam from Walmart . Here is a shot of our left field marker…. Hey Coltin… recognize him? :-)

A shot of my battery case… lots of flights as we are able to charge onsite… very handy


Technical Stuff

One of the new things we see Chad working on is a variation of the Rasa folding prop assembly. The twist is that the folding prop is mounted the same way as a regular prop instead of the motor mounted version. The prop is very narrow when compared to the APC version and about 30 grams lighter. Chad says this “helps reduce the reactionary torque produced by the prop”.

Because the blades naturally fall into a “balanced or self centered position” there is little imbalance or vibration issues as the blades track perfectly. Also the spool up is quicker and the prop draws approximately 5 amps less with the added bonus of 300 additional RPM. Maybe a variable pitch version will appear down the road… never know.

We ended up taking cover as a thunder shower & high winds battered us for 20 minutes… I had taken some pictures but sadly I left the SD card in my laptop… trust me it rained hard!

We packed up early and headed back to Muncie for a big dinner at the Olive Garden. An early night was planned with more charging… see a theme here?



Mark hauls up the planes to our room... he is good!

Also I added some additional info on yesterdays blog.... scroll down and check it out!

First practice day!

We met up with Chad & Nedim at the Signature Inn to retrieve the battery packs. They had actually arrived in Muncie on Thursday night but due to a “miscommunication” we thought they would arrive today. Hit IHOP for breakfast and had Jason Shulman stop by for a visit.

Chad broke the news that Ivan Kristensen will now compete at the Team Trials in August. Ivan will be flying Chad’s backup Integral for the next month as he prepares for the trials. Great to have him back in the air after his misfortune of late.

Chad finished soldering up some “new” packs and then it was off to Walmart again to pick up a few items. We are regulars now! We then headed to the practice site and spent the remainder of the day working on our flying skills.

The weather was hot, about 31° C with a south west wind so the sunscreen was put to good use!We did some judging on everybody’s rounds and worked on remedies after the flights. All in all it was a good day of flying.

We packed up and headed back to the hotel to unload and start charging and grab a bite to eat. We met up with the Shulman folks for dinner and then made plans for our practice day Saturday.

Went by this place today but decided not to stop.... :-)

Read on folks....

Addendum… Ok I have been informed that my blog was “lame” and basically lack the punch that it needed to captivate the audience… ok then I’ll add some more details of the day… hopefully this will help everyone understand the pressures we face at this National Competition.

Although I reported that there was no damage to our planes I was a bit off the mark. One airplane suffered severe damage when the fuse was snapped in half and the rudder completely dislodged.

Here is a picture of the damage.

Fortunately Chad had just received a new glue gun and was dying to try it out…. so on went the special 4 inch mixing nozzle and the glue was liberally applied. It is safe to say that this is complete overkill but Chad’s face, as the glue swirled down the mixing tube was like a kid in the candy store. Ah…toys & tools!


We decided to take it for a test flight and although Ivan was not here we let the next guy take it for a flight :-)

Chad then went through the P sequence…. working hard on his loops.

Additional packs arrived in a shipment and Chad & Nedim went to work putting them together, first by removing the Deans Connectors and then soldering on the lame 6 mm bullets. Here is a shot of the secret packs… 2p configuration I believe.

Chad did fly them and the results were very positive according to his data logger.

Although dinner was late (finished at 10 pm local) we headed back to the hotel and started the charge process once again. Nedim and Chad returned to the Signature Inn and spent the next few hours pinning his backup ships wings. They hit the rack about 1 A.M…. a little later than Chad’s self imposed 10 P.M. curfew.