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.

We made it.. again!.

I write this as we scream along at 37,000 feet heading to Toronto.

I was up at O’dark thirty for our 0530 departure out of Victoria. Kelly even got up to see me off with a very puzzled dog in tow. Mark & Robyn picked me up and we headed to the airport. We were the first to check in and it was a quick & easy process. We had great connection to the 0700 flight to Toronto and plan to update the blog on arrival. With the tailwind we will have almost three hours to collect our planes and get processed through customs.

Ok so there was no “free” internet at the GTAA run Terminal arghh! Anyway we stopped for some dinner before catching our flight to Indianapolis.

Mark relaxing.

Baggage and planes all arrived and we hit the Thriftys Car Rental. In and out in 10 minutes and we left the airport at 20:05 local. Smooth drive up in a new loaded Dodge Caravan and we arrived at the hotel in Muncie at 21:15.

Unpacked the planes (they were in perfect shape BTW) and it was off to WalMart to stock up on supplies. No packs to charge so after we returned we got the planes assembled and did some blogging/email stuff.

Not sure what it is with Mark and toilet plungers but it's been quite hectic around here... anyway we are beat and heading for the rack.

Type later.

Marko's On Line

Hi Everyone,

I will be adding my two cents worth to the PW Blog while Dave and I are at the US Nats. I hear there might be a little synchronized pool action again this year. We just might have some additional cast members who will joining the troop for the performance :-)

Anyway I am all packed and my suitcase comes in at 7 pounds under the 50 pound limit. This year I have decided to purchase additional clothing items from the Muncie Wal-Mart instead of pushing my luck with an over weight suitcase and the airlines. An over weight suitcase can cost an additional $100.

So basically I have packed enough clothing for hot weather and only 4 days worth and we'll be away for 8 days so a few purchases here and there should get me through the week. I figure $100 saved from paying the airline can go a long way at Wal-Mart. LOL

More later

Marko Mechanico

Muncie 08 - Preparation

Both Mark and I have started to pack up the planes for our trip to Muncie. We will double check that all the parts are loaded. Don't want to leave anything behind like a wing tube! :-(

As we travel on a space available basis through my employer, the loads all look good with the tightest being Toronto to Indianapolis. Should work out ok or else we are touring T.O. for a day!

AMA Nationals 2008 - Muncie, IND

Hi folks

Well it's almost that time again as we start to prep for our trip to Muncie and the 2008 AMA Nationals. We should have a pretty strong contingent from north of the border once again with Chad, Nedim, Harry, Dez, Mark and mysef all trying to improve on last years performance.

We will be using this blog as the primary news & information source so bookmark it and check back regularly.