Practice Day

Up at 7 a.m. to finish charging packs…. It never ends! We followed Harry & Dan North to the flying site and set up for the days flying. We were greeted to windy conditions out of the South –Southeast but the temperatures remained relatively comfortable.

Dan gave Harry a hand with the marker poles as we set up our planes. After a trip into Lindsay for more paint, Harry finished spraying in the box lines and then they headed back to the farm as Harry had chores to do. Dan elected not to fly as he was awaiting his supplies that he had shipped from Lethbridge.

We had a good day and managed 6 rounds each before our fatigue started to take its toll on both our bodies and flying quality. We packed up early and headed back to Harry’s place to recharge packs and get cleaned up. Mark and I also took a side trip into Cobourg and purchased several wines for our gracious hosts. The downtown core is a very neat spot to walk around.

We were treated to a great BBQ steak dinner with fresh corn, potatoes & tomatoes … I love the farm life! The rains have now started so hopefully they will move through tonight.

Mark is going to prepare a delicious scrambled egg dish in the morning so we will be ready for the day. As the planes stay in the vehicle we will be able a quick departure in the morning.

By the way, Mark is flying really strong and I fully expect him to give Chad a run for his money and take home the top spot on the team.

Mmmmmm,,,,, never leave your computer to check batteries…. Seems someone snuck in a comment re: their flying.

The trip out...

Up early as Mark & Robyn picked me up at 20 past 4 in the morning. As Mark and I are traveling on a pass, the loads out of Vancouver to Toronto were hammered so we elected to jump over to Calgary to connect to YYZ. The check in was seamless and our flights all connect well with on time departures all the way. Chad and Dan are three hours ahead of us as they caught the 7:30 am flight out of Calgary. Dan will be waiting for us and will hitch a ride to Harry’s place near Cobourg. Approximately 75 minutes drive from the airport.

Chad will be staying with Ivan and Diane tonight and then using their motor coach as he gave up a spot for Dan.

On arrival in Toronto we met up with Dan, picked up the rental van and away we went to Cobourg. We had stop & go traffic for 50 kms…. hey it’s rush hour… then, after stopping at Wal-Mart for supplies we headed to the Ells Farm.

We started to assemble the planes and after a break for a great dinner, finished the assembly job and continued to charge our packs. BTW They arrived just after 2 P.M. in great condition.

We will be on our way up to Lindsay in the morning to check out the field and help Harry get set up. There is no internet at the field.

Off to bed now.

BTW New pictures posted. I'll do captions later :-)

Here we go again!

Well once again we have dismantled the planes and packed them for the trip to Ontario. The Canadian National Precision Aerobatics Championship and Team Trials will go this coming weekend. I will have limited access to update the blog but I highly doubt that you will see the up to the minute reporting that you may have witnessed from the US Nats. I was just a spectator at that time so updating was easy. This will be different ;-)

Pictures will be uploaded when I have the chance to the Picassa album. The link is on the right side at the top.

Pattern West News - Connection difficulties ;-)

Hi folks

For those looking for your daily fix of pattern news I have been down in the states and cannot upload to my Shaw server through Comcast.... put a man on the moon... sure, connect to a server...no way :-(

Anyhow I have added the Pattern In The Valley pictures to the photo gallery. Thanks to Scott Esplen for sending me the pics. I'll get some captions done shortly.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Dave.Reaville/PatternInTheValley2008

Through in a blown hard drive on my PC at home just for fun.... arghh!

Back home soon... Dave

More Pictures

Aside from the Picasa web album I have at http://picasaweb.google.com/Dave.Reaville/2008AMANationals

Ivan Kristensen has publish more photos here
http://albums.phanfare.com/ivankristensen/2413376#imageID=38688177

Thanks to Ivan for sharing these with us.

27 Hours and Counting

From the desk of Marko Piloto :-)

Who said flying R/C airplanes isn't exhauting or hard work! It's 06:00 Pacific time and we are waiting in Vancouver for the last flight of our journey home. Our day began yesterday at 06:00 Eastern ( 03:00 for you west coast folks) and we are now into our 27th hour of Friday. The term TGIF has a whole different perspective right now. LOL

We did manage to get a couple hours of nap time this morning (what day is it??) before checking through our baggage. A quick stop at the Reaville's for some planned coffee and banana bread then Dave and I are heading out to the field to put in a few rounds. Yes Kelly, he is not yours until tonight! LOL

The week that we spent in Muncie was once again a great experience. Lots of flying and laughs shared between the boys and their toys. Congratulations to Chad on his 7th place finish in the finals. We all know that Chad is a very good pilot but his consistency was the factor this week in reaching his goal. No more DA first rounds as his metal toughness has improved significantly.

Back to the grind on Monday of planning and practicing for the Canadian Nationals and Team Trials to be held in Ontario at the end of August. Honey, (Robyn) see you in September.

Marko "Piloto"

Final Results and Heading home :-)

As Get Smart would say “Missed it by that much!”

Well I guess by now you figured out that we had to leave for the airport in Indianapolis. We waited as long as we could but hey those are the breaks you get in life.


Troy & Quique pose with their Euphorias

We know Jason placed first but it was a real battle for the top three spots. All the top guys put in good rounds in the last unknowns. Both Brett and Andrew had solid Unknown #2 flights. Sadly Quique was only able to complete two rounds (both were solid BTW) after having engine problems on his last two flights. He seemed to take it in stride though. This was the tightest battle I have witnessed as it came down to the last flights scores to determine the US Team.

Mark and I said our goodbye’s and gave our chairs to Chad & Nedim to take back to Calgary. They had lots of room because Chad had sent his backup plane home with Harry Ells (for the Canadian Team Trials in August). He was the only pilot that did not have a backup for the Finals. He didn’t need it as it was probably the best 10 rounds he has strung together at any competition.

At 5 pm the Pattern West Blog went “dark” as we changed clothes and headed to Indy for our 19:50 flight to Toronto. All went well and we arrive in plenty of time to catch the flight. The Thrifty boss drove us in our van right to the check at United (Air Canada). Plane boxes & baggage were quickly processed and we were through security in less than 15 minutes curb to bar. Man I was impressed!

Chad had phoned as we were gassing up the rental so I didn’t have a lot of time to talk to him. He gave me the rundown on the results and his 7th place finish. I was very happy and proud for him as I know how hard he works on his flying. The sacrifice his family has to make for him to achieve this goal has been a topic with all of us pattern guys at one time or another.

Final results:


Dez finished in 19th spot, Mark 26th, Dave 27th, Nedim 30th and Harry 32nd.

Great to see Quique take the fourth spot even though he only put in two rounds… sometimes life has a way of rewarding you when you are patient. Always the gentleman, he has represented the USA very well. You should all be proud of him.

We arrived in Toronto and cleared Costums & Imigration, picked up our planes and rechecked them for our Vancouver flight. They could not check our bags through to Victoria so we will have some work to do when we arrive in YVR. No big deal as we have 6 hours plus on the ground.

I am blogging from Starbucks at the Vancouver Airport right now 02:00 Local and we are both tired and exhausted. The big comfy seats upfront helped a little ;-) I have also updated the Nats Pictures 2008 with the last ones I took before heading out.

Mark sleeps.

We will arrive back in Victoria at 08:20 Saturday morning and be home at 9 am. Mark will go home to bed and I load the trailer and grab the ferry to the mainland for a week of camping at our friend’s beach house looking at the San Juan Islands… it will be tough but I will make it.

Hope everyone enjoyed the blog and I apologize for leaving everyone hanging…. Sorry but our time at the AMA Nats had come to an end.

Depending on Team Trials results we are considering a return again next year.