Semi-Finals

Mark and I had left the planes with Hartley yesterday so todays trip was a light one. Starbucks stop as per normal and we headed to Site #4 to watch Chad practice. With the early morning sun skirting the right box line Mark held up a clip board as Nedim called for Chad. A solid practice round followed and with that flight in the bag Chad called it a day as far as practice was concerned.

We headed over to pick up Hartley from Site #3 and then on to Site #1 for the first of two F-11 flights today. The crowd was a bit larger as the contest started to ramp up. Chad was up in the number 2 position as I drew that number for him the night before. Sorry buddy!

Dez and Nell had to head home and stopped by to watch Chad’s flight and say goodbye.

The whole team, along with Paul Hepworth and Ivan Kristensen watched as the battery & sound test was completed and he took to the skies of Muncie. The weather was nice with clear skies and a gentle breeze. The flight was one of his better ones I have seen and he did the country & team proud. I was very happy for him.

His plane was picked for a complete processing and once done he headed towards the pit area pretty happy. You can only do so much (fly well) and the rest is really up to what the judges think.

He scored a 458 and although a seemingly solid flight to us, he was positioned well behind the pack:-(

With a few hours before his next flight we headed for lunch and a side trip the Wilbur Wright's Birthplace Museum. Heck there is an RC field right beside it as well!!! It was very interesting and a little piece of history I never knew was there.   

We arrived back at the AMA site well in advance of Chad's next flight at Site #3. He was cooling off in the trailer with Nedim as Agnes and Alev had gone into town. The other scores had been posted and he was somewhat taken aback at the scoring of his flight. Welcome to the worlds :-)

His second flight today was actually better than the first and I was very happy with it. Best he has done as far as I was concerned. He had put in two solid flights and put it all on the line. He scored a 470 something...can't quite remember :-) but was still trailing the pack as other scores were released.

When the dust settled he was in 16th position and missed the finals. We gathered around the RV for a debriefing and then off to dinner at Wild Buffalo Wings.  For some reason we were punished with an hour wait for our food order! It was not our day.

Finals start tomorrow!