Team Canada F3A 2011: AMA Nationals 2011

Ok the days are all blending into one as I try my best to keep you all up to date. Day one started off with mother nature laying a whooping on the Muncie area in the early morning.Thunderstorms, lighting and heavy rain pummeled the AMA site.

The weather passed and it looked like the flight lines would start on time but they delayed the start a bit due low clouds. Things started in earnest when Hartley Hughson took to the skies as the first one off our site this morning. Hartley dearly wanted to just get through it as the subtle pressure of his first Nationals was evident. He did great although he would like to have a few maneuvers back as mulligans! Both Hartley and I hung around site #3 awaiting his second flight. I did some calling for D-7 pilot Bill Wallace while Chad & Nedim arrived to watch the action and get ready for the afternoon. Hartley’s second flight was a little stronger and after a debrief we then repositioned the truck.... logistics action was going full tilt! LOL

Hartley after his first appearance/flight at the AMA Nationals


Paul with his "rental unit"

We did a plane swap and positioned Mark’s plane over to site #1 where he was judging the morning Masters session. He hung out with the Brits and Hartley stayed there to call for him in the afternoon FAI session at site #1. Robyn also joined them to cheer Mark on.

My FAI flights on site #3 got started about 15 minutes late but everything ran pretty smoothly after that. Chad, Nedim and Paul all flew off this site so it was easy to get callers and help everyone out. The winds were quite strong and everyone worked hard to maintain distance and geometry. The top guys put in very nice rounds and everyone else followed with varying results.

We only had two glow powered planes on our site which was dominated by E powered setups of all kinds. Unfortunately one pilot had a flame out at the start of his sequence and then suffered a “no start” on his second flight. Turns out his kill switch was on for the first 40 seconds of starting before realizing it. A very tough way to knock out of the Nationals. There is a lot to be said for plug & play at times like this.

Mark had some solid flights on his line and should score well. He has ditched his tray and gone to back to the neck strap, changed his radio settings and is considering changing his hair color in order to improve his flying :-) Dave Lockhart and Don Szuzur head up the leader board although Dave did suffer a power loss on one round and shows a low position at this point. He will drop that round and be in the hunt on day #2.

Chad & Mark Leseberg dominated the flying on our line and set the bar high. We all followed them:-) My flights were ok but nothing worth writing about. Paul and Nedim also had some good elements but struggled in some areas. Everyone had a good time and we watched the rest of the flying. We all retired to the RV for a “debriefing” and had an early BBQ chicken dinner (7pm). Scores were not posted for our site due to some glitch with the way the score sheets were labeled. Site #1 Line 1 etc.... it was all worked out and we heard some scoring through Andrew Jesky in Utah! Thanks AJ!

Remember that the placings will change as each pilot flies in front of each judging panel. Lots more to go yet.