Hartley was up on Site #1 at 8;00 am this morning. There was a slight delay after a few pilots as low cloud moved into the area. Flying recommenced and Hartley finally flew after Chuck Hochhalter finished off his incomplete flight. It was Hartley's best flight so far at this event and he was pleased. Mark did the calling and that may have been the difference... or not:-) I shot a bunch of pictures with Hartley's camera
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| Ginsu trio! |
After a short break, round 4 started and Hartley was preparing for his flight. Mark was calling as I started taking pictures... never know when he'll be back in Muncie so I wanted to make sure this trip and these flights were well documented.
Hartley's starting position looked good but he started pulling early on the Figure M's first radius. Things went south from that point as he struggled to regain proper position. The Cuban Eight got him all kittywonkas and he flew the remainder of the flight out of sequence in the wrong direction. He came down and was laughing at himself. What else can you do.... even Mark could not quite figure out when it got crossed until later in the pits. Two more rounds tomorrow to finish on a positive note.
We loaded up the truck with HH's plane and headed back to Site #3 for the afternoon session. With the exception of Paul Hepworth, we will all fly the last two rounds of P-11 this year together. It should be fun and we all hope Mark can put in two solid rounds to finish off the P rounds. They will take the top twenty guys into the semi's tomorrow afternoon.
We are just doing the swap out of judges as the Site #3 Masters are running late due to weather... Chad is up first..... Chad has just flown and I followed him... not the best spot but hey I am here for the fun! Chad had a solid round to lead things off and everyone followed. Some very strong rounds by several fliers like Dave Lockhart and Don Szczur.
Mark had a couple strong rounds and we finished up the FAI flights by 16:30. Pilots waited around for results and it was decided to remeet at Site#3 at 18:00 to draw the flight order of the semi-finalists. We adjourned to the RV and enjoyed some debriefing chatter. Mark had two solid rounds and we were all hopefull that he would make the top twenty cut.
We stopped and took some pictures of all the Xigris airframes at our flight line today... looking good!
At the appointed hour we all gathered around and Mark made the list at 18th place! Whoot!
It was time to draw for the two flight line orders and everyone pulled their number and subsequent flight line. Odd would fly at Site #1 and Even at Site #3. Pilots will rotate flight lines and fly once at each line during the afternoon. It should be fun as both Chad and Mark fly together at Site #3... fittingly by Camp Canada. I am very happy for Mark as this was one of his goals this trip.
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| Dave Lockhart goes in to pick his flight order. |
I judge early on Site #1 and Mark, Chad & Nedim will practice at a local site. Hartley will fly his last two rounds of Masters in the morning with the FAI Semi's going in the afternoon. I am once again totally beat and look forward to getting back to work next week so I can rest :-)
More tomorrow.
