AMA Nationals 2011 - Day 1

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.

Masters Site #1

Masters Site #3

FAI

I have added a "Pattern West News Nats Pictures" link as well and will add pictures as able. Reception at Site #1 is very spotty.

Goodbye's and Hello's - The AMA Nats are up next!

Well folks the 2011 World Championships are now officially complete. We saw several different judges, pilots and groups start their journey home this morning. For some it's a couple hour drive, for others it's a two day marathon (Australia & South Africa!).  We wish them all a safe journey to wherever home is.

Our stay in Muncie continues as both Chad, Nedim, Mark, Hartley and myself along with fellow Canadian Paul Hepworth compete in the AMA National Championships this week. I was going to start a new blog and then thought I might as well continue right here. It's only a couple extra days of blogging and thus a one stop for those on the net:-)

So... you guessed it... up early and off to the practice site as Hartley picked us up at the hotel. Paul was also waiting and was loaded down with some loaner items. Paul had suffered a ESC fire on his plane back home just before coming down but made the trek anyway to support the team. He got talking with some of the guys and presto... magic happened. From Ac Glenn a Visa pattern plane, Marcelo Colombo contributed a JR TX and Andrew Jesky threw in his charger and battery packs! Now that's a great story!

Off we went and after starting to set up our planes we had additional AMA pilots arrive in search of a practice site. The AMA sites were plugged and there was word of at least two mid-airs. Chris Moon was involved in one and lost his plane... not sure who the other pilots were or just where on the site it happened. I am sure RCU may have additional information and I will try and get the details. I do know that Chris is getting lots of assistance in getting another airframe ready for the event.

We had a great day of practice with the US guys and really enjoyed the stories and discussion on all sorts of topics pattern related. We all packed up and headed to the AMA site for the Pilot's meeting. Rusty gave everyone the latest news and Jon Carter reviewed the ranking system for the Masters guys. We broke for dinner and watched the various planes iat the different sites going fthrough thier respective maneuvers. We did witness what appeared to be another plane go down at site #4 tonight but I have no detials on what occurred. I'll send my ace reporting team in tommorrow and try and get some details for everyone.

Tomorrow morning the contest starts with Masters and Intermediate on the morning shift at 0800. FAI and Advance will fly starting at 1300. Hartley is up first on Site #3 in his first ever appearance at the AMA site... he is excited.

Off to bed after a great dinner at Camp Canada!!
 

Finals, Closing Ceremonies and Banquet

Mark and I headed to the AMA site this morning to pick up our Nats packages and see some finals flying. Our team was no longer in the competition but we all started to prepare for the next chapter in our trip. The US Nationals start on the 2nd with processing and a pilots meeting at 5 PM. Practice time for us has been limited what with all the AMA site in use for the Worlds.

We headed to the practice field (as everything was shut down at the AMA site) and flew most of the day then went back to the AMA site to catch the last round of the finals (2nd Unknowns) The pilots all took turns and after landing each one received a warm applause from the crowd. I noticed various styles of flying but the top guys hit pretty much every snap and rolling circle that made up the sequence. Onda, Jesky and CPLR all had a solid round 9 with all three pretty well equal in my book. Small things that the judges are trained for would no doubt be the difference.

Shadow calling the unknowns.

The final flight flown by Christophe of course :-), was greeted with cheers as he completed his Figure Z in under the 8 minute flight time limitation. I understand his brother Benoit went over on one flight and had his last maneuver zeroed. Lesson: Don’t waste a second! CPLR will be talking to BPLR I am sure :-)

In fact I did some impromptu timing on Benoit during the P flights (Mark followed him in the flight order) and they did the glow start and hit the sound check circle in 8.8 seconds... try that next time your at the field!

After the flights ended we loitered around till about 7 o’clock and the results were announced. In the meantime lots of jersey swapping was taking place along with banner swaps and all around good conversation. Glenn Orchard of the Australian team gave Kelly and I a little perspective on their pattern flying down under and the F3A team selection process. All interesting stuff as each country does it a little different.

The winners were announced and the results were...

1) Christophe PLR
2) Tetuo Onda
3) Andrew Jesky

Team went to..

1) USA
2) Japan
3) France

Junior Championship

1) Marco Mazzuchelli  (Italy)
2) Robin Trump (Germany)
3) Philip Rannetshauser (Germany)

The national anthems of the winners were also played.

Both CPLR and Tetsuo Onda had actually tied in the finals so the rules say the semi-final score is used to determine the eventual winner.

We all left Site #3 and went to the reception. Well actually most everyone went and had showers and cleaned up. We went direct and had our seats picked out!

Awards were presented, speeches made and many pictures taken at the banquet. Many new acquaintances as well as old ones said goodbyes.

It’s late so I’ll upload more pictures tomorrow and finish of my blog as well.

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!

Rain Day became Practice Day

I met Mark downstairs at the complimentary breakfast buffet at 7 AM. Hartley was along shortly after and with all our own planes preloaded in his Ford F350, we headed to the practice site. Another quick Starbucks stop and we arrived safely at the field a half hour later.

We met some local fliers on arrival and proceeded to assemble the planes in the shade.  Soon the Liechtenstein contingent arrived and shortly thereafter Team Ireland also joined the group. With both Hartley and I there to practice for the AMA Nationals everyone got in the action.

Both Wolfgang, Stefan, Angus and Chad all pounded the F schedule as they will compete against each other starting tomorrow.  Shane Robinson was also practicing the F-11 elements as he received, for the third straight World’s if you can believe it, the duties as warm up pilot for the judges. 

Found this Irish YS tool :-)

I had not flown for almost a month and really needed some rust remover... I’ll be ok though. Hartley will fly Masters and he needed the practice as well.

We all flew our routines with a short interruption for one of the club fliers beat the airstrip up with a P-47 Jug. He flew it very well and we all watched another form of aerobatics displayed... it was a welcome break!

Angus's Valiant

We closed the place down and headed home around 17:30. A quick stop to grab the van and some steaks for dinner and we arrived back at Camp Canada for a “debriefing session”. The gals made it back from their overnight in Amish Country and had a great time geocaching, touring, buggy riding etc..

We headed back to the hotel after dinner and had a nice refreshing shower.... yes too much detail ... sorry.

Chad is up on Site #1 at 9:24 and we will all be there. Unfortunately a huge rain storm has flooded Dezso’s basement back home in Kingston so he has decided to get home to deal with that situation. I thank Dez for his dedication and efforts he put in to this team.

To the rack I go.

Preliminaries Day #4

Up and off to Starbucks for our morning coffee drinks... the gals in the place are starting to know us well by now! Mark wanted to put in an early flight so we headed for Site #4. This is the farthest southern flight line in the huge complex and is easily accessed by the paved roads around the facility.

I put Mark’s name down on the sign up sheet and we waited for his turn. We watched several different planes fly then waited out the last glow powered plane before he launched. Unfortunately the glow did the sequence almost twice due to the huge fuel tank it must have had.. 16 minutes easily!

Team Japan... spotless!

After some practice elements, time was moving closer to Mark’s flight this morning at  8:51 am. We packed up and headed to Hartley’s trailer to swap my plane out for Mark’s back up. Time was beginning to become a factor when we noticed Hartley’s truck was gone. He had moved Mark’s B plane to the #1 site. Great job HH to save us some precious moments.

The planes were quickly assembled and he was on the flight line with time to spare. The rest of the team & supporters arrived and Mark took to the skies in front of the judging panel. He had another good round with some minor errors but he was happy with his efforts. The team cheered as his wheels touched down and Hartley pulled out a “Go Canada Go” banner that got the judges laughing. All in fun of course.

Mark and the gang.

Dezo was up next and he too put in another solid round of flying. Once again minor errors but still very respectable. Another cheer erupted as he touched down. Overall I think Dez was happy with his efforts and learned a lot this past week.

Dez and the gang again.

As Chad was later in the day we headed into town for a bite to eat and a stop at Walmart for some hardware for Hartley’s trailer water connection. (minor valve leak temporarily remedied!) I drove in with Paul Hepworth who came down to support the team. Paul had a small electrical problem with his plane and although he had planned to fly in the Nationals next week, he came anyway! Now that’s support! (Turns our Ac Glenn is lending Paul a plane & radio to compete in the Nationals after all... Ac gets an official Team Canada Maple Syrup Sampler for being such a great person!)

Chad's turn.

Look who showed up!  Ivan with these new glasses. They are a new technology that show 45 and 90 degree angles.... imposed into your field of view... it's the next greatest training device for pattern :-)

Kelly, Robyn and Pat all took off in search of the Amish lands and were doing a mini "vacation within a vacation" type thing... shopping and sightseeing.

Chad was up in the afternoon and put in a good round with some very solid elements. He did had a few bobbles along the way on this flight. He was a bit apprehensive about the score but still came out strong.

Final scores for preliminary rounds are here.(in pdf format)

Chad completed this portion of the contest in 18th with a normalized score for his three best P rounds of 2710.10. Dez finished in 44th with a 2468.98 and Mark in 50th with 2441.73. The scores are fairly tight so a couple of points can propel you in either direction.. quickly! The top thirty pilots advanced to the next step in the competition on Sunday. They will fly once each at site #1 and site #3 respectively with one AM and one PM time slot.

With Chad moving on to the semi-finals I attended a meeting of the team mangers to draw the starting order for Sunday’s semi’s... I drew #2 for Chad. It’s up to Chad to bring his A game to the worlds and this is pretty much what he lives for aside from family of course.  We will all be behind him in the coming days.

We went home exhausted but plan to head to our practice field in the morning as both Hartley and I need to get in some practice rounds for the upcoming Nationals.

Both work and home life requires them to leave Muncie today.... Special thanks to Xavier and Spencer for helping to support the team over the last week. X-man was awesome on the camera and the flight line helping Dez!

More pictures added to the team site

Flight order for Sunday’s semi finals.

Preliminary Flight # 3

Life goes on and we all make small sacrifices to do things...like attending World Championships:-) Today I missed out on my daughter Lauren’s 24th birthday. She understands my commitments and wishes the team great success via the new medium of Facebook and text messaging :-)

Mark and I were up early and hit the local IHOP for a quick breakfast before heading to site #4 for some practice rounds. Chad and Nedim were already there and we joined Andrew Jesky and the Australian Team members.

Chad made some changes and had a solid round as did Mark. The winds were very strong and an aggressive throttle was needed at certain points. If you relaxed for a second the plane would drift out very quickly. Mark put in a second practice round and I had a good chat with Junior Pilot James Nugent’s dad Dave from the Australian F3A team. We both agreed that the knowledge we can pass on to these juniors will accelerate their flying tremendously. The Australians really seamed to enjoy themselves this morning and also worked hard to get in that perfect flight. The winds had other ideas for all the pilots.

Dave gives the thumbs up as the Australians await their turn.

A $2.88 plane stand... brilliant!

Chad was up on Site #1 at 10:57 but it obvious that things were behind. Turns out a group protest letter by several countries was being discussed. Some teams felt that judging spreads on scores were rather excessive and want some clarity as to why and what, if anything, could be done to rectify their view of the situation. Cooler heads prevailed and after some discussion on procedural issues (protests) and the judging protocols flying resumed.

Chad put in a solid round and posted a raw score of 440.20. It was a little faster pace to his flight but the results were obviously positive. The team cheered when his wheels touched the ground. The afternoon was relaxed as we watched several flight and cooled down in the trailer... I have a new appreciation for air conditioning!!

Team Canada awaits Chad's sortie.

Mark was up next on Site #3 and he too had a good round. Minor errors but a clean flight none the less. He was pretty happy but wanted a couple do overs :-) He posted a raw score of 394.00

Dez followed Mark in the next group and in short order he too was churning up the skies with a solid round as well. Some minor in and out but still very respectable. Dez posted a 404.00 raw score and was also happy with the result. Some flyers did not handle the winds well and drifted out to 170 or more meters. I believe the judges would hammer these guys with lower scores :-( Today’s saying should have been “ Hold the line”!

As we packed up we heard that Chip Hyde had an incident with his back up plane on site #4. Turns out that the bolt holding the wing had stripped out and although he was able to complete the manouvers, he threw in a snap roll and... well the wing panel departed the aircraft! Chip did a great job of saving the plane with some deft flying and landed it with only minor gear damage... hey I think I have seen a similar photo shopped video on youtube! LOL.  (I am told there is video recorded by a smart phone... it should turn up soon.)

Wing damage to Chip's backup plane.

I am told the damage is repairable and they were awaiting the decision on just what could be done within the rules to repair it. If this plane flies tomorrow it will be with only 8 lives :-)

We gathered around the RV’s and had a brief social to catch up on the days events then it was off to dinner. We couldn’t decide on where to go as a group so we went our separate ways this evening.

July 29th times are:

Mark at Site #1 at 8:51
Dez at Site #1 at 9.33
Chad at Site #3 at 15:30