Here's what Mark had to say:
Mark:
Day 13 – August 13th
Today was a roller coaster. Semi Finals: The top 30 pilots squaring off to fly 2 rounds of F-15 in hopes of making the top 10 and a chance to win the World Championship.
For what I believe to be the first time in world championship history, one country had 4 pilots in the semi-finals. And that country was OURS! GO USA!!!
The guys got up early today to get a quick practice flight in prior to the days events. The weather was MUCH cooler outside and we were expecting rain throughout the day so an early start was planned in case of delays. As an aside, rain alone does not constitute a reason for delay. It’s fully expected that everyone is prepared to fly in moderate rain. Andrew experimented with taping off all of his cooling intakes for one flight in an effort to prevent rain from getting to the ESC, but the temps went from 33C to over 100C, so that didn’t seem like a viable plan.
Our flight order was Andrew – 8, Jason -15, Brett – 21 and Joseph – 26 but with pilots being split between 2 flight lines, Brett was actually our first pilot to fly.
Weather was calm but overcast…right up until Brett flew and then the sun burst through just in time to be squarely in the flight box. Brett managed it fine (though I have NO clue how Brett or the judges for that matter witnessed his second snap on the upline since it was entirely within the ball of the sun). He flew very well and the Alferma Biplane presents extremely well. When the scores came up he was second on the line behind CPLR. That was the good news. The bad news was he had a 914 to CPLR’s 1000. It was going to be a long day.
Now it was a race back to Site 1 (that’s a drive, not a walk) for Andrew’s flight. Quick side note, did you know that a VW Polo can hit 120 on an airport taxiway?? It sounds like it’s going to explode, but damn if it doesn’t do it. But I digress… Andrew’s flight was good, but not his best. He stayed in close and was punished for hitting the vertical box on several of the tall maneuvers. This has been a little bit of a sore subject since in years past, flying too far out (past 175m) was greeted with stiff downgrades, but this year it seems that many are flying very far out without issue. Regardless, his scores suffered a bit. He also uncharacteristically missed his last snap (Downline 1 ¾) to cap the flight. Still, he was 2nd on the line behind Gernot which didn’t seem too bad.
Race back to site 2 (do you see a theme forming here?) for Joseph’s flight. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. He had flown extremely well in the prelims, but this was the semi-finals, a much more difficult pattern, a more stressful situation (10 judges) and much stiffer competition. I really thought he’d buckle some under the pressure. Nope. He laid down a very competitive sequence and ended up 4th (at that time) on the line. We didn’t want to say much at the time, but both Don and I knew the moment he landed he had just secured the Jr. World Championship with that flight. Now the hunt was to try and hold on and make the finals!
No time to celebrate though… Race back to site 1. Tried to hit 140 on the taxiway, but they added obstacles… I think they’re on to us. Jason was the last pilot prior to the lunch break. I’m starting to think he sandbags the prelims to lure his competition into a false sense of security. Both in South Africa and here, Jason seems to be able to turn it up a notch when things start to get real. We had been getting a little rain for the prior few flights and Jason was fighting with his rain shield for the transmitter, but just when it was time to for him to fly, the rain stopped and he had relatively calm cool air to fly in. The entire flight went smooth, but like Andrew, he uncharacteristically missed the last downline snap. As a result, but was second on the line behind Gernot with a 988. Hitting that snap probably would have put him at the top. Regardless, it would be enough to keep him in the top 10 for the finals so he could relax a little. Time for a short lunch break for the judges and then back at it.
The afternoon rounds faced more rain on and off. Burbaud Loic from France had his ESC fail in the rain mid flight and had to land, but I believe that was the only rain casualty.
The afternoon brought a different kind of drama. First, Joseph flew on site one and put up a burner. He was fourth on the line and in great company behind Andrew, Gernot and Stefan Kaiser. It appeared as though he might really have a shot at being in the finals! I raced back to site 2 for Jason’s flight only to get a panicked phone call from Joseph while standing in the ready box.
“I failed the weight check”. Say Whaaaaat?????
Race back to site 1 (yes Ron Hanson, I’m trying to use the word “Race” more in one report than I used “Solid” in all the other reports combined! And No, that use of the forbidden word does NOT count). Joe’s plane had been selected for random reweighing and he had gone over the limit at 5055. His airplane was impounded and they would retest in 30 minutes. Devastation.
I was told Jason put up a fantastic flight and scored well on site 2.
Retest for Joseph’s plane. It was clear that the organizers did NOT want this to happen. When I entered the tent, there was a giant wad of paper towels where they had made every effort to dry the plane from the rain, even squeezing out the foam tires to get any additional weight off the plane (Don too had done this prior to the first weighing). They recalibrated the scales, and we weighed it two more times, and both failed. 5054gms. At this point there was nothing we could do except wait for the jury to decide what the penalty would be. The assumption though was that it would zero that round. My FEAR though was that there was some unknown rule that could disqualify him completely or somehow take away the Jr WC title that he’d worked so hard for. Diesel Don (a nickname we will work hard to make stick!) was emotionally spent. He blamed himself for not being better prepared, audibly recounting every step of the way where he could have (In hind sight) avoided this problem. The reality was, the plane had barely made weight during processing at 5050gms. That’s the limit. So they didn’t have a single gram to spare. As a result, they had been flying that same battery all week for the contest flights. One a day… but today required 2 flights, and they were unable to recharge in time for the second flight so they were forced to use a different (apparently 4 gram heavier) battery. In hindsight a risk they shouldn’t have taken. By the time you read this, I’m sure most if not all know the outcome had a happy ending. But at this point in the day, it was sort of horrible. Don was thinking his actions had cost his son a shot at the finals, and possibly worse.
Then Onda flew. And in one flight the roller coaster jumped tracks. Onda blew out the round such that it made Joe’s flight only a few points better than his flight on site 2 (921 vs 913). It still mattered, but not much. It didn’t end Don’s stress, but it certainly relieved some of the pain.
CPLR flew a few flights later and set the bar even higher! Now Joseph’s flight was a throw away regardless. Normally this would be all bad news, but it was a strange relief for the Szczurs.
Brett went on to fly another great round. I don’t know why but he just wasn’t getting the scores he needed or that I thought he deserved, but it was clear he would not be able to make the jump into the top 10 to make the finals. As he landed, I was getting ready to race, yes, race back to site 2 to see Andrew’s last flight, only to learn it was already complete and he had posted a 995!!! Beating CPLR and just shy of Onda. We were all feeling pretty great again.
But wait… roller coasters have more than one hill.
TBL kicked in and adjusted the scores (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, look here… http://nsrca.us/images/stories/judging/TBL.pdf ). Gernot went WAY up, Andrew down, Brett Up, Joseph down, Jason sideways?... it was crazy.
In the end, Andrew finished 4th, Jason 6th, Joe 12th, and Brett 15th. We had 2 in the finals, and a good shot at the team trophy if we fly well tomorrow.
The outcome of Josephs weight violation was a penalty of 20 normalized points from the flight in question. It did affect the scores, but not enough to affect the outcome.
We had a lengthy meeting to generate and review the unknown schedules for the finals, and then it was back to the hotel for Pizza and Unknown study (see photo). Kevin and Jason worked up call sheets for the group and they all departed to study and sleep. And I to write this ☺
Tomorrow is a really big and really long day. 7:15am start time, 4 rounds (40 flights) all on one line followed by awards, closing ceremonies, and a banquet. It is unlikely that I’ll be able to write up the days events in a timely fashion, so hopefully most of you will be able to follow the outcome online. www.F3A-wc2015.com and go to rankings. It’s updated real time.
Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS JOE!!!! 2015 Jr. World Champion!!!!!!! WORLD champion. That’s big stuff. Congrats to Don and Beth Szczur too. He handled himself well during some tough moments today.