Sunday - July 20, 2003

Waking up to that alarm buzzer again, feeling the effects of the previous day and evening.  My head hurts and I am down one model.  I checked out the weather on TV and drank the small pot of hotel room coffee, got my stuff together and met TK down in the lobby.  TK and I would end up driving together each morning, we always do that.

It was bright and sunny out, but a bit of dew on the ground early in the morning and that was going to take a while to burn off.   We did a drive thru at McDonalds so we ate breakfast at the field and built our models.  TK had the Best of the Beach Boys jamming from the Van, it was an appropriate set of music.

The air today really got challenging at times, other times it was quite easy, the cycles were long and the wind variable in speed.  The plan was to get 4 more qualifier rounds, take a lunch break, and then use the rest of the day for the fly off rounds.

There was some hero or zero flying going on, and some guys were not making it back to the landing zone, even worse, some even landing out.  Larry Jolly who was quite strong to this point took two zeroes in the difficult morning air, both were excellent flights, just not quite enough to make it back.  Dan Williams who also was flying strong lost his F3J ICON out in the corn.  I remember watching Joe Wurts flying fast through sink down wind that guys were bailing out of and limping home, way out over the corn fields, and instead of turning back he went faster and farther down wind, way past the point of no return.  And then just at the far end of the field probably less then 100 foot in altitude he finds a thermal and screws his ICON into the sky at an alarming rate of ascent. 

We took a break for lunch and scoring figured out who the top 10 fliers were going to be in the fly off.  TK and I were in the top 10 before they did the throw out scores, but shifted out after they did the throw out.  David McCarthy picked me to be one of the experienced towers, we had a strong  new guy with me, LJ would call for David. 

The plan was for five 15 minute rounds so there could be one throw out round.  The qualifying scores were not carried through, all the fly off pilots started with a clean slate.

The air continued to be unpredictable, there was some really incredible flying going on.  The turning point in the fly offs was in round 4.  There was one good thermal cycle moving downwind fast just before the launch horn, it was going to be the ride, hero or zero.  Right after the launch I saw two pilots go for it, David McCarthy and Joe Wurts.  I was towing for David McCarthy and after running back from towing I see Larry Jolly on one knee next to David looking towards the horizon.  Larry says, "Do you have David's plane", I quickly scan the sky and don't see it.  I say no, and Larry says, "DOWNWIND", and I spot it, just a little cross of a dust spec on the horizon.  I try not to say anything to alarm David, but I can't hold it back and an "oh shit"  spurts out any way.  So Larry and I keep an eye on it for over a minute, it's just silence between us all but David is squirming and leaning the TX around.  It's only Joe and David that are left flying but Joe is zipping by overhead and David has made very little progress getting back.  Larry says, "You are flying towards us aren't you?"  Oh man, I am biting my lips trying not to laugh.  David mumbles something at Larry, probably appropriate at the time... and then Larry says, "You don't have camber on do you?"  David makes this groaning noise and cleans up the wing.  The model starts getting closer, but it's clear it's going to be in the corn.  Several of us get a good spot on it as it goes in.

David proclaims "That was farther out than last year, BABY!!!"  He's got a good attitude, of course that flight scored a zero.  Unfortunately the model was never found.

The results of F3J can be seen here:  2003 F3J Nationals Scores

2003 Nationals Picture Gallery