Friday - July 25, 2003

The good weather continues, but somewhat cooler than what is typical for Muncie this time of year. Ed Wilson was the CD of the unlimited class thermal duration contest this year, and he ran an extremely smooth contest both days. Although there were rumors floating around the pits both days, there was no throw out round for the unlimited class contest.

As you might have guessed by now, all eyes are upon Joe Wurts as he has won every contest he has entered to this point. Joe chose his ICON Lite to fly for the next two days, I noticed that he always carried a pipe or two of ballast in his cargo shorts, and he frequently changed the amount he carried in his model right up to the point he had to launch.

The air for both days was typical Muncie, ever changing, sometimes great and sometimes down right awful. But at least when you fly Man on Man like we do at the Nats, all the pilots are scored in the same air, good or bad. Man on man flying with a group of pilots of this caliber means minimizing or making no mistakes for two days. The flying is solid and skills are honed at this point in the season. One little bobble can send you tumbling down the score sheets prominently displayed on the blue box by the "white whale" scoring trailer.

Early on Friday I saw Larry Jolly pop off on launch, that is not something that would normally happen to him. He instantly flew down wind rapidly towards the new control line tarmac, and guess what was waiting for him? He thermalled out from low altitude and made one of the best contest saves of the week that I witnessed.

Although the scores in the top ten were tight, by the last round in the contest Larry Jolly was keeping the pressure on. As contest luck would have it, Larry and Joe were lined up in the matrix to fly in the last round of the contest against each other. After what seemed like it was going to be a non event as all the pilots easily found air and achieved the task times, Joe missed his first landing in four days! And believe it or not, Larry missed his too.

Joe Wurts is now the new unlimited class national champion, and he swept every event he entered at the Nats with some very impressive flying. Larry Jolly placed second flying a Hera cross tail, and Dr. Dan Williams placed third flying a F3J ICON.

The evening was topped off with the traditional Friday night banquet out at the golf course.  Capn' Jack got the affair started on time, and it was a very pleasant evening.  It's always fun to share time off of the field over a good dinner, and always interesting to see all the pilots in street clothes with out their hats or sunglasses on.  It was such a nice evening I popped off the roof on the Vette and took a long drive home through Muncie.

The results of unlimited thermal duration can be seen here:  2003 Unlimited Nationals Scores

2003 Nationals Picture Gallery