United States 2007 F3B Team Selections

2006

=== F3B TEAM SELECT ===

CONTEST REPORT

Hutch (Wilbert Hutchings) was kidnapped by be to be “The Judge” and “Special Assistant”. He and I arrived at the AMA site 6X6 around noon on Thursday 24AU06 and found a good group of people there already into a heavy practice session.

From about 3 to 6 o’clock Hutch and I ran winch calibration checks while the group tested their planes. Then at six o’clock I had the pilots meeting.

Thankfully the pilots told me how to run the contest, as I knew the rules only by reading them and never had to enforce them before. A lot of the rules can have interpretations not obvious on the surface and the pilots really helped with these.

At the end of the pilots meeting, I handed out the flight matrix for the next three day’s using three different matrix depending upon the task.  Using a 4-up list for Distance and a 5-up list for Duration and of course speed is one at a time but we had a list for speed that mixed up the order for each round.

At close to dark it was off to the hotel for a shower and then to dinner on the “Muncie Strip”.

Friday started at 7:30 AM at the field and we all started to set up as the rest of the flyers showed up for the ensuing combat. Only one person did not show so the matrix was not affected badly.

As most ‘first round’s’ go we had a slow start due to lack of help and being unfamiliar with the F3B equipment. The next two days of field setup went like clockwork as Hutch, Robin and I had the setup routine down and AMA provided more support equipment to make our life a little easier.

It has to be noted that the Mike Lachowski timing system is perfect. Having run this device for the last two TS contests, it has never missed a beat. I am sure we would not have been able to run this contest without it unless we had a dozen more helpers and then there would have been a bunch of reflights because of some human error.

Later in the day, Bill Wingstedt brought out his survey equipment and did a validation of the field layout that was accurate to the centimeter (or better).  The good news is that the field was very good considering we used tripod sighting devices, not perfect but very good.  This was a great help on the Saturday and Sunday’s setup and the field was as close to perfect as one could get.

Friday flying started about 9:30 and we did 3 complete rounds with good weather all day. It was apparent that this was not going to be cakewalk for any of the top pilots as the upper half was nailing all the tasks. Aaron Valdes had a blistering speed run at 14.5 seconds and we all thought that a record could be broken this weekend. I think we had one plane hit on an over-rotation on Base B in speed but that could have happened on Saturday, I don’t remember. Other than that it was a smooth day for everyone.

On Saturday we got started flying at 8:30 and got as much in as we could before the predicted rains came. We managed to get in almost two complete rounds leaving a couple of heats of distance yet to be flown on Sunday. This was our toughest day because we had basically no outside help for base B.  On one heat, I tried to launch, button push for one pilot and communicate the numerous relights to base B. Needless to say it was a FUBAR so that heat was on me and had to be re-flown the next day. Other than that I think we had one set of re-flights due to a mid-air between Aaron and Dennis.

It is now time to tell you how great all the pilots and their helpers were, they all pitched in and did button pushing when they were not flying and helped keep things moving all day Saturday and Sunday.

As an editorial statement: “This is no way to run a Team Select”.

Having pilots with 100 things on their mind to complete well, working their own contest really seemed out of place. I really felt badly but there was little I could do, as the help just did not turn out. We (Hutch, Robin and I) discussed several possible solutions with the pilots. I would hope one of these suggestions would lead to enough help for the next TS so the pilots could just fly.

The people that did show up are listed on the end of this report and deserve a great round of applause. It would have been impossible without them for sure. It just so happened that most of them were there on Friday leaving Saturday and Sunday rather bare.

Saturday also had stiff winds all day then finished with a thunderstorm in the middle of Round #5 making it a tough day for all. It was a real gully washer as they say so we just called it quits for the day around three or four o’clock. It was still five or so by the time the field was stripped and stuff put away for the night.

Sunday started very damp and chilly with mist and really low clouds. We set up due west using Bill’s new surveyed markers and were ready to fly at 8:30.

The ceiling kept us down until 9:30.

First order of the day was to finish the Distance task.

Mike Smith was one of the four-up and launched first. The plane disappeared right after the zoom started; maybe the ceiling was still a little too low. Mike did the classic spiral down and we saw the plane come out of the soup with enough height left to get it back down without damage. We delayed another hour and lit the winches for the first heat of the day.

We did the remaining Distance heats then started Round #6. We got rained on for an hour or so during this round but managed to get it completed by about 4:00.   

The only problem we had today was a radio problem on Rich’s Duration round so he had to use that as his throwaway. Speed saw one or two penalties for safety line violation.

We had a total of three or four for the contest. One unavoidable when Bill Wingstedt’s line broke at the moment of release and the plane plopped two feet in front of the winch.

After the last flight of Speed, Robin Meek who was the scorekeeper, button pusher, safety judge in speed and many, many other tasks did the final inputs to the scoring program.

The chief Jurist (Hutch), Robin and I checked the results for any obvious errors and then had the pilots meeting to award the winners. Wish we had big silver trophies to hand out but no deal, you had to be happy with a trip to Lucerne and a year of practice, practice and more practice.  

When it was all over we were all kind of happy it went off as well as it did and happy that a really good team was selected.

The team will be a one that will represent our country well next year and we wish them all the best of luck.

CONGRATULATIONS TO The Team

·       First Place                   Tom Kiesling                          14894.98

·       Second Place               Aaron Valdes                          14876.89

·       Third Place                 Mike Smith                              14853.54

·       1^st Alternate                Mike Lachowski                      14402.98

THANKS FOR THE HELP

The list of volunteers that made this event possible

·       All the pilots who fly this event, one cannot help but appreciate the work it must take to get to this level. After working two TS contests, I am starting to get the idea.

Then to top off all this preparation, all of the pilots helped in timing, running equipment and doing anything I asked them to do.

·       Dave Corven who got it all started and provided the sighting devices

·       Wilbert (Hutch) Hutchings, Chief Jurist and Special Assistant who never guessed how much work I was getting him into, I guess I got one coming.

·       Robin Meek who has to be the least selfish person I know. Did the scoring a dozen other jobs. Just fantastic to work with.

·       Mark Gellart got the batteries lined up for the contestants and did button pushing.

·       Jim Deck the one and only who is always there to help did Base B all day Friday. If you have ever done this you know it is a lonely place and not conducive to having a good time.

·       John Gospodarek from Fort Wayne came down and sat with Jim at “B”. I did not get to talk to John much as he was at the other end but when I did he came off as one of the “nice guys”.

·       Larry Ruble, a local, came in and did Safety line and button pushing duties. Larry is at the Nat’s every year and seems like an old friend after all these years.

·       Greg Prater who I did not get to talk also did base “B”

·       And one of the most fun loving people I have ever met, Joe Kleifges, the First (there is another). Joe was wondering around the site from his camping trailer that was in the area and we nabbed him, trained him a little and turned him loose on Base B. Joe was there on and off for the three days and make us all wish he was one of our club members. What a hoot!

·       Without Marlene Valdes switching between Base ‘B’ and Base ‘A’ for speed and distance, we would have been in serious trouble. Aaron’s note the other day said she has probably timed 500 speed runs.
One funny incident happened when one of the pilots complained that he was not called on Base B in distance at the correct time. I radioed B and ask who had his plane, when the answer came back it was Marlene, he said “Oh” and walked away.

·       Dave Hauch came in and helped as much as his legs would allow. If you do not know Dave, he is a professional builder and has built tons of planes for competitors across the US. He must be good, as I never heard a bad word about his capabilities.

·       One cannot forget the maintenance crew at AMA. Jeff Hawley and the other Jeff and Larry did a great job of keeping us up and running and doing anything they could to help. The AMA site has to be the best place to run something like this because you do not have to bring your own site equipment.

THE LIST OF PILOTS AND THE SCORE SUMMARY

Well this has been long enough so I will sign off and thank all for allowing me to help pick next year’s team and meeting some new people.

Your CD for the 2006 F3B Team Selection

Jack Iafret