Another FF great departed

Through tear filled eyes I sadly report that Jon Davis passed away in his sleep on Monday night. Most remember Jon as a great FreeFlighter, I believe the youngest open USA FF Team member at 18 years of age. His gregarious smile was contagious and his pranks were hilarious. I'll share more at a later time. Jon has been fighting a health issue-- doctor's never really had a diagnosis-- Jon could not describe them but labeled them as seizures. The seizure, despite many medicine trials, continued to increase in frequency exacting a total on his body. During all this, Jon continued to love to be on the field, flying models and being with free flighters. He will surely be missed.  He was a good friend.

Jon was known for his written wit as well and I believe he was the author of the single best SEN article. From April 3, 2000, I share in memory of Jon Davis:

 

Thermals, JIM
 

Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants
 
 In the spirit of a new (and lighter) topic for the SCAT e-zine here is  a
 recent contest experience of mine. It's pretty much a true story.
 
 After successfully recovering from the latest Max Men 14 rounder I was
 reflecting on my FAI contest performance to see what I could learn. I
 intended to go to the contest and have my competitors trembling in their
 running shoes rather than the more likely situation of my presence earning a
 healthy yawn and the occasional "oh great, now that your here I don't have
 to worry about being last" comments.  Being the manly man that I am I don't
 let those kind of comments bother me, I just let them fade away like
 fluffies in the wind and I moved forward knowing that I was walking onto the
 flying field in high style and current fashion. Yes, for those of you not
 hip to current fashion and too old to be part of the ³Generation X² goings
 on let me tell you that I was pioneering new ground in the fashion area of
 FAI sports wear. 
 
 My son Evan is convinced I am an incurable dork so to to prove him wrong I
 went to the Max Men contest with my brand new, very hip, very cool, and very
 comfortable "Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants". For those of you that are not
 as cool as I am and simply out of the scene let me tell you that Puff Daddy
 is the king of Rap music which is very much the rage these days. You know,
 the rappers are those "artists" who gyrate all around and sing songs in a
 simple ump-pah, ump-pah, ump-pah beat with simple words and a stupid rhyme
 kind of thing with bass notes so loud that you can't hear anything else! I
 see and hear them when I drive through any hip and cool city like L.A., New
 York, San Francisco and Wasco. It may be everywhere in the U.S. but I'm the
 first on the flying field with these hip new clothes. In case you aren¹t
 clear about what Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants they are those pants that are
 5 sizes too large in all directions and they have to hang on your hips and
 look like they are about to fall off (which is true) and they drag the
 ground so much that the bottoms are all tattered and easily tripped over
 (which is also true and oh so cool) and when the wind blows they flap like
 sails around your legs and scratch off what few leg hairs you have left.  My
 supportive wife calls me the butt-less wonder so I had to resort to using my
 slowly developing love handles to hold the pants up as my hips were not up
 to the task. Bad move, very dorkish, as Evan succinctly said" Dad, nobody
 wears baggy pants half way up there chest, it's sooooo not cool" . Well, for
 me it was either that or have them falling down around my ankles for the
 entire contest. Clearly I was not off to a good start in my quest to be the
 coolest of the cool in FAI.
 
 I actually had what I thought was a very practical reason for wearing Rapper
 Baggy pants while flying my F1A Gliders. Besides the obvious need to keep
 warm in those early morning February California rounds I was looking for
 some kind of alternative to my normal Levi Blue Jeans which have a tendency
 to be too tight in strategic places  and give me a bad case of "Ohhh Pinche
 Huevos² whenever I execute my not so graceful trip, fall and bunt maneuvers.
 In addition to being a loose and comfortable fit rapper baggy pants also
 have lots of pockets all over them. Who needs those goofy plastic organizer
 boxes to keep all your modeling parts sorted out when you can have a whole
 bunch of pockets for them? I had my cat tails fluffies in one pocket, extra
 towline in another, stopwatch in a little pocket, tools in a big one, I was
 a walking hobby shop, I felt so cool. The one problem is that none of the
 pockets were big enough to hold my tow reel while I was sprinting around the
 tissue ripping stalks of Lost Hills.  Just as with my trusty levi jeans I
 had to resort to tucking the tow reel into my waist band behind my back so I
 could tow with the utmost agility and freedom. I felt like I was in hog
 heaven at the contest knowing that all my gear was up to speed and I was
 ready, willing and able to kick some serious FAI butt while being so hip and
 fashionable. What a free flight stud!
 
 I won¹t go into all the unusual things that happened to me in the contest
 and the ³clearly not my fault² reasons for my less than stellar performance
 of my contest scores but there was one particular round that really caught
 my attention. I think it was a mid morning round when I was really feeling
 in the groove and I was towing like Victor Stamov with long legs when I felt
 this great big cold metal thing in my pants competing for space with my
 little bitty warm thing that I realized that "oh captain, I think we have a
 problem". I don't know why I insist on using my Bob Wilder made all metal
 aluminum tow reel when I could use a nice light plastic one but I have a
 thing for metal gadgets and it overcomes my better judgment once in awhile.
 Well, sure enough as I was circle towing like a pro and feeling real cocky
 (no pun intended) when I noticed that my tow reel had managed to slip
 between my love handle and the elastic band of my rapper baggy pants and was
 slowing making it's way down my pants. As any F1A aficionado will attest
 there are all kind of nasty things sticking out of a tow reel; wire line
 guide, crank handle, tow ring, reel edges, you know,  all the kinds of
 things that would give any man pause when putting them into your pants along
 with the sacred cargo (aka Mr. Happy). In addition to all that my "all metal
 tow reel" was really cold and that's what really made me perk up and take
 notice. Never being very good at rubbing my tummy, slapping my head and
 chewing gum at the same time I found myself in a once in a lifetime
 predicament and to make matters worse I had my model in the air and on the
 line.
 
 No way was I going to let this slow me down. Using my ultra-fast and highly
 caffeinated early morning intellect I quickly surmised that  the best
 solution was to work with nature and just let that tow reel slip down my
 pant leg and slide out the bottom.  Pretty good idea huh?................
 Wrong! Wrong! triple Wrong!   Rapper pants are baggy but when the pockets
 are crammed full of stuff they create this constriction in the pant leg that
 is just big enough to let your tow reel get half way down your left  thigh
 but not as far as your knee. The good news was that my manhood was intact,
 the bad news was that the tow reel was in my pant leg on the inside so I
 kind of had to do the old ³squat & waddle² routine while towing. Being the
 fierce competitor that I am I made lemonade out of lemons and I psyched out
 the guy flying next to me by telling him that I got extra push from my legs
 when configured this way for the final launch & bunt. With such quick
 thinking I felt so smug, so cool, and so stupid.  Clearly the living
 definition and example of a dork in action.  How was I to salvage my pride
 after this embarrassing spectacle?
 
 As someone famous once said "all's well that ends well" and in my case I was
 finally able to "shake a leg" and get that tow reel down my pant leg and out
 the bottom with only a few scratches to my leg and a few bruises to my ego.
 I was in the clear now, lift was all around me, full steam ahead,  feeling
 like a caged Gazelle broken out of the zoo I began to hear the music from
 ³chariots of fire² playing ..........and my brain went into slow motion
 .........and I was running as hard as I could............sprinting towards
 the most graceful launch I've ever done, and as I looked to sky feeling that
 burst of freedom only known to free flight FAI flyers
 ....................................................I was able to see my
 inboard wing tip fold up like the leaf on a dining room table and watch my
 new model do a slow but graceful corkscrew into the dust of Lost Hill, the
 longest 40 second flight of my life, one I'll never forget!
 
 Damn I love this sport!
 
 Jon Davis, Mac the Bigot.

USA Team Selection Update

The Team Selection in-person-meeting took place last weekend in Dallas, Texas. It was generally recognized that there was an excitement, a buzz in the air present at this Finals that had been absent for some time. It was suggested that this was because of the flyoffs. It was also apparent that the overall morale and mood on the field was very good. It was agreed that we have selected a strong team to send to France in 2013.

    The committee felt that ongoing communication from the TSC to the participants would be beneficial. Here are the highlights of that meeting. Updates will be ongoing.

    There were two official proposals for future team selection presented to the committee. The merits and possible problems with each were discussed, and it was decided to keep the same basic formula as the last Finals with the modification that the flyer determined by the sum of ranks will cease flying when the position is assured.

    The 75-minute-time accumulation as a path to the Finals was retained as it had almost unanimous support of those returning a questionnaire.

    The buy-in was retained as well, but the price for this option has been increased to $400. There were also nominal increases to the program entry, which will now be $90, and the Finals entry, which will be $250.

    Two cycles ago the committee set the budget as a zero-sum plan. The amount of money to be set aside for the team would be equal to the revenue brought in by entry fees, minus the cost of running the Finals, minus the cost of the in-person meeting. This worked well and would usually pay for airfare and be a start toward covering the remaining expenses. However, AMA has reduced the amount of funding it will provide for the 2015 team and airline costs have risen significantly in the past four years. We all felt that these slight increases were necessary to provide what we considered minimum support for a United States team: Getting the team to the event. All other expenses: uniforms, extra days at the venue for practice, rental cars, etc., will be paid for through private donation and what this does not cover will be paid for by the team members themselves.

    The in-person meeting was determined to be necessary by some, invaluable by others, and too costly by several. The members of this committee feel it is still the best way to communicate and solve the questions that are created by the vast number of emails traded leading up to the the meeting. In an effort to control costs, the team fund will pay basic airfare, which will be minimized by scheduling the meeting on a date where airfares have been historically low. All other expenses, room, food, in city transportation, will all be covered out of pocket by the district representatives themselves.

    The program is being rewritten by the Finals oversight subcommittee and will be presented to the participants for approval soon.

    The TSC will retain the responsibility for organizing the Finals. However, no venue has been selected. Instruction on how to submit a proposal for a Finals' site will be in the new document. Dates have not been set, other than to specify the preference that the contests overlap a weekend.

    I would like to take this opportunity to thank C.D. Aimee Schroedter and her entire crew, as well as Head Jurist Roger Morrell, for their time and effort, which made the 2012 Finals a first-class event.

    I would also like to welcome Faust Parker, replacing Steve Spence in District VIII, and Bill Booth, replacing George Batiuk in District X, to the committee. I know by their conduct last weekend that they will be excellent additions to the group.

Sincerely,

Blake Jensen
Free Flight Team Selection Committee Chairman
 

Maxmen Reminder

GB tells me that he has not got many entries yet from the locals, so here is a remeinder.

 

  2013 MAXMEN INTERNATIONAL

A World Cup and America’s Cup Event

 

DATE: Feb. 14 - 18, 2013
PLACE: Bissonette Mirage Field, Lost Hills, Ca. USA

SCHEDULE: - F1E Thursday, Feb. 14th (organized & run by SCAT)

- F1A Friday, Feb. 15th (7 rounds + flyoffs)
- F1B, C and P Sat., Feb 16th (7 rounds + flyoffs)

7 rds each day, starting at 8 am, 1 hour rds for A,B,C, P

1st. round extended max per FAI SC for A,B,C

- F1G, H, J and Q Sunday, Feb. 17th

5 rds. 1 hr each starting at 8 am for G, H, J

7 rds, 1 hr each starting at 8 am for Q

- Reserve day, Feb. 18th

SPECIAL NOTES:


- FAI Sporting License is mandatory for all competitors flying F1A, B, C, P, E, Q

- US competitors can mail entry form, with fees, to CD (email entries from US flyers will not be accepted)

- Non US competitors may email entry and pay upon arrival

- All non-AMA competitors must pay $28 AMA Affiliation fee

- Entries are considered late if not received by Feb. 10, 2013

- Fees are double for late entries

COST: F1G, H, J and Q $15 / event

F1A, B, C and P $30 / even

Junior competitors fly FREE!!!
CONTACT: George Batiuk

576 Dana St. B, San Luis Obispo, Ca. 93401 USA

Ph, 805-305-0340 Fax 805-546-0700

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
LOCAL MOTELS: Lost Hills Motel 6 661-797-2346

Lost Hills Days Inn 661-797-2371


AMERICA’S CUP BANQUET
DATE: Feb. 16, 2013
PLACE: Wasco Elks

PROGRAM: Dinner and America’s Cup Awards presentation

COST: $25.00 for adults, $13.00 for Juniors


2012 MAXMEN INTERNATIONAL & A C BANQUET ENTRY FORM

NAME___________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS________________________________________________________________________
CITY, STATE, ZIP_______________________________________________________________

FAI LICENSE NUMBER_________________________________________________________

PLEASE ENTER ME IN:

F1A ($30) ______________________________
F1B ($30) ______________________________
F1C ($30) ______________________________
F1P ($30) ______________________________
F1Q ($15) ______________________________
F1G ($15) ______________________________
F1H ($15) ______________________________
F1J ($15) ______________________________
TOTALENCLOSED ______________________________
ALL JUNIORS FLY FREE, BUT MUST PRE-ENTER
BANQUET ($25) ______________________________
BANQUET under 17 ($13) _______________________________
***LATE FEE FOR CONTEST ENTRY IS DOUBLE. ENTRIES ARE CONSIDERED LATE IF RECEIVED AFTER FEB. 10,2011 ***CONTESTANT MUST PICK UP CONTESTANT’S PACKET AT CD TENT BEFORE THE 1ST ROUND OF THEIR EVENT OR SCORES WILL NOT COUNT

SEND ENTRIES TO: GEORGE BATIUK (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

576 DANA ST. B, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA. 93401



...............
Roger Morrell