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1. Bauer Report 4
2. Charile's win
3. M's

US Team news from Croatia

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Roger was right.  I was too pooped last night to write anything after spending all day sitting on the back of a one person quad with Brian driving while chasing F1B models.  The downwind terrain was rough and my rear end has felt better.  After the first round it was windier than Tuesday and models were traveling between 1 and 2 km but the wind was nowhere near the limit and was very flyable.  We got all the models back OK.  Thanks again to all the donations from our supporters at home which allowed us to rent two quads each day for chasing.  We really needed them Wednesday.  It is Thursday morning now and today is the extra day in the schedule before F1C tomorrow.

The news is obviously out about Charlie and everyone is very happy for him.  The F1B story started in the first round when the air was totally dead and calm as I described earlier and Charlie was lucky to be the third man to fly from our pole that round.  I would guess that between the 9am start and about 9:30 the air over the mowed flight line area was 99% bad.  Models would climb high and then glide like bricks landing near where they were launched.  All the big name flyers were dropping right and left and I was seeing only a few models squeak out the 4 minute max by seconds.  Alex was the first to fly from our pole and wound about 4 or 5 motors to get two models prepared to fly.  He was very patient and watched many other models before deciding to go.  On his first throw it appeared the VIT didn’t work as the model dived in the ground for an attempt.  He then flew the second model which climbed very high and seemed to look good and our entire team started flapping immediately to give him as much help as possible.  With many models in the air the entire field was covered with flappers from various teams, quite a sight and I hope someone got pictures or videos.  But despite all this Alex ’s model landed 30 seconds short at about 3:30.  Walt went next and again climbed very high but could only do about 3:45.  By the time Charlie went with maybe 10 or 15 minutes left there was a slight breeze which pushed him away from the flight line and he was in a nice piece of air and maxed easily.

The rest of the day was simply about picking air and launching models at the right time and our team was doing very well.  Charlie had a close call about the 3^rd round when something went awry and the model looped into the ground for an attempt, but the re-flight was solid.  In the 6^th round Walt was the third man to fly and ended up waiting until about 2 minutes before the end of the round before throwing his model trying to be sure of getting the best air.  But then tragedy struck as his prop did not start after the throw and the model was in the ground after a few seconds.  With no backup model wound and ready the time expired and no second attempt was possible.

I believe that there were 12 who survived to the flyoff and we all prepared to help Charlie.  He got off a very nice flight for the 5 minute round and maxed easily along with 4 others.  There were several protests after that round which delayed what would be the final 7 minute round until about 7:50pm.  Charlie wound, put the motor in his first model and then immediately went to the pole to get ready.  He didn’t hesitate and launched almost immediately being the first one to go.  The model climbed very high and he received applause from the crowd.  Apparently seeing this the four others guys all went about a minute later in a gaggle.  As we watched Charlie’s model he appeared to be one of the highest, if not the highest, and was holding very well in buoyant air.  We thought we might have a new world champ on our team.  After about 3 minutes the model was very difficult to see by naked eye against the green hills but we thought he was still holding.  We were all surprised when the timers all clicked him off just short of 5 minutes and our reaction was that they must not have seen it to the ground.  However they did see him land and I found out later talking to Brian who had the model in the binoculars that the model found some bad air and sank very fast the last minute.  Curiously this was nearly the same as my flyoff flight the day before which drifted in the same direction also holding very strong for about 3 or 4 minutes before sinking in nearly the same spot (Bauer’s hole?)  and we were both short of 5 minutes by about 10 or 20 seconds.

Rumors were flying for about 15 minutes regarding who won and we saw some Slovenians (or Slovakians?) celebrating but then also the Japanese looking very happy.  Finally the official result was that the Japanese flyer had won with 5:28 vs the Slovenian at 5:26 leaving Charlie in third.  Still we were all very happy of course.

Today is a day off but some of the F1C guys are doing some final trimming getting ready for tomorrow.  Cody’s models have been looking really good but he suffered one setback when his one geared model had a bad prop fold after a perfect way high climb.  It appeared to be gliding fine but fell into a shallow dive hitting the ground hard with significant wing damage.  But the other direct drive models are looking good.  FR, Don , and Gil have all been looking good.

More later, Ken

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