The Jr WC is Over
By Ken Bauer
August 26, 2006
From SCAT Electronic News The F1P flyoff started at 7:30 this morning in good conditions with moderate drift and cool smooth air. Anthony Ferrario went off first with a normal pattern and started gliding well. Then Cody Secor fired up his Astro Star and put up another perfect corkscrew power pattern just like he did all day yesterday. He got higher than Anthony and started gliding well. The Polish flyer then launched but the model went somewhat off pattern and did not get as high as the
other two. As they drifted downwind Cody’s model was nearly blocked by trees as it decended and we were worried that he would get clocked off early, but it fortunately skirted just to the side of the trees and the timers saw it for 311 seconds. Anthony did 296 seconds and the Polish flyer was less than that, so Cody is the new world champ with Anthony placing second. The F1A flyoff started at 8am in the same conditions with 7 flyers. Tyler Secor was one of the first to go up and start circle towing upwind and to the right of the line over the runway. About halfway
through the 10 min window Tyler decided to go and got off a beautiful launch. About the same time several of the other flyers went off as well, some straight towing up and off. Tyler’s model glided well and came down slowly and did about 3:49 as I remember and ended up in 4th place. The official scores are still not posted. The winner was a girl from Slovakia that I believe did around 4:30. The model looked
like a normal thermal model so she must have found a sweet spot in the air. Overall Tyler and all the US kids were very happy. Tonight is the closing ceremony and tomorrow we leave. The US team shirts are a hot commodity as all the other kids are already trading to get them. There is a great sprit of friendship as all the kids are hanging around together. This afternoon the German kids were at our
hotel swimming and having fun with our team. Our hotel accomodations were great as the hotel is part of a sports center. There is a bowling alley right under our room where the guys have spent some time, but the big hit is the indoor pool and spa which features a big water slide. Our entire team goes swimming about every day now, and the whole bunch of them will pile into the entrance of the slide and go down together all crashing together in a big pile at the bottom. I’ve got pictures of
this. Apparently one of the hotel people was yelling at them in German saying something like “one at a time”, but they just responded with, “sorry, we don’t speak German”! These boys have gotten about as close as any team I’ve witnessed and they are thrilled with the team victories. So despite the poor weather and barbed wire fence, it all turned out OK. I’ve giving the US perspective of course, so others please write about your own teams. Our boys encountered several problems which resulted in attempts, but each time they pulled together and got off a great reflight. Paul Shailor had his F1B motor start prematured on the ground and broke some prop blades, but recovered and flew fine. Later he was called for a model processing check and told his model was too big which really rattled him, but then it was discovered that they were not measuring correctly and all was actually OK.
Then there is a TV crew watching him and apparently his stab is not hooked up right and he crashes with a 5 sec flight. Evan Simon then flies while Paul gets another model ready and he throws up another max. About the 6th round of F1B Evan Simon is the last one to go with about 10 minutes left in the round. He launches but the DPR time is set too long and the model stalls before the prop starts and then crashes.
Taylor Gunder helps him get the backup model ready and he winds an launches with about 4 minutes left and gets the max. Chasing was made more difficult because almost every max flight went over the fence almost every day, and there was only a couple open gates in the fence for the entire airport perimeter. Sometimes models came back by car and sometimes they were handed over the fence. Only a couple of our flights landed in trees but they were recovered thanks to the pole than Henning rought. Cody had one flight in a huge thermal which was up for about 6 minutes and went 2.5 km. I helped track it using GPS coordinates but Taylor Gunder beat me to it and found it in the backyard of a house in a nearby village. All the models came back OK.
F1A
1 Gabriela DOMOKOVÁ SVK 1352
2 Sergey PROTOPOPOV UKR 1331
3 Anrijs PLUME LAT 1315
4 Tylor SECOR USA 1309
5 Luca ARINGER AUT 1303
9 Kyle JONES USA 1064
12`Brian BAUER USA 1041
F1B
1 Daniel BILLHAM GBR 1802
2 Bartlomiej SKIBICKI POL 1784
3 Paul COUTINEAU FRA 1252
4 Oskar FINDAHL SWE 1250
5 Taylor GUNDER USA 1239
6 Evan SIMON USA 1236
9 Paul SHAILOR USA 1229
F1P
1 Cody SECOR USA1571
2 Anthony FERRARIO USA 1556
3 Robert SAWKA POL 1509
4 Matthias SEREN GER 1245
5 Altxander NAZAROV RUS 1229
8 Brian PACELLI USA 1191
US Juniors Sweep Team Events
By Ken Bauer
August 25, 2006
From SCAT Electronic News
Latest news: our Junior team won the team event in both F1P and F1A
today which makes for a sweep of all the events. Thursday started out
with the best weather we have seen all week and F1P went smoothly. Cody
and Anthony both maxed out and will be in a 3 man flyoff in the morning
with a Polish flyer. Brian P had only a couple small drops and ensured
the team victory. Round 4 of F1A was then started afterwards at 4pm but
by this time the wind was almost as strong as when they postponed on
Tuesday. Our kids maxed the remaining flights through round 6 with Kyle
dropping only 10 seconds one flight. Rounds were delayed because of a
full scale plane trying to use the runway for takeoff and then because a
thunderstorm was coming very close. There was plenty of drama – Brian B
was the last flyer to go in the 6th round and was circle towing with the
thunderstorm approaching. His model then DTed on the line for a still
unexplained reason, maybe electrons from the storm or moiseture or
switch failure, but it was an attempt since the model came down with the
line still attached. Just at that moment the wind direction shifted 90
degrees and the velocity picked up dramatically as the storm started to
hit. Brian picked up the backup model and immediately towed staight up
and off with a perfect bunt. The model was in good air and maxed as the
rain started coming down and everybody headed for cover. A few other
flyers finished the round in the rain.
At this point the F1A team was maintaining their lead in the team
standings and at 7:15pm and with rain coming down it was clear that all
flying was done for the day. The only question was when and if round
seven would be flown. For the next hour various rumors circulated that
round 7 would be flown tomorrow morning with the flyoffs to follow, then
there were more rumors that the contest would be stopped after 6 rounds.
After a meeting of the Jury, organizers, and team managers it was
announced that there would be no round 7 but that the flyoffs for both
F1P and F1A would be in the morning. Most aggreed that this was the
only reasonable solution since flying round 7 in the morning would push
the flyoffs later in the day into the thermal activity which could be a
mess. At that point the US kids could finally celebrate. In F1A the
second place team was Ukraine and the third place team was France. I
can’t remember the others for F1P. Tyler Secor will be in the F1A
flyoff along with 6 others.
US F1B Team wins F1B team at Jr WC
By Ken Bauer
August 24, 2006
From SCAT Electronic News
Here is the latest news from Germany. George asked me if I would cover this report for him. It started off very cold and windy again this morning. The first round was postponed until 10am because weather reports indicated conditions would improve throughout the day. It was still blowing pretty good at 10 but the contest started anyway. Our F1B kids Taylor, Paul, and Evan
did very well. Conditions were tough, especially early when it was
cold, overcast, no sun and difficult to find lift. Taylor and Evan each
had small drops of less than 20 seconds and Paul remained maxed out the
whole day until the 7th round when he model came down near some trees
and he was clocked off at 2:29, although many other watches has him at
about 2:49. That dropped him out of the flyoff which had only two left,
a Polish flyer and a Brit. But Paul was still very happy to be part of
the winning US team. Plenty of drama for the US guys including a couple
crashes and attempts, but they kept cool and pulled it together. The
weather actually got much better as the day wore on. Wind slowed down
and we could finally remove our jackets. Predictions for tomorrow are
good weather and the rumor is that they may try to finish F1A tomorrow
as well as fly F1P.
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F1A Update
By Ken Bauer
August 21, 2006
From SCAT Electronic News
Here’s a bit more news from Germany. The weather continues to be windy,
rainy and cold. This is the 5th day in a row of this stuff since we’ve
been here. Today was F1A day and our 3 boys got started pretty well in
very difficult conditions. Wind was blowing about 15mph and the team
decided to pick everything on the ground and straight tow up and off.
Tyler maxed the first round but both Brian and Kyle dropped a few
seconds in very turbulent air. Retrieval is tough – over the fence, in
the corn, one in a tree, just in the first couple rounds. It is taking
ofter 30 to 60 minutes to get the models back. The kids all maxed in
rounds 2 & 3 and then the lunch break came and it started raining for a
couple hours. The Jury and organizers then decided at 2pm to cancel for
the rest of the day and try to finish on Friday morning. After 3 rounds
USA is in first place in the team score, around 45 seconds ahead of
Ukraine I heard. Weather reports are supposed to be improving the next
couple days so we’ll see what happens.
WC word from George
Hi Roger. This is report 1 from The Jr. WC. Flew, or started to fly F1A
today. Very windy conditions and rain. Only 3 rounds possible. Kyle Jones
dropped 6 sec in first rd, Brian Bauer 39 sec in same round. Tyler Secor
still clean. US Team is in !st place so far. Will finish on Friday,
the reserve day. F1B is tomorrow, and I think we will do pretty good.
The guys really have their heads in it. It is pretty exciting. |