US Nats Stunt Results

Today was top-20 day. It didn't rain, but it was windy.

Here are Open results. The top five fly off tomorrow.

Finalists are Richard Oliver, Konstantin Bajaikine, Randy Smith, Ted Fancher, and David Fitzgerald.

Other places were:
Howard Rush..........6
Dan Banjock..........7
Frank McMillan.......8
Bob Gieseke..........9
Brett Buck..........10
Frank Williams......11
Steve Millet........12
Windy Urtnowski.....13
Todd Lee............14

Bill Rich, John Sunderland, Gordan Delaney, Matt Neumann, Bill Suarez, and Bob Dixon did not fly.

It was an interesting day. You will note that three of the five finalists make their own engines. They knew what to do to fly in unusually strong wind. Richard was making flight after flight early in the week when it was much too windy for the rest of us. Ted and David also had the expertise to cope with the wind. Ted has a prop for all occasions. He just installed the 25-mph-wind prop and flew.

I was impressed with how other folks flew, too, but there were misfortunes. Brett Buck had an excellent first flight, but got hit with a gust on the second and got too low. Bob Gieseke was running around and found himself in the supine position, but earlier in the pattern than my act of the previous day. He kept flying and got up with his pipe still between his teeth. Todd Lee annihilated his Mustang. Allen Goff's lines broke, and his Tony had a combat-style flyaway. Scott Dinger suffered yet another crash.

The sun exacerbated the situation. The wind was blowing toward the sun. Usually, when you are flying near the sun, you can go a few milliseconds without seeing the airplane, because you pretty much know where it is. Today was different. In combat, when you can't find your opponent, you know you are in trouble. Losing track of one's own airplane in stunt gives one a similar feeling. Had I known the whereabouts of my airplane in the hourglass and overhead eights today, I'd probably have been more scared than I was. I was lucky and survived.

Inclomplete Advanced results are:
Kent Tysor.........1
Orestes Hernandez..2
Alberto Haber......3
Allen Goff.........4
Phillip Nickels....5
Curtis Comer.......6
Dale Gleason.......7
Robert Gruber......8
George Mitchell....9
Josias Delgado....10
Scott Dinger......11

Howard,

Sounds like fun. Hmm... well, maybe not. Did you get any pictures or were you too busy hanging onto a light pole?

Why did the CD allow flying in such horrid conditions?

Scott(Carnage is bad!) Riese

>Why did the CD allow flying in such horrid conditions?
>
>Scott(Carnage is bad!) Riese

While there are grounds for delaying events, once it has started, it is not easy to stop the flying and be fair to those who have already flown (and especially those who crashed). But I did go look it up in the rule book (page 1!), and it is more flexible than I thought it was, regarding options for delay or cancellation. Still, with so many folks so far from home, what can you do? Can they stay an extra day or three? What is fair is to run the events to the schedule and let the entrants decide whether to fly or not, IMHO. I have seen the CD gather the troops and get a vote on whether to continue or delay, but this was no NATS. Also would suggest that before you ever start off across the country (or county) to a contest, you must consider that at some point, the conditions may be so bad that you will decide not to fly, and face the fact that your time and money was for nothing. So, you spend the day sitting around and kibitzing with your friends and try to make the most of it. Preferably someplace where there is a nice piece of wood to lean on, and a brass rail to rest your feet on.
JMHO. Steve

>>Why did the CD allow flying in such horrid conditions?
>>
>>Scott(Carnage is bad!) Riese
>
>While there are grounds for delaying events, once it has
>started, it is not easy to stop the flying and be fair to
>those who have already flown (and especially those who
>crashed). But I did go look it up in the rule book (page
>1!), and it is more flexible than I thought it was,
>regarding options for delay or cancellation. Still, with so
>many folks so far from home, what can you do

Warren considered it, but the problem was as you say - once Todd crashed (relatively early in the day), it would have been pretty bad to say, oh, never mind, everybody else gets a break. Not entirely logical, but just feels wrong.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-03 AT 00:08 AM (CDT)
 
>Allen
>Goff's lines broke, and his Tony had a combat-style flyaway.

Just trying to imagine a 3.5 to 4 pound Stunt plane flying away like this. I hope he got it back without too much damage.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-03 AT 02:21 PM (CDT)
 
Can't help but think that Todd's crash was all the more reason to delay the round. When the best caliber flyers crash.. the conditions are deplorable. Yes, Todd would be out of it, but you have to consider what is fair to the other 19 competitors also.

Sounds like it was not even survival of the fittest, but actually it was survival of the luckiest!

(This is in no way a knock on those who made the top five.)

Take a look of the list of who waived off the 2nd flight. They were obviously smart not taking the risk. Looks like there was a great group in the top 20.. What a shame.

>Can't help but think that Todd's crash was all the more
>reason to delay the round. When the best caliber flyers
>crash.. the conditions are deplorable. Yes, Todd would be
>out of it, but you have to consider what is fair to the
>other 19 competitors also.

I figured Todd for a shoe-in when I saw the flags in front of the hotel. This was about a typical afternoon conditions in Kansas (I know, I used to live in Salina - doorstops were a booming business!)

>
>Sounds like it was not even survival of the fittest, but
>actually it was survival of the luckiest!
>
>(This is in no way a knock on those who made the top five.)
>
>Take a look of the list of who waived off the 2nd flight.
>They were obviously smart not taking the risk.

Smarter than me, apparently! But no way was I passing when I'm in a very close second on my circle - it never even crossed my mind. The airplane was built to fly at the NATs, I drove 2500 miles, all I have to do is get through and I get to fly for the trophy.

BTW, I told Ted and Dave that I figured I was about 50-50 to make it without crashing, but as soon as I took off that estimate went down to about 5%..

LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-03 AT 03:56 PM (CDT)
 

Disreguard

There was mention in one of the threads that Steve and I had to leave the Nats early due to a family emergancy.

Late Wednesday night our mom called and told us that our grandfather had passed away. It was not unexpected but it was however sooner than my mom thought. The services were to be held today. Sat July 12

We were ready to go home at a moments notice. However our mom said all was taken care of and we could finish the contest if we wanted. We would not hear of it. Our grandfather was always very interested in our flying and our planes. He was a carpenter by trade and a WWII vet. We decided to stay and fly on Thurs. And then head back on Friday morning and drive it in one day. It isnt that far 950mi. But there was alot of traffic in Indy that added and extra 1.5 hours.

We called Jeff Scott many times on Friday morning as we drove home. He informed us at 10:30-45 am the flying was over and there were 7 crashes. It didnt sound like much fun at all.

Leaving early probably saved my airplane. I had qualified for the top twenty and I am not one to pass on flights(yes I am dumb that way, not macho or trying to be manly, but just dumb). I fly a very slow laptime. It was a steady 5.9 all week and sometimes in the winds I would get it to 5.8-5.75 on the practice days. The motor is strong but I am almost sure it(plane) would have been slapped around and it could have really been bad.

To all who made it through/in congratulations. To those who lost planes condoleneces. To everyone..thanks for a great(soggy) nats.

To Gerry Phelps..a speedy recovery is in our prayers.

To Marry Phelps..Great main gear landing in such a stressfull moment in your life! Very impressive, Way to go!

To all around us at the nats and elsewhere thanks so much for your kind words at this time in our lives.

We will see you again...

LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-03 AT 08:47 PM (CDT)
 
>
>We called Jeff Scott many times on Friday morning as we
>drove home. He informed us at 10:30-45 am the flying was
>over and there were 7 crashes. It didnt sound like much fun
>at all.
>
>Leaving early probably saved my airplane. I had qualified
>for the top twenty and I am not one to pass on flights(yes I
>am dumb that way, not macho or trying to be manly, but just
>dumb). I fly a very slow laptime. It was a steady 5.9 all
>week and sometimes in the winds I would get it to 5.8-5.75
>on the practice days. The motor is strong but I am almost
>sure it(plane) would have been slapped around and it could
>have really been bad.

Doesn't matter how strong the engine is - if the airspeed is about the same as the windspeed, it stops when you get the nose into the wind. Bear flew right before me and the airplane literally stopped in midair several times, and had to be whipped to get through the upwind side of the circle. The only possible solution was more speed.

Bear and I (and I'm sure others) had the additional problem of having the engine go rich into the wind due to ram-air effects on the open vent. Pipe pressure would have helped somewhat, but I didn't think of that until David mentioned it. I heard that several of the advanced airplane that simply flamed out rich due to excessive fuel delivery pressure variation. Mine was going into a 16-stroke when it was wound up, but at least it kept going, until the crash.

Brett

BTW, for comparison, the wind was MUCH stronger than it was on the preceding Sunday when everybody was complaining about it. You got through that fine, but this was a different matter altogether.

Sorry to hear about your grandad Doug. From the sound of it you were probably better off going home anyway. I hope the services went well.

Doug and Steve, Very sorry to hear about your Grandfather. You, and your family, will be in our prayers.
Bill Little <><

Doug,

I'm so very sorry about your grandfather. God bless
him.

Doug & Steve Moon

So sorry at the passing of your grandfather, my prayers are with you.

Blessings.

Iskandar; Thanks for your concern. The plane hit the ground just seconds after the lines broke. The wind on circle #1 suprised me. The Tony was totaled. It was the "NATS", and I was going to fly regardless of the wind. Its just a wooden airplane, and thank God no one got hurt.

Here's to Bob Geiseke, the greatest stunt flier that has ever lived, and my personal hero.