Appearance at the 04 Nats!

There are 128 entries in the ADV and Open classifications.

Roughly 50 more than normal!!!! Holy crap am I pissed I didnt get to go to this one!

Of these 128 planes Bob Gieseke was awarded 19 points and sole posession of the front row! I have seen this plane in person and launched it many times. This model is one of if not THE BEST model I have ever seen, BAR NONE!

Way to go Gieseke! You rule!!!

Adv and Open are mixed together on the circels to give 32 contestants to each circle! Two rounds per day on Wed. and Thurs.. Whoever draws 1 and 32 is in the drivers seat. If it takes all day to get the rounds in at 7 pm the air is truly stunt heaven and can get the points of a lifetime.

Also, to advance to Friday you have to be in the top 5 of your classification on your circle. Sounds tough! I cant wait to see how it shakes out!

I cant wait to hear how it goes. I will keep up the posting as I hear.

Doug,

Do you know if any of the WC competitors stayed to fly at the NATS? The only requirement was they had to meet the BOM rule. It would be quite the NATS if some of these world class flyers participated!

>Doug,
>
>Do you know if any of the WC competitors stayed to fly at
>the NATS? The only requirement was they had to meet the BOM
>rule. It would be quite the NATS if some of these world
>class flyers participated!

The OZ team, Germans, British, Brazilians, Japanese, and I think the Russians. I know there are more but I couldnt remember off the top of my head.

This accounts for some of the larger entry.

>Doug,
>
>Do you know if any of the WC competitors stayed to fly at
>the NATS? The only requirement was they had to meet the BOM
>rule. It would be quite the NATS if some of these world
>class flyers participated!

Quite a few stayed. Yuri and Andrii Yatesenko, Sergei Belcko, and many others. I gave Yuri and Andrii some .018 lines so they could be legal.

Another large element of the larger turnout are people who came to see the W/C as spectators that wouldn't have come to the NATs otherwise.

BTW, my buddies Phil Granderson and Jim "Uncle Jimby" Aron were flanking Windy in the 18 pt row behind Bear. I would say Uncle Jimby has an excellent chance at the Concours, and his week was made completely when both Claus Maikis and the *original* "Mr. 20 points", Gene Martine, both said they liked it.

Brett:

What line diameter were Yuri and Andrii flying on under FAI rules? Were they solids or braids?

I'm also curious how the Yatsenko models faired in appearance judging. We joked with Yuri and Andrii that they were the only ones who could enter the Yatsenko RTFs legally in our NATS and then, of course, collect appearance points. Yuri quipped, "Do I get points for building my engine, too?"

I drove out to the WCs with Steve Yampolsky who grew up in the old USSR. We spent a lot of time with the Yatsenkos (Ukraine) Eugene Yakolev and the Strakovs (Russia).

I really enjoyed their slow patterns and the low mellow exhaust note of the DR60 engines.

Rick Campbell

>Yuri quipped, "Do I get points for building my engine, too?"

To me, this was the oddest discovery. For Yatsenko borthers and other guys from the former republics, building an engine is part of building a plane.

>Brett:
>
>What line diameter were Yuri and Andrii flying on under FAI
>rules? Were they solids or braids?
>

Looked about .014 3-strand of very high stiffness. Not Laystrates, as they were not soldered, nor did they lay particularly straight.

>I'm also curious how the Yatsenko models faired in
>appearance judging. We joked with Yuri and Andrii that they
>were the only ones who could enter the Yatsenko RTFs legally
>in our NATS and then, of course, collect appearance points.
>Yuri quipped, "Do I get points for building my engine, too?"

I think they were both in the gaggle of planes at 17 points, but I'm not sure. The cockpit detail on Yuri's mode were very, very good. The overall worksmanship of both models was very good.

>I drove out to the WCs with Steve Yampolsky who grew up in
>the old USSR. We spent a lot of time with the Yatsenkos
>(Ukraine) Eugene Yakolev and the Strakovs (Russia).
>
>I really enjoyed their slow patterns and the low mellow
>exhaust note of the DR60 engines.

Well, they might have looked slow, and they have decently slow maneuver times, but the level flight speed was in the upper 4s and low 5s every time I timed it. There were essentially *no* slow (>5.3) lap times from any of the competitors, including the US.

Brett,
I fly one of Andreys "Classic 2" models on the same lines - I measured them at 15-16 thou, depending on how you do the measuring. These are the "brass" coloured lines right? You are right, they are very stiff (low wrap angle) & nice to fly on. Dont last forever though, they tend to unravel a bit, but cheap to replace.

Yuri recommends lap speeds of 5.1-5.3 for these models. Any comment on how they fly on the heavier 18 thou lines? Are they using 80/20 fuel?

I'm a very happy camper with the sidemount DR60, it runs at impressively constant speed, making the "Russian tractor noise", not that I've heard a Russian (or Ukrainian) tractor.

I think that Yuri might be flying my spare model - he apparently didn't have time to finish his Yak 55 design & I offered him my "customer" model. Any chance you could ask him?

TIA,
Cheers, Dave

> Looked about .014 3-strand of very high stiffness. Not
>Laystrates, as they were not soldered, nor did they lay
>particularly straight.

Copper colored? Sounds like Russian F2D wire. Real tough stuff, saws right through American stainless wire. They use a really interesting line termination, too, involving a twisted piece of one strand galvanized wire. I'll take some pics someday. Don't know if those lines were like that, of course.

> BTW, my buddies Phil Granderson and Jim "Uncle Jimby"
>Aron were flanking Windy in the 18 pt row behind Bear. I
>would say Uncle Jimby has an excellent chance at the
>Concours,

His INfinity is AWESOME!

I walked up to Jim and said, "when are you gonna learn to build?"

..."and paint".

West Coast work of art... Ted does not have the market cornered all alone.

I am also here. With borrowed model orriginaly sold (or better built for) German competitor Richi Kornmeier. It is his backup model - now I am lucky I did it that way after crash on WC ). It is my MAX, so I know it well but with ST 60. It is difficutl for me to do the pattern in this wind without enough practice and without pipe

Doug,

Any word about Classic and Old Time results? I think they were flown today (Monday). If so, Keith Trostle would have had to finish his flights and prepare his Bearcat for appearance judging by 3:00. If I'm not mistaken, this will be his first Open in many years.

Classic.

Steve said Classic was very fun. I think Bob Hunt won it. Steve was 9th. It was real windy most of the day and worse in the second round. Most people passed the second and that was that. I am not sure how Keith did.

I heard Kent Tysor's Strega got busted up pretty bad yesterday. Any word whether they got it put back together?

>I heard Kent Tysor's Strega got busted up pretty bad
>yesterday. Any word whether they got it put back together?

<sob> No.... <sob> Kent Strega was one of my absolute favorites at the Nats.

>>I heard Kent Tysor's Strega got busted up pretty bad
>>yesterday. Any word whether they got it put back together?
>
> No.... Kent Strega was one of my absolute
>favorites at the Nats.

I hope you're telling me that you don't have word on whether they fixed it or not. I imagine with all of Windy's crew up there, they could have built a whole new airplane, McGivver style, out of old milk cartons and used bubblegum wrappers by now. It would be a bummer if it was a total write-off.

But Kent should have had his spare plane there anyhow........

Steve and Brad,

I just talked with Kent.

He tells me the Strega pancaked on the 2nd of the outside square eights Sunday morning.

With the help of Windy, Noel Drindak, John Ditavio, and Joe Adamusko, they were able to get it back together and flying again by Sunday evening. However, they found damage in the stab which was not detected earlier, and thus retired that ship for the event.

Kent has now gone to his back-up plane.

Thanks for your concerns,