Semi-Finals Complete!

Well, the end of the semi's marks the end of the World Championships for me, with a final result of 16th. This is the best finish that I have had to date at a World Championships, and although I am disappointed that fell from 13th in the preliminaries to 16th during the semi's its still a good result. As a friend from South Africa said "you still beat a former World Champion", referring to Wolfgang Matt who finished in 17th.

We were out practicing at the secret field yesterday, and it turned into an interesting day. On the third practice flight the T-Canalyzer on my primary model decided it had enough and went for a little trip far far away, never to be seen again. I landed and said no problem, the one on my backup model fits nicely, so on it went with a little shimming to get it just right. I did a flight to check trims and make sure it was the same. The very next flight, that T-Canalyzer got lonely for his buddy and took a vacation as well! At this point I was a little frustrated but ok, it was better to happen now than in the contest. No worries, lots of time to make some changes and get used to the plane without the T on it. Uhhhh no, since my only charger that I had brought with me out to practice decided it had enough as well! So I had two packs left that were charged and made the best of those two flights.

I felt I had two good rounds of F today, and had OK scores but not what I was hoping. I guess the loss of my T-friends was causing me to lose some geometry on the high K rolling/KE loop stuff....I dont know...maybe it was just the heat :) At any rate I flew the best I could under the circumstances and thats all you can do!




A shot of us going out for the first round of the semi's

Just before the second round, notice the T-friends are gone...they really do work and I really missed them today!

Diana Plettenberg and I after my second round having a talk about the motor, and just how things are going in general.

The Plettenbergs have been very helpful to me over the years in F3A, and produce arguably the best electric motor for F3A, and I really appreciate all the help and support they have provided! Top notch people!

The results from the Semi's - congrats to all the finalists.

More comments tomorrow....I am going to have some beer, and wine.... :)

Chad