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Tuesday - July 27, 2004
Nats 2004 - 2m class, day 1 
Photo Gallery
The weather pushed through and it looked like we could fly with perhaps minimal if no rain delays today. As usual at the start of a two day event, we start with a rather long pilots meeting. For the second year in a row, the C.D. Jack Iafret decided to allow a throw out round in 2m competition, if we completed more than 12 rounds over the two days. And today the pilots' meeting was even a little longer because they awarded the F3B trophies this morning as well. Daryl Perkins was awarded the National Championship trophy for F3B, Tom Kiesling placed second and Joe Wurts placed in third.
The first round of the day started with 8 minutes, but we usually flew 10 minute rounds throughout the day. The first thing that surprised me even though I inspected them is how deep the landing zone cones were. In my first group, nobody maxed the 8 minute task, and as I scratched around the corner of the cone to make a legal entry, I didn't have enough altitude to get back to the landing tape and took a zero landing, and so did a bunch of guys in my group. I wouldn't let that happen again for the rest of the week, and I felt no pity when pilots who were low on altitude cut the cones to make their tape, only to get zeroed on the landing by an official. A landing zone like this is proper when there are so many models making landings simultaneously. The last thing one wants is a model cutting across a number of pilots landing zones so he can make his tape, which is a recipe for a mid air.
Extremely variable weather, a little cooler and tougher than previous years and I think that was fun. The pace of the contest started slow, but as everyone began to mesh together the pace rapidly picked up and we completed six rounds. No rain today, the first dry day this week. Joe Wurts put on an entertaining show of flying a toy R/C UFO under the main tent at lunch that Jack Strother brought out at an appropriate moment.
(I have that on video, I need to put it online here)
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