Wednesday - July 28, 2004

Nats 2004 - 2m class, day 2

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The sun was out and bright today, the heat actually felt pleasant.  We usually get cooked by the heat of Muncie summer weather, but not this year.  Again, we started the day rolling with an 8 minute task, but flew 10 minute tasks most of the day.  Today the pace was rapid, and as far as competition goes it was all about making those landings and not making any mistakes with these smaller sailplanes.  There was some very skillful flying going on between Daryl Perkins, Troy Lawicki and Joe Wurts, their scores were so tight.  The top page of the score sheet was tight as well with lots of pilots flying very strong, as you would expect at a Nats.

We flew a long day today as the weather was the best most of us had seen all week, and we got in seven rounds.  We always seem to get a lot of rounds in during 2m competition, and I think it is great practice and mental preparation for the next two days of unlimited competition.

During the later part of the day, a new group of pilots start showing up at the field, the pilots that traveled in just for the unlimited competition.  So there is another reunion of pilots and friends going on, and the awards ceremony is just that much larger at the end of the day.  C.D. Jack Iafret awarded the National Championship trophy to Daryl Perkins who was flying a Laser 2MC, in second place was Troy Lawicki who was flying a 2m Duck of his design, and in third place was Joe Wurts flying an Image.

Here is a link to the final results:  Final Results

This is an evening where there is always a lot of action on the field after the contest.  Many guys want to put their unlimited models up in the air, re-adjust to the larger models, shoot some landings, fun fly, etc...  Jack and I put out TK's winch and flew our ICON lite models.  The landing zone felt much better with the larger model, Gordy and I shot a few landings side by side and Gordy decided we tied.  We were nailing the landing tape repeatedly.  Peter Goldsmith was also out, and watching me land.  He was impressed how my ICON was stopping right where I put my nose on the ground, and had to examine the nose of my model.  He exclaimed, "I need one of those Jabbers!"  I busted a gut laughing, I had never heard a skeg called a jabber but it certainly was appropriate.  I showed him how I modified a Tim McCann belly skeg to be a nose skeg, and to use strapping tape to hold it on.  We flew until dark, it was a very fun day.