Tucson Shootout 2008

Well the shootout has come and gone!! There are so many stories to tell, funny ones, technical ones I really just couldn’t write them all down!

I try and sum it up in a few words and in different sections!

Unlimited

Well 14 pilots, harsh and varying weather/wind. First day went well, second was a challenge the unknown threw me and I made mistakes in my known as a result! So need to improve on my mental process of preparation for unknowns and knowns after I’ve made mistakes! This happened at the Nats too so it’s something to work on! The third day was a windy one! I was caught out by the wind on a crossbox spin, so need to practise them more, I finished well though for me, I put a solid known in, wind corrected well and scored good! Things to work on for the future are snaps, The key to IMAC!! You need to nail them everytime!! Also rollers altough the have a low k factor they are critical to airplane placement for the next maneouvre, more so on unknowns!

I had the chance to talk to a good few of my competitors and they were all very nice and really glad to see some international pilots! They also said that Unlimited in the US is tough and very close at every comp! A big well done to Adam Bry for winning the class! He flew well and deserved it!

The rest of the classes

Troy flew great in advanced and to get 3rd was a result to be proud of! The Aussie team are all good guys and I hope to do a comp over there next year! Chris flew his socks off in Invitational and Freestyle, 5th in sequences and 2nd in Freestyle at only 17 is amazing! A big well done to him and his dad Norm! The invitational guys all flew to their world class standard, their grasp of unknowns and the very difficult knowns has to be seen to be believed! Mark L was very professional all week, he was pushed closly by Bernd and Jason but was number 1 for! As he said 4 in a row, now he knows how QQ felt at the TOC! The freestyle was superb I was sorry to miss out on it but you can’t do freestlye with a sequence plane! The abandoned it on Saturday due to high winds and dust storms! Gernot had bad luck on Sunday with a TX mix that switched the ignition off when the smoke was turned on! But everyone rallied together and got him in the air again for his final known and freestyle round! Bill Hempel with his Cub was cool, hovering, harriers, ke, just simply cool!! Mark got low on his second round and as always scores well! They all flew well!

Bogan

What can you say!! A funny funny man, a truely decent bloke and a very good pilot! All about fun and a good time!!

Chris & Dave

Thanks to these guys for coming from the UK, the home support from IMAC Uk was nice to have!

Boat Race

The US team ran, the ROTW won by default

DA

Dave and all his employees go above and beyond the call of duty! Time after time they pulled out all the stops on so many fronts just to get us into the air or to improve our performance! We can’t thank them enough!

Sponsors

Horizon Hobby, Flightpower, DA, Expressfly and Jersey Modeller, this adventure wouldn’t have been possible without their kind support throughout the year and for this comp!

Dad

A simple Thanks, a lot of hard work on his part went in, wouldn’t be doing this without him!

So that’s it, we are leaving the sunshine and dusty desert behind and heading for wet and windy Northern Ireland after an amazing trip and with a lot More knowledge into our hobby of IMAC and RC!

Matt

This one pic sums it up for me!

Today was my final day of preparation for the contest! We headed to Catalina about 10am. There already was QQ, Seth, Brendan and Mark. Everyone was flying well and you could sense that it was getting serious!

Mark was in the zone, he put a flight on his Dalten 300 MEL and for his 1st shootout practise flight it was damn good! On landing he lost a wheel and axle, luckily it didn’t do any damage, just scuff the spat. He then prepared his backup sequence plane, his godfrey 300 with a DA200 4cyclinder! He had to change out some servos and re set it up, but after a few minutes he had it flying just like his Dalten. He got his wheel fixed and put a few flights on it in the afternoon! His style is unique I really enjoy watching him fly sequences!

Quique was flying very well as always and after some problems with an ignition module on his T-12 bip he was doing some really pretty flying with that! Seth had an interesting day, his DA 85 was replaced at DA first thing, he then put 2flights on it both with deadsticks. The second deadstick was right after takeoff, he turned but it wasn’t coming round, he levelled the wings let it dive and hoped for the best as it disappeared behind some small trees, it hit pretty hard, then there was a massive cloud of dust, the plane was unsighted but it didn’t look good. A few minutes later he returned with only a slight dent in the wing and a bent gear, he didn’t even break a prop! QQ and his Dad Tom worked on the plane for about an hour, found that the clunk had come off in the tank so that’s why it would stop in the air! After they got the dust out of the cowl etc he was back in the air!!

Frazer was there in the afternoon and put a few flights on his big Extra, he had Been up at the moon for 3 days!

It was then time for freestyle practise! Seth flew well and his routine was good, although we couldn’t hear the music! Mark was on it with his H9 260, he was flying superblyl, again we couldnt hear the music but it was a routine I hadn’t seen before and was high energy! I can’t wait for the freestyle on Saturday! My practise will begin with round 1 of the comp, unfortunately I got to save the plane for the sequences!! I put about 5 flights on the Extra today, got a little more help from QQ and I think it’s coming good!

So tonight we relax, tomorrow is an off day, no flying! Clean the plane make sure it’s all good and then we are ready! There is a big BBQ at DA tonight so we will have a few beers and a lie in tomorrow!

Matt

We had an early start down at the Catalina RC, we arrived down at the field about 7am and it was packed! As we got out of the car, we noticed that a few other bigger planes were on the flightline, Seth Arnold, Brendan Jones and the Godfather Quique Somenzini! We were also greeted by the ever friendly bunch of club members! My dad and I started to introduce ourselves to Seth etc., as I was chatting to Tom Arnold, Seth’s dad who is a really nice guy, Quique comes up and says hello Matthew, I’m Quique how are you? Now when your idol and an aeromodelling legend walks up and knows who you are without being introduced it makes you a little bit gobsmacked!! Once I’d picked my chin up from the ground we chatted for a good 5mins and he was really nice and interested in our trip! Quique & Seth then flew their freestyle flights, both were superb! It was then my turn to do some freestyle. We had fitted the smoke pump and increased the rates a little so it was good to go! I kept it simple the plane felt good in 3D, I did some low harriers both ways up and rolling, a little bit of hovering all the basic stuff, smoke worked good too, as well as at home! Overall very happy with it’s performance, we also worked out a simple way to keep my resolution the same for my sequences through the Powerbox Royal, so that hasn’t been sacraficed!!

Quique then flew his T12 biplane, man that is cool, 50lb weight, DA200 on 4tuned pipes and a 32×13 bolly prop, it sounded awesome, noisy but awesome! He flew a few sequences and it & he was going well! I had a good few flights, QQ agreed to help me with my sequences, he watched my unlimited routine, then gave me some hints and tips! His way of explaining things is so simple! He also gave me some really cool techniques on how to do stuff, way beyond what I’m doing/know back home!

I then flew a bit more using QQ advice, he came out when I was flying and adjusted a few things for me, it really made the plane feel better and I thought it was spot on as it was! I really learnt the most I’ve ever done today, in my flying career, they call QQ the master he sure is! I think i’m honoured to be able to have spent time like this with an all time great, if not the greatest ever person to fly model aeroplanes and off course the current world champion! After watching him flying his T12 and his Python freestyle plane, I believe he truely is the best I’ve ever seen and I’ve been lucky to see the CPLRs, Lesebergs, Hydes etc., his control of the python biplane in 3D was unreal, he was doing harriers in about the size of an indoor hall, his torque rolls where immense just a blur!! I think I want a python!! LOL

During one of our breaks from the intense sun, QQ started to chat about his Dad and the times they spent back in Argentina. The got up to some crazy stuff. It took QQ only one flight to be solo! Amazing! He was really relaxed and was laughing and joking about things. It was a truely special day for me, one I’ll never forget! The good thing is that I get to do it all again tomorrow! I could write all night about today, it sounds silly but this is a dream come true!

After all that when you thought things couldn’t really get much better, we headed down to TRCC to let Tony Russo know how our new prop worked out, (it worked out good, no more 30×12 for me it’s a ??.?x?? Now! LOL). TRCC had been busy, John Geizilies, Mark L, Gernot, the animal Andrew Jesky been practising all day. We talked to Tony and he invited us over to his place for Pizza! On the guest list also was Andrew Jesky and cheeseburger (aka Mark Leseberg). That was a lot of fun! Those guys in a relaxed environment are cool to hang out with, Mark really relaxed with us and we got a really good insight into what makes him tick, how he mentally prepares himself, he also gave me a master class in American football, the rules etc., so a great end to a great day! Mark wants to come over to Ireland to play golf and fly! That would be a treat! We are going to exchange details, he must have talked to my Dad for a good half hour about coming over to compete, I think my dad even offered him a plane to fly!! Thanks to Tony, his wife and family for letting us invade their house! Pretty lucky to have dinner with these guys, many would kill for that!

Tomorrow should be good, Mark is coming to fly with us at Catalina, Mark & QQ flying together! Can’t wait!!

Matt

Ps a big thanks to Bill Disney again for some great photos!

Hi there, I’m writing this blog and I’m suffering!! 10hours of flying, 12 flights, 2.5 gallons of petrol, 3000mah of power used on each battery, I’ve consumed about 10 litres of water and I’m so stiff with sun burn it hurts!! I think I’m in heaven! LOL

Today was the most full on flying I’ve ever done, we shared TRCC with Troy, Nick (an intermediate pilot) and an old guy that talked to himself, very funny but you had to be there “make a right turn..ok if you say so!!” all in the one breath! LOL! Nice man though!

We worked on a constant rotation system all day, it worked great, the wind was all over the place throughout the day, so we flew left to right, right to left, crosswind in both directions, all good practise for the shootout! It was really hot today as well, it was in the 100s (40 deg c), the black Tarmac is so hot when your standing out on the flightline! Next week is suppose to be cooler, let’s hope so! But tomorrow is too get even hotter!

About 5pm a whole bunch of club members from TRCC turned up, as well as Bogan and Baldrick (Frazer & Mike) and Bill Hempel, so it got busy! It was good too see the two Invitational pilots practise their knows, 12 of 8’s, 7 of 4’s followed by 1 1/4 neg snaps on a 45 up!! All good stuff for IMAC nuts like me!! At one point I was flying and there were two others guys doing sequences, a bit crazy, but it’s good training for the contest, 2 people fly at once during the comp, so got to get used to it!! Bill was struggling for power, his 3w 170 was hauling his 45lb extra around ok, but in the long uplines with lots of elements he was more or less hovering! Frazer was running in his DA170 powered comp arf 260, this is his freestyle plane but he was doing the sequences anyway as his our design 260 was now in Memphis! As Frazer put it, it’s learning to play the flaming guitar with Elvis!! Hopefully it should be in Tucson tomorrow! He was still flying very well, well at least when they got the tank plumbed up right (a deadstick found that one out) and when they tightened the prop bolts up!! You see these things happen to the worlds best too!
Frazer’s grasp of the sequences is awesome! The next time you go to the field try doing 2 positive snaps from inverted on a horz line! Sounds easy, try it! frazer did it and lost no height, Each time! He broke the line, did the rotation, pitched the nose back down and flew on!! Stunning!! Sorry I got very IMACey there or is that anorakey! LOL impressed the heck out of me!

It’s been a really busy day but learnt a lot! The various fields that we can fly at get busy from tomorrow on, so it’s most likely my last chance for some serious practise, unless we decide to relocate to Phoenix and the famous “moon”, more about that another time!

Matt