Tuesday - September 02, 2003

I just got back from the USA F3J team selection contest which was hosted in Denver, Colorado by the RMSA club.  The contest was held over the labor day weekend, with practice and the pilots meeting on Friday, qualifying rounds on Saturday and Sunday, and the final rounds on Monday.

I jetted in on Thursday from O'Hare with Rae and met my team mates Jim McCarthy and Tom Kallevang who drove in with the models and equipment, and David McCarthy who arrived on a later flight.  The weather on Thursday was pleasant, only a few people were flying and we had a good time testing all our models out.

Friday was more of the same, good weather and many more pilots out practicing, cutting lines, catching up with friends and preparing.  Don Smith and Robin Meek, also from Chicago SOAR arrived today via driving bringing more equipment and help.  When the field slowed down a bit we practiced some two man tows, I towed all my models up.  Friday evening the pilots meeting was held at the Marriott Courtyard on Tower Rd., which also turned out to be a really nice place to stay.

Friday Photo Gallery

Saturday we only got in two rounds due to weather, the day degraded rapidly.  My first flight was strong (a nice start to the contest) and my second I thought was flown as about as well as I could in the weather, I wasn't the only one finding it difficult.  We got rained on for about four hours, thought we might be able to go again, switched the field and another front moved in and hit us again.  I didn't carry a camera because of the rain, so I took no pictures on Saturday.  We had to rapidly disassemble and pack everything in the rain, there were planes and parts in the wrong wing bags, in the wrong vehicles, all wet.  It took some time back at the hotel to dry everything out and get it back to the proper owners.

Sunday morning started off with rain but it eventually stopped and the contest rolled ahead.  The first round and the last round of Sunday probably had the toughest conditions of the weekend.  We only got a chance to fly 7 qualifying rounds, which made for a one throw out contest.  I really wish we could have flown more.

Sunday Photo Gallery

Monday morning still wasn't cooperating, with heavy fog that didn't clear for hours, it was going to be yet another late start.  When the fog cleared we had 3 rounds of seniors, 3 rounds of juniors, and finished up with 3 rounds of seniors again.  The sun came out and the whole sky was UP!  I am sure the guys in the final liked the sunshine, but wished the conditions were a little tougher as this became a rapid launch and precision landing game very quickly, with about 14 and a half minutes or more of cruising around in between.

Monday Photo Gallery

There was no doubt in my mind a contest with this many good pilots in attendance was going to produce a good USA F3J team.  And it did just that, with Joe Wurts in first, Tom Kiesling in second, and Larry Jolly in third with Josh Glaab in fourth as the team alternate.

MPEG movie of the 2004 US F3J Team announcement

Josh Glaab - Alternate,  Tom Kiesling - 2nd,  Joe Wurts -1st,  Larry Jolly - 3rd

Memorable Moments

Larry Jolly making one of the most incredible saves I have ever seen on Sunday.  LJ popped off at about 100' and proceeded upwind to small cove of trees and started doing wide smooth circles, there must have been a thermal there but I didn't see it.  He actually walked out all the way to his towers as he concentrated on making his Eraser stay up.  I watched him fly at about 100' for over five minutes in this area, it looked at times it was all going to fall apart but he would reposition and keep the model barely off the ground.  Towards the end of the flight the thermal finally kicked off allowing him to get some altitude so he could walk all the way back to the landing tape and shoot the landing. It was an incredible show of persistence and just willing a model to stay up.

Larry Jolly and 'Roo' the Aussie F3J Team Mascot

Later in the afternoon I was lucky enough to see my first bald eagle soaring amongst models.  Two local hawks decided to attack the bald eagle and performed dive attacks from above.  The eagle did the nicest series of rolls that I have ever seen a bird do, each time taking it's claws to the hawks diving at him from above.  I have to imagine the eagle heard us on the ground cheering him, because he treated us to this show several times and more and more pilots got to watching the show, and cheering louder.  The bald eagle is a majestic soaring "B" one "R" "D",  larger and faster than anything I have seen.

Joe Wurts entire set of flying was methodical, he never seemed to ever get into any position to harm himself.  Since I had a lot of time to watch him in the fly offs on Monday, I noticed things I hadn't before.  His strategies are well thought out, and executed equally well.  For instance, nobody gets off the line quicker than Joe (at least on purpose).

Tom Kiesling was flying as well as I have ever seen him do in a contest.  His landing precision was amazing, continually placing his Mantis on the 100 between the 1 second to go beep and the horn.  He left very little meat on the bone.  And his team mate Josh Glaab, I have heard of this guy but never seen him fly before, wow!  What nice guys to be around too.

If LJ's pop off and save wasn't good enough for everyone on Sunday, Jim McCarthy duplicated the deal in a 15 minute final round.  LJ was going to give one of his bionic high tension launches, (if you don't know what I mean, try towing a model that Larry is holding on to in preparation for launch), unfortunately Jimbo's model over accelerated and popped off really low.  LJ called for Jimbo and he flew most of that 15 minutes below 400'.  Jimbo took that round with a 14:56.57 and nailed the 100.  Incredible flying, just amazing.  Lesson to learn, never, never give up.

TK (Tom Kallevang) my close flying friend for the past several years made the finals with some very consistent flying.  In the finals he was flying more aggressively than I have ever seen him, and I have seen about every flight he has taken for years.  Nice to see new tricks from old dogs, I'm impressed, definitely took it up a notch.

And finally, my last memorable moment was LJ snapping a line just as he was tensioning to launch in the finals, the line hit him in the neck and drew blood.  The line break also somehow caused the boom on his Eraser to break.  If he were to change models it would have wasted valuable time needed to make the team, so he launched and flew a model with a completely broken boom, the only thing that may have been holding this model together were the push rods and shreaded glass.  The boom was drooping about ten degrees, but he had enough up trim to keep the model flying.  Ya baby, he maxed the remaining amount of time and nailed his landing.

It was a difficult weekend of soaring due to the weather, but in the end we have an awesome team to cheer for and support for the 2004 F3J world championships.  At the edge of the flying site I spotted this barn with a huge message on its roof, I think this picture gives a hint about our new F3J team.  (As usual on my web site, click any picture to enlarge it)