Geneseo Nats 2004
The boys from
Texas packed pink foam boxes, loaded trailers, crammed minivans full and
strapped themselves in for the trip to New York's FACdom. Eight Texans made
this kidney numbing, red eye sojourn into the heart of yankeeland. The two
groups kept in contact by cell phone as they rolled down the road, grumbling
back and fourth at the various road map and interstate sign conflicting
with each other to prevent us from our much anticipated arrival into the
mecca of freeflight. Finally arriving, in spite of the yankees attempt at
detouring us from our quest, they must have been afraid of Willie Nelson
and Bob Wills stealing their thunder. After sorting out motel rooms we settled
in to plan our strategy of upholding the lone star honor. We set up camp
on the first day on the field to do battle with most of the FACs great ones.
With
our Texas A&M and Texas Territory flags waving overhead, strains of Bob
Wills and The Texas Playboys wafting from our encampment, we were ready
to defend the Alamo once again. Friday's windy weather and the lack of any
grass precluded any positive results from members of our gang, resulting
in poor showings in WW1 and Modern military. Ah but we had our good stuff
all set for the better flying conditions promised for Saturday. Saturday
started out promising with Bruce Finley flying well with a couple of his
old timer models posting some good times. Mike Isserman and Bob Isaacks
put up some good peanut flights and managed to tie for fifth place in that
event. Charlie Hill finished toward the top of the heap in WW2 mass launch.
Mike Midkiff flew the Loening to a near max. His Shinden also flew OK but
didn't get the altitude needed to be competitive. Bob Isaacks A-20 wowed
the flight line with some long and low strafing runs. Saturday's competition
was tough but the Texans still felt that they were in the hunt.
Sunday arrived
with questionable weather but minimum winds. Some good flying was done between
rainsqualls. Dick Adams had his Vought Corsair flying well in Golden Age
Military. Mike Midkiffs Avia did OK but couldn't snag any updraughts to
help it post better times. All in all the boys from Texas flew OK. The models
that were trimmed well represented us well but the models that were untrimmed
stayed that way. Without question, in order to compete with the big guns
at Geneseo and finish in the money, one has to post max times with models
that have a scale score of at least the high 50s. The Happy hour, with its
quaffing of the appropriate libations, helped to numb our collective bruised
egos. The true spirit of why we came emerged after the second or third round
of drinks as we rekindled old friendships and formed new ones. Friends that
are fortunate to share the FAC spirit in common from one end of the world
to the other. Many glasses were tipped to our stalwart, intrepid companion
Bruce Finley who was awarded the Walt Mooney Peanut Award for his novel,
well-built and eminently flyable Heinkel "Julia".
Bruces' flying and competitiveness carried the day for the Texians and salvaged
our less than sterling flying performance from the banyo (for you yankees,
crapper).
Lessons learned:
Our competitive foray to Geneseo proved once again just how difficult it is to finish in the money when flying against the best. If we expect to be competitive with the best flyers these issues must be addressed: Trimmed out model Our models must be so well trimmed that they can stay aloft for 90 sec in any kind of weather. Getting two or three good flights does not a model trim. It must fly well on crappy days, rainy/windy days, foggy days as well as those good days. You cannot be afraid of the inevitable damage occurring as you proceed in this trimming process. Unless you have 40-50 flights on that model under all kinds of conditions she ain't trimmed. Documentation The paperwork must be complete and no more, more is confusing, confusion leads to an annoyed judge. You know what an annoyed judge does! A good 3 view with a color narrative or better a color view or photo of the aircraft is a must. Also one or two other photos that highlight the detail that you have put into the model. The detail that is apparent in the photos and 3 view must be represented on the model if you expect to score in the high 50s.
Model Detail:
The
construction and detail on your model must be representative of your documentation.
If the photo shows a US NAVY on the rudder you better have it on your model.
If the aircraft had rigging you better have all of the rigging. If the buzz
numbers on the fuselage side were in red and were ABCD your model must have
red ABCD not XYZ. Put all of the detail on that you can verify from your
research. Your docks then must match that detail. If all the above are present
in your subject aircraft I guarantee better results. Yes I know continued
test flying is a pain in the ass especially when that new crate is flying
reasonable. The risk of OOS (out of sight) is real. The risk of tissue damage
is real. But the risk of poor contest performance is more real and humiliating.
M Midkiff CNCFACLSS