2011 FAI WORLDS - USA - Muncie, IN

Monday, August 1st Finals

Dreams do come true! Team USA has captured the GOLD. Getting there was no easy feat, but they sure came through. Today Andrew and Chip stayed the course, and not only did well, but did exceptionally well, coming in at 3rd and 4th! Andrew has the bronze, along with the Team USA trophy, and we couldn't be happier.

So what didn't surprise us today? You got it. . .it was HOT again. Today you could catch a breeze now and then, but it was hot all the same. Not that we had any control over the weather or that it did any good to complain about it. . . All people we talked to from other countries had such nice things to say about the competition, being in the States, and the people they met. They also all could tell you how hot it was.

Andrew came today full throttle and ready to claim some scores. Chip continued on his great ride with consistently good flights. I think they were determined to make the Team Gold, besides their personal best, and they sure delivered. Brett did an excellent job of flying the demos, and his good standing pushed them further up the ladder for the Gold.

WAY TO GO TEAM USA!!!!

Now that I have that out of my system, I will tell you that it's very late and I have a very long way to drive tomorrow, but I'm determined to get the photos up before I hit the pillow tonight (or should I say this morning). I hope the pictures will tell a lot of the story of the day.

For all the many who came to watch, your support was so very much appreciated. Best of luck to all of you who are staying here in Muncie for the Nationals. I will be watching for news over the internet about how everyone is doing. Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the experience.

Lastly, I want to thank all of the wonderful teams from all over the World who made the effort to get to Muncie for this competition. We met so many wonderful people who we would be very glad to call friends. There were a lot of laughs and fun, and those are memories that can't be erased. I hope you can safely return to your homes and countries with kind thoughts and memories of the American people and these beautiful United States.

Until next time. . .

Cindy

Please follow the Pictures tab above to get to the link for today's pictures.

Sunday, July 31st

Things sure heated up today. . . in more ways than one. It was hot; even the pilots were catching shade any chance they could. Not much of a breeze, if any.   Every pilot flew twice today, once per site, and there were ten judges on each site. It was a whole new game going on.

There were a LOT more people here today. Many had come up for the Nats that start on Tuesday to catch the final days of The Worlds. Team USA was happy for the additional support! Our guys were ready to go, and their scores proved it.

In case you are not on this planet and have not heard yet, Team USA ended up placed in 2nd (Chip), 5th (Andrew), and 12th (Brett) place at the end of the Semis. Chip and Andrew will be in the Finals, and if they keep on flying like they have been, the USA will continue to be in awe of their talents.   Brett's finish was nothing to sneeze at, and we are in a very good position to be the team that takes it all.   I have placed a list of the Semis results in the Pictures.

My own personal story would be from Brett's first flight. I didn't even realize it, but after a maneuver he did, apparently his engine cut out. Chip happened to be near by when this happened. Here is the dialogue, as I recall it, that Chip was verbalizing: "OMG, NO, he's going to crash. Come on Brett, keep it going. OMG, his engine is going to blow up. Come on, Buddy, pull it out. . . you can do it. Holy #$%^&, that engine is dying. One more pass, you can do it. Come on Brett. PHEW. OMG, he actually pulled it off, and he had a great flight. (in spite of his engine stopping and sputtering).   You guys know more that I do, but apparently his engine cut out, but he was able to get it back going and keep on the pattern. It made for the not so much fun task of switching engines in the heat and getting things ready to go for the afternoon flight, but all came out okay. I, on the other hand, died a thousand deaths and nearly lost my cookies. But that's what mothers do. I would have felt the same way had it happened to either of the other guys.

So now, we are off to the Finals on Monday. I'm sure it will be hot. I'm sure there will be some great flying. Hopefully I'll be able to get the internet to work at the hotel so I can upload what I get at the Finals and banquet for you Monday night. Go Team USA!!!

Please follow the Pictures tab above to get to the link for today's pictuers.

Friday, July 29th

Day four has come and gone at the AMA Site. It seemed hotter today; more humid and still at times. There is lots of talk about the weather but it sure doesn't seem to impair the way these pilots are flying. With day four comes the 'rank' of the pilots going into the semi-finals. There will be 30 pilots in the semis, and all three members of Team USA will be in that group! We are going into the semis with Chip at 3rd, Andrew at 7th, and Brett at 11th place. What a great accomplishment for Team USA!

People attending the upcoming NATS are starting to appear left and right around here. I understand by Sunday and the Semis there may be a lot more. They will not be sorry they came, because the pilots in this competition are really showing some fantastic flying abilities.

I caught the flights of our guys today, which you will see in the pictures. It was great to see the big smiles on all their faces after they finished their flights. They are working so well as a team in their support of each other and I know that has made a difference. You add that with the Team Managers and the amazing callers/mechanics, and you couldn't ask for more.

Making this short for tonight. It's already late, and I'm ready for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is a 'free' day, and I'm going to stay away from the camera and close to the air conditioning. Be back Sunday when I'm sure there will be lots of witnesses to what's going on. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you on Sunday.

Please look under the Pictures tab for the link to today's pictures.

Thursday, July 28th

I'm not lying. . . Wednesday night was pretty frustrating for me with problems getting photos uploaded, so I started off today thinking I was going to lay low and not take many, if any, pictures. As they say, the best laid plans. . .

I got out to the AMA site late morning. I ran a couple of errands, then came back to the site and looked up Brett to return something to him. I was told he was on Site 4, getting in a practice flight so I headed on over there. As I pulled up, I noticed a plane flying over the road, not 'in the box', and wondered right away what was going on. As I parked the car, I could see the plane was in a knife edge. Okay, that's not so unusual. However, it remained in a knife edge for quite some time; that's when I thought somethings was 'off'. Parked the car, got out, and could see that Chip was flying, and EVERYONE there had their eyes glued to the sky. I looked up again, and thought to myself, "Holy crap, that plane only has one wing". And so it goes. . . Chip had lost a wing in flight and was working on bringing it down without damage. Now I'm no plane whiz, but I sure knew this was going to be a difficult landing. It all happened so quickly and before I knew it he had landed that plane with very little damage. You would have thought he worked this maneuver out often, because he almost made it look routine. Way to go Chip! First thing I asked was would he mind if I took some pictures. After I told him I would make him a rock star on the blog, he welcomed the photos. Actually, he was very gracious and took it all in with hardly a twitch. Guess that's what separates the men from the boys as they say.

Our friend from Texas, Brian, had taken off and was across the field retrieving the wing that had torn off the plane. As he was walking back, you could see he was concentrating on his cell phone as he walked. He got closer and closer and suddenly broke out in a big grin. . . he realized he had been able to catch the flight on his phone. Way to go Brian! I anticipate he will be put down in history as the producer of the 'Landing with One Wing' Video that goes viral. Time will tell.

I guess that little incident got me going, as I headed on to Site 1, and then Site 3, where I took more photos. Must be a sickness. As a spectator, I will have to say that today was a bit more comfortable sitting out. I guess the breeze was strong enough that it blew the sweat away before it had a chance to run down my face. I know that same breeze provided some fun afternoon flying for the pilots. At this level, they are so good that they hardly seem to notice it.

Team USA has performed a hat trick (okay, so that is my other son's love of soccer coming through) and had a third day of great flights. Way to go, Guys! One more day to go and we will have real results instead of this guessing game before the crazy software kicks in. I have heard that there will be 30 semi-finalists named to fight it out on Sunday for the privilege of competing in the Finals on Monday. Best of luck to all pilots. It promises to be an exciting couple of days.

I was lucky enough today to have a conversation with David Nugent, an Aussie who is here with his 13 year old Junior pilot son, James. At thirteen, James is showing remarkable talent, competing with guys who have been working at this for longer than he's been alive. Way to go, James! We are glad you are here and helping promote the sport for younger flyers out there for years to come. I know you are making your Dad and your fellow countrymen very proud.

I also happened to get a good photo of another young pilot, Stefan Kaiser, who is only 19 years old and putting on a remarkable show of his talents. Stefan is from Liechtenstein, along with his distinguished team pilot, Wolfgang Matt. I loved both their photos so much that I had to feature them on the home page too.

That brings me to the evenings activities; karaoke at the Texas Road House. Who knew these pilots were so talented in more ways than their flying skills. I'm sure the crowd had no way of knowing how many countries were being represented there tonight. Standouts from our group were our own Bob Kane, and also South African Pierre Marais. However, Pierre's fellow teammate, Marc Wolffe, ran off with the best T-shirt contest, not to be confused with WET T-shirt contest. You can also see Marc's said T-shirt here at the featured photos on top of the page.

That's it until tomorrow. Hope you are all continuing to have a great time. Big day tomorrow so better get myself a little sleep tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Please go under the Pictures tab to get the link for today's photos!

Wednesday, July 27th

Day two is now history in the competition. Team USA is keeping the pressure on and flying very well. All three had great scores today, with Chip flying a barn burner. I've placed the score sheets at the end of the gallery for today's pictures; you will have to remember that these raw scores don't begin to tell the whole story. By the end of Friday, the fourth day of the competition, the scores will all be massaged. You can't really compare scores until all pilots have been scored by the same judges. I'm sure most of you know a lot more about the process than I do, but I can say the guys are doing a great job.

Speaking of pictures and galleries. . . I have run into a major problem with Shutterfly. For whatever reason, photos are not uploading or arranging as they should. I've spent several hours trying to figure it out; it may just be a problem with their server. The show must go on, so I've placed the photo galleries on another site and will just leave the link to that here on Shutterfly for you to follow. I'll still do the journal here, but the photos are going to be put on my SmugMug site. You may have to copy/paste the link; but at least I can say that SmugMug is actually a much nicer way to view the photos once you get there. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but at this point I just don't see a better solution.

PLEASE GO TO THE PICTURES TAB TO GET THE LINKS FOR PICTURES OF EACH DAY.

Please let me know if you are having any problems jumping over with the link. Remember, I will still do the day's journal entry here on Shutterfly, so keep checking back here. Thanks. Hope to see a lot of new faces around here in the coming days as I know many are coming up for the Nats and will arrive early to see the end of The Worlds.

Tuesday, July 26th

Running behind here. . .

Tuesday being the first day of the competition was jam-packed. Time to get serious about this flying stuff I guess. Brett started Team USA off in the morning with a flight on Site 3. He was followed by Chip and Andrew in the afternoon. Scores are posted several places around on the internet; I took photos of scores that were posted with a 400+ and will put them under the scores tab here on the site. All of our guys did well, as you will see, making it a great first day for the home team.

It was great to walk around and see how much everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and are seeing old friends and making new ones. There are so many people here who are so knowledgeable and very open to sharing that knowledge with others. Brett's caller/mechanic Bryan Hebert is a great example of this, as are many others.

The dynamic duo of Linda Jesky and Bob Kane have made keeping the scores processed and posted look easy. They are very efficient and are the brains going on in "The Blue Whale" (trailer near Site 3). Everyone seems very pleased with how the competition is going on as a whole. Site Directors are keeping things flowing smoothly and the many, many other volunteers and staff are going out of their way to do a great job. Scores are being posted on a couple of kiosks under a tent near the scoring trailer.

I spent about three quarters of the day running scores from the sites back to the scoring trailer on a golf cart. Not as many pictures taken, but that was fine. I did get to take a few during Andrew and Chips flights, but was running the scores during Brett's flight in the morning. That might have been a good thing; I get anxious watching the other guys, but that is pumped up about ten-fold with Brett.

I am finding my own community out there just by walking around with a camera around my neck. There are a lot of good photographers around this place! So, planes aren't the ONLY things being discussed around here. . . there is a little bit of lens and camera talk too. One of my favorite photos of the day I put up here on the home page. . . I loved watching the German team watching their own pilot take flight. They were all very into it, and a great support for their team member. They are certainly not the only team to do this for a fellow pilot, but there were enough of them all together to make it a fun and telling photo.

The heat about did me in today, and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. I keep hearing the number '105' being associated with Thursday. It seems the hot, Texas weather that I so wanted relief from is not going to happen after all. I'll just pop in and out and get what photos I can, but leave the all-day photo snapping to you guys with a lot tougher skin than I for the heat.

I'll try to catch up with everything Wednesday evening. I'm having problems with photo uploads on this site, but will hope things get worked out very soon, or I may have to resort to leaving a link to a different site for the actual photos. We'll see how it works out, but sorry for the delays.

Here's to all teams doing well, and for Team USA to keep up the great momentum they've established so early on!

Monday, July 25th - Opening Ceremonies

Today Team USA went through their plane processing and put in a few practice flights. The guys are feeling good and ready for the competition to start tomorrow. It seemed a bit cooler this morning, but was hot in the afternoon with the sun out for Opening Ceremonies.

I'm pretty tired tonight and will have a full day tomorrow, so I will cut this short so I can finally get to bed. I have heard that Brett will fly fairly early in the morning, with Chip and Andrew having their flights tomorrow afternoon. These guys have worked so hard. Your support is so appreciated and they are ready to do their best to represent the USA and do you proud.

Lots of pictures from today. Hope you can get an idea of what the day involved. . .

More tomorrow!

Cindy

Sunday, July 24th

Things are really starting to come into full swing at the AMA site. Planes are being processed, teams are getting their official practice flights, and despite the heat and storms, everyone seems to be having a good time.

The first place I stopped today was at the AMA Museum, which is where they were processing teams/planes for the competition. It looked like everything was running very smoothly; I know we have many, many volunteers and workers who are all making it happen. Later on, I went to Site 1 where teams were taking their appointed times to practice. Our guys on Team USA were to take to the air around 2:45, but it didn't happen on schedule because we got a pretty large storm that blew in for awhile. Welcome to Muncie. Before the storm arrived however, the site was visited by all of the judges. Several pictures of their visit are included in today's photos.

At this point, I don't know many (or I should say most) of these people are. I'm hoping many of you will place comments letting us all know people you know or recognize. Hopefully when the competition begins, I'll be able to identify more folks by following the schedule that will spell out their names and order of flight. Tomorrow Team USA does their check-in, and then in the afternoon the Opening Ceremonies are scheduled. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds for the Opening Ceremonies; there is something really special about introducing each team and the country they represent. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to represent that with some decent photos.

Saturday, July 23rd

Today I arrived in Muncie in the afternoon and was able to make it out to the AMA site, but had to take photos from the car due to a late afternoon thunderstorm. There are a few pictures from my trip to here from St. Louis, some pictures from this week when the guys were up practicing from Michigan, and finally some photos from dinner tonight.

Tomorrow the team will be out at the site doing some check-ins for the airplanes, and I'm sure getting some practice rounds in. Brett's mechanic/caller Bryan Hebert arrived safely tonight from Louisiana, so looks like the team is complete.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be brutally hot again. . .another triple digit day. I hope what I have heard is true and that on Monday we will get to experience a little cooling off. That's it for today. Be back tomorrow!

Thursday, July 21 - On the Road Again

Important stuff first. Andrew and Brett have been practicing this week at the "Weak Signals" field near Toledo, OH (Chip was with them on Tuesday then headed on down to Muncie). Andrew's family is from a town in Michigan that is close to the Ohio border. They are staying there in Michigan, but are only a short distance to this field in Ohio. To get more practice time in, where they wouldn't have to compete for flight time with everyone else closer to Muncie, they have stayed up there and will come down to Muncie probably Saturday evening, which is only a three hour drive from where they are. Chip is in Muncie seeing old friends and has had a great practice season since he got in the states a couple of weeks ago or so.

According to Brett, they are each getting in about 7-8 flights a day. The report today was that it was very hot, and VERY windy.   All is well though, and they are in the zone and ready to make a good show of it.

I drove today from Benton, AR to Cape Girardeau, MO. There are some pics of my travels if you care to look. . .and I even managed to get a couple of planes in the mix.   Tomorrow I will head on in to St. Louis to visit my sister for the day, then will head to Muncie Saturday. By Saturday evening I should be able to get started on the pictures you really want to see. . planes, planes, and more planes. Probably won't have much for you tomorrow, but will report here if I do get word from the guys on how they are doing.

For the guys in the crowd, which I suspect most of you are, I thought you might get a kick out of the text I got from Mike (my husband, Brett's Dad). He is still in Texas, and let me know that he was running around all over the house lifting the toilet lids up and leaving them, "because he could". See what I have to put up with?

Wed, July 20th - On the Road

Finally got myself on the road. Spending the night in Benton, AR. Have a few photos, but not very inspired I must say. The problem with taking photos while on the road is that by the time you see something that might be interesting, you are already past it. Maybe tomorrow will be a better photo day after a good night's sleep.

Took me 6 hours today to just get out of Texas. As I understand it, it's been as hot up in Michigan as it is in Texas. Word from Tim Jesky, Andrew's Dad, is that it was over 100 degrees there today, with more of the same expected tomorrow. Of course, didn't stop the guys from getting out there and putting their practice flights in!

Tuesday, July 18th

Great to hear that Brett has arrived in Michigan tonight safe and sound. The team will all be together first thing tomorrow to have a team practice. Judging from the team conference calls, these guys are all ready to just get out there and fly. They are all determined to make you proud and are extremely grateful for all the support you have shown them. Andrew arrived in Michigan this past weekend, and Chip arrived in the country a couple of weeks ago.

Have just a couple of pictures of Brett packing up and getting ready for the cross-country drive. Pictures can be seen by clicking on the "Pictures" tab above.

GO TEAM USA!!!

2011 FAI WORLDS - USA - Muncie, IN - 2011worlds

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