2024 F1D World Championship – Final(ish) Thoughts

I hope for the people that have been reading along with this blog all week I have been able to give you a taste of the experience of competing in a World Championship. Personally i am a little disappointed in myself, as there is so much more i would love to share each day, but it is just a LOT to process in the moment.

Final Results:

• Senior: https://www.freeflightnews.org.uk/champs/ch24/WC24D.HTM

• Junior: https://www.freeflightnews.org.uk/champs/ch24/JWC24D.HTM

Some of the color I have not had time to document:

The Daily Grind

The daily schedule for us all week was essentially this:

• Wake at 5:30

• Breakfast 6:30-7:30

• Board bus down to the mine at 7:30

• Arrive in the mine about 7:50

• Test flying from 8:00 – 9:30

• First Round 9:30- 12:30

• Lunch 12:30 -1

• Second Round 1:00-4:00

• Board bus back to the Hotel 4:30

• A little rest between 5:00- 7:00

• Dinner 7:00-8:00

• Return to room and make repairs, cut new motors for the next day, (write blog entry for me)

I can tell you based on checking in with each of the competitor each morning 4-5 hours of sleep each night was about the average.. some a little more some a little less. it makes for a GRUELING schedule. so for these Team USA competitors to compete at a very high level, on very little sleep is even more impressive to me.

The other teams competing

With the newish rules allowing for an additional Female team member, Team USA had FOUR Senior competitors PLUS Returning World Champ Brett Sanborn.. that is getting 5 close to thrity minute flight in a a 3 hour window! with processing time and winding time for each pilot, there is almost no wiggle room. It left me very little time to watch and report on how other teams were doing..my apologies.

I would like to call out Canada specifically. Canada placed 3rd overall in the Team category for their first podium finish in 32 years. This a is a HUGE deal for them, a HUGE deal for the health of the sport in North America, and they are my friends.. so seeing their success is particularly gratifying! Success breeds success and Team USA has benefited over the years having the likes of 8 time World Champion Jim Richmond to act as a role model of juniors coming up that it is possible. I have high hopes for Canada going forward and hope to see them continue to build their program.

The Romanian program is strong and healthy and they are bringing a good junior program along. Ukraine had 3 juniors, including two females which was nice to see. But only three countries fielded a Junior team. We need to do some work to incentivize more countries to field a Junior team.

Several countries weren’t in attendance this time (Poland, France, Germany & Israel notably) so we need to do a little research and understand that and what we can do to encourage them for the next World Champs.

I had some preliminary discussions about building a bit of an “Ambassador Program” to get some of our US competitors to attend contests in some of these other countries to see if we can build the goodwill and show them what is working for us, and learn the things they are doing to see what we can bring back to the USA.

The US Junior Program

I am so incredibly proud of our Junior team. All three of our competitors show great progress AND comported themselves with the highest level of sportsmanship. In years past we rarely even fielded a full junior team and we had no formalized way to get new kids into the program and get them the direct mentorship they needed. With a lot of work by Chuck Andraka, I feel like we are starting to get more process wrapped around bringing those juniors that show interest along and building a repeatable pipeline of kids that should see the US Junior program continue to grow and succeed. I want to also specifically thank ALL of the Senior team members for the time they took with the Juniors to help them get things figured out whilst also trying to get their own airplanes under control. This sport takes an immense amount of focus at this level and every one of our seniors lent a hand to the Juniors at some point. It takes a village as they say.. Daniel Guo had local modelers helping him get started and successful with his Science Olympiad flying and when he showed interest in F1D that outstripped the local modelers expertise level we were able to get him connected to Kang Lee and Steve Brown who gave a lot of hours to help mentor him along in his F1D journey. In my opinion, this could be a very repeatable model. There is a ton of learning that can be done at the Science Olympiad level with the local modelers.

Still lots of work to go on building the US Junior program, but we are definitely seeing progress.

The US Senior Program

Being team Manager for a team where every team member has been crowned World Champion at least once.. sometimes multiple times.. is a little daunting. There is literally nothing I can do to help them work out the issues they may encounter, other than clear hurdles and try to make their life as comfortable as possible so they can focus on their flying. For anyone sitting on the sidelines that might have an interest, I would encourage you to jump in and start building.. Is it going to be an uphill task to make the team with the strength of our current program.. probably yes. But Kang Lee is a perfect example of someone that came to the hobby later in life and is now a THREE TIME World Champion. Kang learned from all the folks that came before him.. people like Bill Gowen.. reading all of the old Indoor News and Views newsletters.. taking what was already know by other modelers and what had already been written down and extending that knowledge with his own focus and innovation!

Our Sponsors

The entire team would like to specifically thank every person and each of the clubs that made a contribution, bought a team shirt, bought a team sticker, or donated rubber for the Juniors. Every bit of that support makes it possible for our Team to perform at this level. We are going to make some concerted efforts going forward to find more sources of sponsorship, but the Free Flight community has sustained us for a lot of years and we appreciate it more than you will ever understand. We hope you are proud of the results.. you are a BIG part of it.

In closing, I want to thank this entire team and the parents of our Juniors for entrusting Chuck Andraka and I with the position of Team Managers.. it has certainly been our honor and privilege to serve.

I will try to get pictures gathered in the next day or two.. for now…

Buoyant Air,

Dave Lindley

2024 F1D World Champs – Final Day Rounds 5 & 6

Well.. the internet is certainly faster than I am.. so if you have made your way here, you probably already know the results. But i shall report regardless!

Junior Team Update From Coach Chuck

What a day for the Junior Team. After a night of cutting rubber, each young man put on much improved flights. The air was generally quite still, with some instabilities in the main hall causing planes to randomly drift side to side.

Daniel started the team off in Round 5, with a climb to 53 yards nicely centered. He thought he would steer a few times, got the balloon ready, and then the plane self-corrected. He finished with a  new top time of 26:31! Guha followed, but broke 4 fresh rubber motors. His fifth was a little thinner, but held together for a hard wind. While he climbed to 46 yards, between the thin rubber and occasional downdrafts near one wall, he landed with 275 turns remaining and earned a 17:59. It was clear the plane had 20 minutes in it, so he spent lunch cutting and tying additional motors. Elijah got a good strong wind the motor that worked well yesterday. While the motor was still strong, he only got to about 42 yards, but hung on for a 19:59 with 60 turns left.

After lunch, Guha started us of with high hopes for a 20. He wound hard, but topped out at 42.5 yards. The new motor just did not perform, and left him with a lot of winds and a low score. The in certain areas showed significant downward motion, while being very stable elsewhere. Elijah waited a half hour before starting his round, to see if the air would settle down. After consulting with Dave, we decided to launch very near the fence and try to fly in the back area of the site. Elijah cranked it up to 0.52 torque and let it rip to 45.5 yards. He did one very nice steer to position the plane away from ground clutter for landing, and earned a 19:16 after 10 seconds of steering.

Daniel got all the air reports from his teammates, and also set up to fly into the “back yard” over the fence. He launched right after Kang Lee, and chased him al the way up to the catwalk. While Kang scraped the ceiling between the catwalks, Daniel cruised at 55 yards, inched below them. He turned in a 26:38 no steer flight, setting a new US youth Senior record for Cat 4 sites.

The improvements each team member posted was enough to move the team past Ukraine by 27 seconds or so to take second place on the team podium. Each team member stepped it up today, and they earned the higher step on the podium.

The Junior team has been an absolute pleasure to work with this year. Each young man was bright, articulate, and polite when seeking help. The Science Olympiad background led to a very scientific approach to improvement throughout the week. Not everything went our way, but the kids never gave up, and the work they put in brought about the results today.

Senior Team Update

Typically the final day is “moving day” in F1D world champs.. more often than not the individual champion is determined with the last flights of the final round. As Team Manager, my primary responsibility is making sure we make the Team Podium. Clearing hurdles so that each individual can achieve their goals of the individual podium also happens to be a part of the gig, because if you can string together enough strong individual performances, the team trophy kind of falls into place. The fact is by the end of yesterday we were in a really good place for TEAM podium, so at breakfast this morning, I kind of released them all to go do what THEY needed to do for the INDIVIDUAL podium. The goal for today was essentially the same for each of them. Put in a strong flight in Round 5 to try to up the second best time, then go for broke on the final round to try to beat their BEST time.

Steve Brown lead of the morning round for us. Steve had a pretty good idea on how to get more altitude and put a good score on the board and he wound the ceiling. Well he achieved that goal.. quickly! Steve raced to the ceiling and actually scrubbed around the ceiling three or four circle. one of the big risks of scrubbing the ceiling is it can knock your circle off center as it bumps around.. so it was with Steve and as he started to descend he was enough off center he ended up landing on the catwalk at 10:43.. being at the catwalk at 10+ minutes would have been a VERY good flight.. but he went for it and I’m super proud he didn’t leave anything in the bag! In the afternoon Steve had to use his backup model because his primary was still sitting on the catwalk. Steve wound up and let it go and turned back to me and said “thats the first time I’ve had a full motor on this model so we will see!” The flight never got to the ceiling, but as we were watching it, one of the mine workers went up on the catwalk and retrieved his first airplane and let is loose from the catwalk.. so Steve had two F1D model in the air at the same time. Tom Sova would be so proud! Steve’s official flight ended at 21:28.. but he got both airplanes back intact.

John Kagan went second in the morning round. He centered it nicely between the catwalks and it was destined to be a good flight. we noticed some side to side drift on the descent we haven’t seen the past couple of days but John landed with a new second best time of 27:02. the air definitely changed a bit during the 5th round if you look at the other scores..in the middle of the round there were some crashes into the wall or otherwise unexplained shorter times.. John seemed to see the beginning of that. In the afternoon round Joh also seemed to just get some inconsistent air.. his climb was good, but it just didn’t turn the time it should have and finished with a 26:41.

Emily went third in the morning round and by the time she launched the air had most definitely changed.. she had a lot more of the side to side drift that we started to see with John. She got the altitude she expected, but it just didn’t hold up in the descent. and ended at 25:08. By her afternoon round she wound it EXACTLY the same winds and torque as the morning round be was in decidedly better air.. same flight profile.. same altitude.. and landed at 28:08. Emily did really well this World Champs. Two flights over 28 minutes is not easy and in most years it would land you on the podium. But the competition this year has been STEEP.

Brett Sanborn launched a little after Emily in the morning round and the air had seemed to settle back as we got into the late morning. Brett put a very nice 28:01 on the board and pushed him into 2nd place over all improving his second best by about 3.5 minutes. In the afternoon round Breet again decided to go later in the round and had a great looking flight right above the catwalk.. it looked like he was going to give Kang a run for his money. Unfortunately he hung on the catwalk at 8:01. Brett is an amazing competitor and he has two world championships to prove it. frankly he just had a couple of bad breaks and some breakage on day 1 that set him on his heels a bit. Brett finished in 2nd place over all, and but for those few bad breaks he absolutely had the possibility of winning it all.

Kang batted cleanup in the morning round. Again the plan was to improve his SECOND flight time. Kang actually waited until the very end of the morning round to launch.. he had seen that the air was shifting back to the good and gave it as much time as he could afford to. He wound rather conservatively as he was only trying to up his second time.. not go for broke. Kang launched with about 5 minutes to spare at the end of the round and barreled up to the top. He had one small steer to get it centered into the slot between the catwalks and made a few circles there before beginning his descent. It held that circle pretty consistently with none of the side to side drift. So, from my perspective, the air had clearly improved since Emily flew and hour earlier. Kang landed with a 28:57.. upping his second time by 51 seconds. 51 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot.. but at 28+ minutes.. 51 sends makes a BIG difference when your competitors are trying to catch up to you. In the afternoon round Kang again went last.. this time.. there was no “conservative” in the winding.. this was go for broke time. By the time Kang launched, all the people that were close enough to catch him had already flown. There were two things I knew when he launched that I failed to tell him.. 1. he already had the contest won. 2. he had set a new World record in the process for two flight total. Kangs flight hit the ceiling. it hit it so hard it tail slid from the hit and lost enough altitude the he stabilized below the catwalk .. so he lost 8-10 feet of altitude. on the descent he had a brushing midair with another model.. which would entitle him to a re-flight if he wanted it. I advised him of his option and let him decide.. he took a couple of minutes to contemplate before decided NOT to exercise his re-flight option. He landed with 25:33.

I will try to give another update tomorrow, but its been a long day and awards ceremony. Team USA had a very good week overall

Senior Individual Podium

1st place – Kang Lee

2nd Place – Brett Sanborn

Junior Individual Podium

1st Place – Daniel Guo

Senior Team Podium

1st Place – USA

Junior Team Podium

2nd Place – USA

Buoyant Air

Dave Lindley

2024 F1D World Champs – Rounds 3 & 4

I want to preface tonights report with a little context. When you aren’t in the arena fighting the bull, sometimes the matador is so skilled and so graceful at his craft he makes it look easy. With F1D, you see the scores and these competitors put up some outrageous times. Watching this team, overcome the obstacles thrown at them each day, I am reminded, there is still a VERY angry bull that can kill you very quickly if you blink for even a second. Are they talented builders? absolutely! are they skilled at trimming? without a doubt! But their ability to stare the bull in the face, when a model gets destroyed or they have broken six motors in a row, that is what separates the strong from the DEAD!

Now on to the main event and your reason for coming here:

Junior update from Chuck Andraka

Today, the second day of competition, was filled with ups and downs. The mine is not an easy place, and the competition is stiff. Little things are amplified. Altitude is everything, and winding must be spot-on to get any of it!

Guha started the day in round 3. While the air appeared nice, he found consistent sink in one corner each lap, losing several feet each pass. Combined with a weak climb, he managed a 12:10 flight, only reaching 29 yards. Elijah Rose adjusted his winding in testing this morning, and saw 10-minute half-rubber flights, which was promising. After breaking a few motors, he got a decent wind, climbed to 41 yards, and turned in a 17:12. While a marked improvement over the first day, he also got caught by the sink and left too many winds on the motor at landing.

Daniel took all the observations (each Junior also caddies for another Junior on the team), and adjusted his launch plan to avoid the sink. He put on a magnificent wind with 1300 turns, climbed to 50 yards, survived a brief brush with the wall and 4 seconds of steering to punch a 25:15 flight! Awesome!

Elijah broke in some slightly longer loops of rubber at lunch, but did not get a strong wind, resulting in his third 14-minute flight. However, we reviewed the data and he understands what is causing the differences in his winding between half and full motors. Daniel continued to unleash his winding skills, putting up another 50-yard climb, no-steer flight to 24:15, solidly sitting atop the Junior bracket.

Guha showed what he was made of in the 4th round. He decided to take a big swing, and pulled out a different plane. Upon launch, it stalled and tail-slid. He managed to take hold of it at 55 seconds, earning a second attempt (If the flight is less than 1 minute, a second attempt may be made). He and I looked it over briefly on the floor, and we noted a twist in the fin, so with 45 minutes left, he decided to return to the pits to repair. He found some boron issues on the wing spar, and a few other minor issues, but we believe the fin was the real problem. Guha then got back on the floor with 19 minutes to launch, and calmly wound his motor. He launched with about 5 minutes to spare, and the plane climbed better than any of his prior flights, practice or official! Problem solved. He climbed to 34 yards, and turned in a 17:24. Since he did not have a lot of time on this plane, the rubber was not well matched, with over 200 winds remaining (out of a wind of about 1100). So he is well-situated to make a push with Elijah tomorrow.

So proud of these young men. Daniel for putting on a clinic, and Elijah and Guha for having the patience and perseverance to find the issues, work on solutions, and keep their optimism up for tomorrow. Only your best two flights count, so there is room for both move up quickly as they exploit their adjustments.

Senior Update

Steve Brown batted leadoff for the morning round. This is my first team with Steve and i absolutely love being around him. Obviously he is a great competitor with 3 World Championships under his belt. But Steve is absolutely CALM when he is flying and he has this sly sense of humor that I love. When i asked him if he was ready to go first this morning, he replied immediately with a simple “ready as I’ll ever be” and picked up his stuff and started making his way to processing. Steve put up a very nice 24:41 give him a new best flight of the competition. he also gave us a good showing that there was significantly less drift in the mine today. Because its Monday here, that mean less public tourist traffic in the mine and less bodies generating heat. Steve landed in essentially the same circle he launched in. Steve’s afternoon flight of 24:20 didn’t beat is second best, but is was a clean flight from bottom to top.

John Kagan took the second morning slot. Overnight night John did some surgery to his primary airplane he had some struggles with yesterday and put up and absolutely beautiful flight of 27:21 in the morning round. and new TOP time for John. His launch was back to “normal” for that airplane.. no stall.. just cranking through this ridiculously high launch angle and making its way steadily to the top. He followed in the afternoon round with a 26:54 which gave him a new second best flight score.

Emily went third in the morning round. Unfortunately she had a big stall off the launch and couldn’t get it down quickly enough to abort the flight as an attempt, but she was able to get it righted. but that stall burned off a lot of her climb so she only ever got a little mor than half way to the top. She finished with a 25:04 though.. so even without the altitude, her plane is flying really efficiently. She got the stall problem figured out before the afternoon round.. boy did she ever! Her afternoon flight climbed like normal.. and kept on climbing and climbing.. she brushed the ceiling, but more panic inducing, at least to me, was for four consecutive circles it flew OVER the catwalk and completely out of sight for a few seconds each time. Each time I was convinced it wasn’t going to come back through.. and each time it did! once it finally circled below the catwalk, my panic subsided and I knew it was going to be a great flight. She landed with a 27:47 and a new second best flight to go with her 28+ from Round 1.

Kang Lee batted cleanup for the morning round today. Kang was feeling pretty confident after running a test flight when we first got to the mine this morning so he wound for the ceiling. His model had a perfect climb pattern and he was well centered between the catwalks at the top. I think he actually over cooked it more the he intended, because for the first time in all the years he has flown in the salt mine he hit the ceiling. and when i say he hit it.. he HIT it.. He did three consecutive circle scrubbing the ceiling. But as luck would have it, it stay centered in the slot between the catwalks the whole time and he never had to steer the flight. He landed, like Steve, in essentially the same circle he launched in with a new high time for the contest of 29:41! I can’t yet confirm, but that may well be a new site record! Kang took a slightly more conservative wind in the afternoon round to see if he could up his second flight time. He was shooting for something in the high 27 range. again his flight was perfectly centered and required no steering and landed with a new second time of 28:06, putting him solidly in First place at the end of day two.

Brett Sanborn, our defending World Champion, put in a beautiful morning flight of 28:47, giving him a new top flight to work from. He went out late in the afternoon round to try and better that flight and after a string of broken motors just ran out of time before the round closed to get a flight off. Brett’s plane is flying very well and I am quite sure he is going to give everyone a run for their money tomorrow.

Today was a very good day all around for Team USA.. it was a good day for most of the teams! As we gathered for the busses to take us back to the hotel there were lots of people commenting that this seems to be one of the most competitive World Champs they can recall.. and it certainly feels like it. If the air in the mine is as good tomorrow as it was today.. the final two rounds are going to be a bloodbath at the top of the leaderboard. These guy seemingly make 28-29 minutes look easy.. but trust me.. that Bull hasn’t fallen asleep!

Buoyant Air,

David Lindley

2024 F1D World Champs – Rounds 1 & 2

We start today with an update from Chuck Andraka, Junior Team Manager…

Junior update

Sunday March 24, 2014

After all the learning, coaching, winding, building, stripping, preparing, packing, steering, and again learning, it all comes down to this. The first day of competition. So much knowledge taken in so quickly, time to put on the show.

The Team USA Juniors are a strong team, with returning Juniors Guha Ekambaram and Elijah Rose, and newcomer Daniel Guo. All have shown strong promise in contests leading to Worlds.

Daniel managed to start the day for the team with a strong 22:14 after climbing to about 140 feet. Altitude is everything in the mine, and Daniel’s well-tuned airplane, augmented by great winding skills got him highest among the Juniors in round 1. Elijah had some great testing in the morning, but the plane was slightly under elevated, and so his climb was around 100 feet for a 14:49. Guha followed with a 13:06, including a brief steer. Both Guha and Elijah worked on fine adjustments (and some big swings) after the first round, trying to find some altitude. No other Junior was over 20 minutes in round 1, so Daniel made an early statement.

In the second round Daniel backed up his 22 with a strong 20:31, holding the lead position. While he was well ahead in the first round, a Romanian Junior put up a 22:21 in the second round. This is going to be a great battle! The air deteriorated a bit in the afternoon, but altitude could still give good times. Guha put in a 13:02, but after some significant surgery at lunch, his plane was somewhat under elevated and the letdown was swift. It was promising that he got more altitude, and the time will rise with trim adjustments in the morning. Elijah put in a 14:07, again only climbing to about 95 feet.

I do want to point out how helpful the entire Senior team has been to the Juniors during this trip. While they are here to try to win the Worlds, they always gave time to answer questions and make suggestions. Today was no different. Emily spent some time at the end of the day reviewing Elijah’s log book, and she identified specific things in his winding that can improve the flight altitude. He had some half motor testing at just under 10 minutes, so with the new advice he is ready to make a charge tomorrow.  

Guha maxes out his torque while Daniel provides support. The Juniors work very well together.

Elijah performs the stressful transfer of a fully charged rubber motor to his motor stick, while Guha watches for problems.

SENIOR UPDATE

The Seniors had a good day today.. not perfect.. but a sound start to the World Champs.

Emily Guyett led off Round 1. After breaking a few motors while winding, she grabbed a motor very slightly thicker than the ones she broke. As it turns out her airplane is VERY sensitive to rubber size. First day of the contest.. first competitor on the floor…first flight of the contest and she hit the ceiling! this was NOT the plan.. the plan is get some safe flights on the board before you go banging up past the catwalk and into the ceiling. As luck would have it the model centered up perfectly right between the catwalks at the top. Emily was ready with the balloon if need be, but it just settled into a nice groove and no side to side drift at the top. The first flight posted for the contest was a 28:14.. and she never had to touch it with the balloon. As it turned out that would be the high time for the day. She followed in round 2 with a more conservative 22:31.

John Kagan went Second in Round 1. John’s model has been very consistent all week.. it launches and a ridiculously steep angle and when you are sure it HAS to stall, it pulls through and just keeps climbing. After a little damage repair last night, a quick half motor before the round started looked like everything was back to normal. Unfortunately the round 1 full motor launch didn’t fare so well. For whatever reason, it decided to stall 20 feet in the air. John was quick on the balloon to get it down under 1 minute making it an “attempt” rather than blow the whole flight. He rewound and launched again at a little less launch angle and was able to get the flight off, but it just never got the altitude is normally gets. His round 1 flight ended up being 20:42. John went back to the pit area to try to figure out what change on his airplane that caused the launch problem. By Round 2 he made an adjustment, but warned be before he launched.. if this flight had a problem on launch he was going to grab it out of the air again, and regroup with his backup airplane,, sure enough.. big stall on launch.. so he re processed with his backup airplane and was able to post a very solid 25:20 for round 2. He will have some time in his room this evening with the primary ship to sort out what is going on with that stall.

Kang Lee took the 3rd position in Round1. He didn’t push the ceiling too hard and posted a very nice 24:22 for round 1. Followed by a 25:21 in Round 2. I think he feels very comfortable with Day 1. Two solid flights on the board and plenty of room to go time hunting now.

Steve Brown batted cleanup on Round 1. Steve is a 3 time World Champion and it shows. Steve has been working primarily with half motors since we arrived. I personally hadn’t seen him fly a full motor flight until Round 1. When he came out for Round 1, wound one full motor, loaded it and let it go. He finished Round 1 with a 24:38 and followed that with a 24:18 in Round 2.

Returning World Champion Brett Sanborn posted a solid 24:34 in Round 1. Somewhere between Round 1 and Round 2, Brett’s Primary model suffered some significant damage in the pit area.. we aren’t even entirely sure how or when it happened, but Brett spend the lunch half hour and the first 2/3rds of Round two trying to get what repairs he could done and his backup model ready for Round 2. To be quite honest I don’t entirely know what he brought out to fly in Round 2, but he was able to improve his time a little with a 24:41. He also will have some time in his room this evening making some repairs.

Free Flight Hall of Famer Ivan Treger (SVK) leads after Day 1 with two very solid flights. Ivan is both a previous Indoor World Champion and Outdoor (F1E) World Champion.

All in All.. I am very happy with how Day 1 went for all of Team USA.. Juniors and Seniors.. A world Championships is a marathon, not a sprint. despite a few problems and some breakage.. they all got a solid flight or two on the board today. What we know is this contest isn’t going to be decided in the first two rounds.. there is plenty of work to do, but everyone has the capability to improve their times. Overall the air in the mine today was better than yesterday, but we are hoping that with the mine closed to the public for the next few days, the air will get better. 2000-3000 warm tourist bodies in a mine makes a lot of difference!

2024 F1D World Champs – Practice Day and Opening Ceremonies

Did we have plans going into today? you bet we did! Full Motor flights, tweaking the last few second out of each model, not taking too many risks.. but definitely giving the legs a good warmup before we start the race. Success demands a plan!

When the team got down to the mine this morning everyone got right to work.. there was no lolligagging to get an airplane in the air. As for our plans, well the mine had other ideas. The air in the mine wasn’t great early in the day, so people were putting airplanes up to the ceiling, by about noon, the air was BRUTAL.. huge drift, pockets of turbulent and noticeably “down” air. Everyone was getting plenty of practice STEERING but not much in the way of flight times or quality data on which to base decisions about adjustments that could be made. Several of the Team USA fliers suffered some damage running into walls. After lunch nobody was daring to push it to the ceiling.. there was just no upside and a LOT of potential downside. Some half motor flying but nothing that would put a model at any risk. So flying today was a bit of a bust.

We spent a good bit of time waiting around for the air to settle down, but it never did. As i sat by John Kagans plane on its model stand on his table, I saw it “weather vaning” on the stand 90 degrees! By 3:30 it was time to get the common PIT area setup for Round 1 starting tomorrow morning. Once we got our pit area setup it was time to return to the hotel for Opening Ceremonies.

Opening Ceremonies were a nice affair, followed by a Technical meeting for the team managers, the FAI Jury and the CD to sort out any remaining questions or issues, followed by dinner.

Tomorrow should be interesting. hopefully the air will settle down and we can get to some serious flying. While today feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity, all the teams suffered the same conditions.. so we are all starting from the same place.

Here are the teams Competing for the 2024 f1D World Championship:

More pictures tomorrow.. my internet connection is being weird tonight

Buoyant Air,

Dave Lindley: