Practice Day...

Well, the Dorcol Cup is over… Brett took first place in the senior division, and Parker took first in the Junior division… John took third in the senior division also… Looks pretty good for team USA for the world championships, as the better models were kept in so they would not get damaged… The other teams started showing up on Wednesday for practice, and some good partial motor flights were put up…

Things look like they will get interesting for the rest of the week, but the US team looks really strong for the team title, and also for spots on the individual podiums… The heat has subsided somewhat, and even inside the hall it is not nearly as bad as the first few days… (that being said, it is still hotter than any other place that I have flown… And still pretty miserable…) Lots of broken motors, even a minute or more into the flights… Our team wasn’t affected too much, as most of the broken motors were during winding, or when the blast shields were still on… The Tyson team was busy yesterday trimming and trying to get into the 30 minute range, and Brett, John, and Nick were working hard to sort out their props… This is definitely a hard place to fly, since the time of day can make a huge difference in the conditions and trim… But if persistence is a necessary part of success, we have that covered…

On the personal front, my cold is still hanging around, but I found a pharmacy (if you can call it that…) yesterday, and got some Coldrex which seems to be making life tolerable… Not getting much sleep, since with the cold and changing from the extreme heat to cool air conditioning at night tends to mess up the sinuses even more, but at least it was just a cold and not a stomach flu… Oh, I also got the luggage last night (finally…) So now all of the team has their shirts, and I have the rest of my stuff…

So today is the first official practice day for the World Championships, and I’ll try to post what I can on the times for the day… Team managers meeting is later in the day, and then the opening ceremonies in the evening…