Tuesday July, 20: Another beautiful day out at the AMA field and today I would be flying against Chip. I knew this would be a tough day as Chip was flying great. My two flights of the day were the best of the Nats for me. I felt good after these flights. When the scores came out I was 2nd for this matrix of pilots flying a 987 to Chips 1000. I sure was happy to be this close to a guy who last year finished 3rd at the Worlds. After putting my plane away I went over and called for Verne who was also flying great. After flying we all attended the Nats Banquet at Cardinal Hills Golf Course. This was a fun time with the auction raising money for the World Team for next year. The food was great and so was the atmosphere, what else is there to talk about but, airplanes! After this we all were ready to go and kick back and go to bed.

Wednesday July,21: Today was the last day of regular competition and my hardest day. I had to fly against Quique and Jason. Man were these guys flying great. My flights this day went ok. Not my best but, again not my worst. When compared to the likes of Jason and Quique they just out flew me. Now I know why these guys make it to the worlds. I was upset this day as I was unsure if I would make the finals. When I went out for lunch I got a call telling me I need to weigh my airplane for the finals. Boy was I relieved to hear that cell phone go off. I had made the finals. I knew this was going to make for a long day as I had to judge when I got back to the field. After getting my plane weighed at 10 pounds 6 oz it was off to judge. Judging this year went by quick. When I looked at the clock when the flying was done it was already 5PM. I had about a hour to practice the finals sequence before I was to go to the pilots meeting to pick our unknowns. I flew about 4 times after the masters guys were over. The roller was very hard to keep out around 220 m as that was about our limit.

When I arrived to the Pilots meeting it was like walking into a dream with all the great pilots there. As I looked around the room I was awestruck to see such great talent in the room and to actually be flying with these guys was a pleasure. When you looked around you saw Quique, Jason, Troy, Don, Chip, Sean, Kenny, and Bryan Hebert. We stayed in this room until we had 2 unknowns made. This was 10 before we left the AMA field and a huge storm was brewing. Talk about a long day. We got to the restruant to eat a quick meal and get ready for the unknowns as we knew tomorrow was going to be a long day. Verne made the Masters finals and I made the FAI finals. When we got back to the rooom at 11 Verne started to write out my unknowns on paper as I flew them with the stick plane. What a long night after finally going to bed at 2:30 AM. We were both whipped.