Thurday,

Well this is the big day. There is a big crowd already gathered when I got to the field. We put the planes together and got ready to fly. I am dead tired but the first flight is a F-05. I flew this ok. Judges in these finals were looking for breaks on the snaps. It was getting zeroed for not showing the break. I took some zeros which were deserved for the snaps I was doing. Jason put up a great flight along with everyone else. The next up was the unknown. This one went good. I was happy with it. When I got the Raw sheets back I flew about 6th place in this round. I was happy. I have come to realize that I can't keep up with these guys after watching them fly there unknowns. After all the flying settled I finished 7th. I was happy with the finish in my second F3A nationals. Everyone just flew great in the unknowns. Jason won the Nationals in F3A and Dave Snow won in Masters. Verne came in 3rd which was great. After the BBQ we said our good byes and went back to the hotel to soak up everything that just happened over this past 4 days. As everything from the winter to the days before the Nats goes into preparing for the Nats all the time out at the field burning fuel. Building planes and it is gone within a 4 day period. I returned to the field Friday to get some T shirts and to say good bye to who was ever there. When I arrived at the field it really hit me that it was over. Seeing not a single car in the parking lot of any of the sites and nobody on golf carts made it all surreal. I saw Jason and his caller as they were getting ready to go back to Indy to catch a flight to Tuscon for Jason, and Orlando for his caller. This is where everyone left the Nats to come back the next year and try it again.