Well people,

I know I have had not a single thing new going on new on this forum but. I just wanted to let everyone know that on Sunday I am leaving to head for muncie indiana and hopefully do good at the Nationals. I will be returning Friday and will have a big report about the Nats, the inns the outs and everything else. Hope everyone has a great week I know I will because its always great to see all the old friends and make new ones.

Andrew

Andrew,

Good luck at the Nats..

I'm sure we'll all be seeing your name high on the board!

See ya,

Ken

Ken,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It is a time now that we at my house are all running around going crazy. We are doing last minute checks on everything and hopefully everything will run ok for us. See you at the RCCD contest.

Andrew

Conratulations. You are really a great pilot.

Hey all,

I just typed all my bio of the nats and it left me!!! I am not sure what happened I will get it done tomorrow.

Andrew

Hi all,

Sorry for taking so long to get this out but I have taken a break from flying to do what I do best ( Be a 17 year old kid)
I will try and briefly go through what happened at the Nationals with my flying and many other pilots.

Sunday July, 18: For this trip we decided to caravan together with 4 people driving. In this Caravan we had Pete Collinson and his girlfriend Nikki, Bob Kane, Verne Koester, and My Dad and I. We detoured to Celina Ohio to get our last flights in to make sure everyones motors were running good. When we got to the field we seen Tony Stillman, Ron Van Putte, and John Fuqua all out practicing. After flying, we proceeded to head to Muncie around 2 o' clock. With the time difference we ended up in Muncie around 2 PM. We proceeded to check into our hotels and get organized before heading out to the field. After laying in the hotel for about a hour we headed to the field. When we got to the field it seemed as everyone was there and we were the last to get there. This was the biggest Nats I had seen in a long time, so many awesome pilots. A 5PM we all attended the pilots meeting to make sure how everything was going to run. After about a hour and a half meeting we were done. Off to dinner and back to the hotel for some sleep.

Monday July, 19: We woke up at 5:30am and realized that this is the day everything starts! We arrived out at the field around 7:15. It was a beautiful morning with little to no wind at all. When I looked to see who I was flying against I knew I was going to have a hard time this Nats to make the finals. On Monday, I was flying against Troy, Sean, Don, Pete, and many other great pilots. My first flight went well with a few errors but not to extreme. This was the first flight of the contest and boy was I nervous. The second flight went much better I flew solid this flight. After the first day of my line I was expecting to be around 4th place and when they posted scores I was tied for first with Sean McMurty. This was a dream, to be flying against TOC pilots and to be fairly close in scores really made my day. After both flights I went to the masters site where Verne was flying and I called for him. After this long day we went back to the hotel and crashed in our beds.

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.

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.

Great story, Andrew!! I am plenty proud of you and Verne.

Sam,

Thanks a bunch, Verne flew great. I was really happy for him. Maybe in a couple more years I might be ready for the Team say another 5.

Andrew

Congrat's Andrew! It's nice to see the week laid out like that, it allows us guys that have never been there to understand what all of you go through at the Nats.

Again great job.

See you this weekend.

Ken

Andrew,

Congratulations on your 7th place in the F3A Finals this year. It's great to see you youngsters coming up through the ranks eager to take over. But like I told you.....5 more....LOL! Of the flights I was able to see (when we weren't flying together) you did very well. Start getting ready for the Masters now.

Ken,

It was good seeing you today. I hope we have fun this weekend.

Jason,

I am flying my extra already. Next weekend the cans will go in it and hopefully soon I will be able to get through some good sequences.

Andrew

Nice story Andrew!!!!! Like it a lot. Congratulations again!!!!

Nice work Andrew. Don't worry about Jason, he is getting older and he can't run now

Don't have to run to fly Steven...

LOL, yeah yeah.[8D]

Whats up Andrew, Its Brett Bowen. Hows Post-Nats life treating you? I'm just glad I survived 4 days each way in the same car as my dad. We are both pretty hard headed, so arguments are pretty fun[>:] Nice write up, this year was intense, especially in FAI.. You did a good job man, i think you had those rollers down better than anyone. I couldnt believe how differently my plane flew back there than it does at home. my roll/elevator rates were way hotter than they are at home, I had to tune them all down a lot. Then when I got home and flew, my plane would barely roll with that setup....really weird. I guess thats what I get for living in the big WA. Im gonna spend a couple weeks with John Glezellis next year in Boston before the nats to get my stuff Dialed in. What are you workin on for next year? Or are you gonna stick with the Snot Rag??

Take it easy man, get all practiced up for the masters.
-Brett Bowen

Brett,

I am doing good after the Nats. I stayed until Sunday with heather so it was pretty good to be able to stay with her and not have to worry about flying. I know how you mean how the planes fly different. What is the altitutte where you fly. I know talking to some say that planes that fly way up there fly like a brick and dont respond that well. Anyways give me a email some time

[email protected]

Hey Andrew,
What are you doing on here so early? Isn't midnight your normal time?

Good flying last weekend, I know I've said it a dozon times already, but I'm always impressed when I watch you fly. It's too late in my life to ever get as good as you or the other top pilots,
but it sure as heck give's me something to shoot for.

I'm going to try to burn that video I shot of you on a CD tonight, I'll get it to you somehow, assuming the burn goes good.

See ya at the next one!!!

Ken

Andrew, the altitude here is about 500 FT. But the Density/altitude is waaay low. No humidity at all. I like the conditions back east better, its more responsive, but takes more than a week to get used to it well enough to fly good... I'm not at wonderboy status yet.. Thats cool you got to stay with heather for a couple days. I'm sure that was a nice cooldown after a stressful week, she seems to keep you in line pretty well though You going to have her make up some JR shirts like a certain Futaba Team member had his girlfriend do at the nats? LOL If I ever take my girlfriend to a NATS she is wearing sweatpants, a sweatshirt and NO makeup.... So I can concentrate.....[X(]

Take it easy man,
Brett