Wednesday August 25th 2010

Matt Steele "A tough day for the US team today. We awoke to light rain at breakfast. The weather was overcast in the morning, and finally cleared, but the wind was constantly at the limit. It was not fun. DQs plagued the Jr B Scale Altitude. Cassidy Steele had a good flight disallowed when the RSO coudn't confirm that it landed safely; it later turned out the model did land safely, but stripped the streamer. Katie got the highest flight of the meet, but it was only good enough to place her 11th.  Both Cassidy and George Reynolds did not get good flights, so no good team scores. The Senior team didn't fare much better. Tony Reynolds ended up 4th with a great 600+ meter  flight. James Duffy had a low 200 meter flight. Matt Steele suffered no ignition on first flight, and a prang on the second flight. His third flight failed to trigger the altimeter. S4B Sr team was plagued with DQs, with only Trip Barber getting three good flights. The Jr team ended up middle of the pack, with Katherine Humphrey doing the best. The medal ceremonies are just winding up, and the wind has turned cold as the moon rises in the distrance. Matt"

	George Gassaway
James Duffy & Tony Reynolds pose with their S5B Scale Altitude Models IMG_9871.JPG	Several prepare for S5, in the US Tent IMG_9880.JPG	Caleb Boe with his flyhing Wing that folds into a 40mm model IMG_9883.JPG	Esther Clark, John Langford, and Bill Stiner IMG_9886.JPG
	Wednesday report: Like many days this week, Wednesday was windy. It started out overcast, but cleared up later. Trip Barber was flying S4A Boost Glide for Seniors. He had some good flights, using his own design. Kevin Johnson had a spiral-in DQ, then two good flights, using a Bob Parks Hummingbird design. Rod Shafer had a good flight but also a Red Baron. Unfortunately somehow I missed getting a photo of the Senior S4A results so I do not have more detail.
Kaitlyn and Cassidy Steel's S5A Scale Altitude models IMG_9887.JPG			Kevin Johnson IMG_9889.JPG
Trip Barber IMG_9890.JPG	A Still-popular design is the scissor-flolp wing, like this one IMG_9896.JPG	Trip Barber's S4A Boost Glider takes off IMG_9897.JPG	Some other Junior S5 models, three Nike Tomahaswks IMG_9913.JPG
	The Junior team was Matthew Berk, Katherine Humphrey, and Caleb Boe. Caleb flew a folding flying wing model, boosted inside of a 40mm model, while Katherine and Matthew flew Hummingbirds. Caleb's flying wing had flights of 122, 93, and a DQ. Katherine had a red baron, 98, and 128. Matthew's Hummingbird flew for 64, 160, and 100 seconds.  However, those did not put them in a position   for a medal, as a team they ended up 9th.
Rod Shafer wirth his Hummingbird B/G IMG_9920.JPG			A Junior S5 m dle lof the ever-popular Bumper-Wac IMG_9923.JPG
Matt Steele shows the scars of doing Deep Recovery in short pans and tall plant life IMG_9931.JPG	US Junior Team preparing for launch IMG_9933.JPG	Cassidy Steele launches her S5 model IMG_9944.JPG	Kaitlyn Steele launches her S5 model IMG_9947.JPG
George Reynolds launches his S5 model IMG_9953.JPG	launch of a Junior  Taurus-Tomahawk IMG_9954.JPG	An old-fashioned B/G IMG_9958.JPG	Rod Shafer with this Hummingbird IMG_9961.JPG
	There was a flyoff in S4A for Seniors, and I beleive also for Juniors. I do not know the results, only the pre-flyoff results as seen in the photos. S5 Scale Altitude is a cruel event. Build a precise scale model them often play demolition derby in flying it as high as possible. The Junior Team of  George Reynolds, Kaitlyn Steele, and Cassidy Steele, flew S5A first. All were using "Space grant 1" models, 2-staged. Unfortunately various problems cropped up, staging, stability, and so forth. Such that at the end, only Kaitlyn Steele had a qualified flight with a an altitude, for 376 meters. The Senior Team had high hopes in S5B. All flew Bumper-Wac models, 2-staged. Tony Reynolds' model flew VERY high, to over 600 meters. For awhile, his altitude plus static score was in 2nd place. But he ended up 6th. James Duffy got in a flight that did not go as well as he would have liked, less than 300 meters.He tried to get a better flight but it ran into problems.  Matt Steele's model had a problem  on its first flight which happened more severely the second flight.
Waiting to fly Kevin Johnson's glider IMG_10017.JPG			The Steele girls prepare for another S5 flight IMG_10032.JPG
Matthew  Berk checks in for S4A Boost Glider IMG_10039.JPG			HUGE hamburgers for lunch, Ellis Langford at right IMG_10041.JPG
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	On flight 2, the tail cone part of the model separated from  the rest of it, under thrust. The parts are supposed to separate freely to deploy a recovery deviced on the first stage when the upper stage fires. But the piston launcher caused a slight de-celeration when the piston  hit the end of its travel, and this seems to have made the model separate early. You can see it in a photo which Matt agrees is proof this is why/how it happened. On that flight, the upper stage ended up crashjing under thrust, scattering pieces, including the thumb-nail sized micro altimeter. The Recovery team spent a long time trying to find the piece,s and found most of the upper stage parts, but the altimeter was never found.  Matt rebuilt it and flew it single-staged on a C6-3. It worked, but the team total was not enough for a medal.  Somehow I am missing a photo of the results, I hope to get it at a later date. Tomorrow, the last two events, S7 Scale, and S3A Parachute Duration -George
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	Jon Stenberg
Matthew Berk boosts in 2nd S8 round	Alyssa brings in her model after first max	Alyssa preps for round 2	Alyssa preps her medal winning model for last time
Caleb Boe uses a bit too much orange pigment!	Finding thermals was a team effort	A busy George Gassaway picked thermals, took pictures AND flew!	Emma Krystal works on her journal between rounds
Chris Flanigan puts the final touches on his altitude model	Steve Kristal preps with surgical precision	Our good Canadian friends	Alyssa before her S9A 1st round max
Alyssa befriends her S9A Chinese competitor	Junior Team S8 Gold HR	Alyssa with her Silver and Gold medals	Alyssa hobnobbing with the FAI Spacemodeling Chairman
Emma Kristal and Katie Steele prepare a scale altitude flight	Keith Vineyard Human Thermal Detector	Trip Barber	Matthew Berk final S4A building on his S4A
S8 World Champions on way to field

 

	Steve Kristal
Arriving for day 3, lots of clouds	James prepping his Bumper Wac for scale altitude	Bumper detail	More bumper detail
OK, If you built a model with this detail would you fly it?	Matt & James prepping	In the zone prior to competing	Rod prepping his gliders
Caleb prepping	Team searching for upper stage of a scale altitude rocket	Searching the field	Juniors posing with a skull they found
Whole team searching for a lost piece of Matt's scale altitude rocket	James and Matt getting ready to launch	Keith checking the results