4th day of WC
ROUND 7
Another beautiful day in Soaring Paradise dawned over the mountain with wispy lingering jet trails covering the entire sky.
The contest this morning will begin with a junior reflight group and then 2 rounds of Juniors. The order will be Rd7 Lane 4 – Noah, Stoil, Dillon, Rd8 Lane 6 – Noah, Stoil, Dillon.
The boys flew excellent for full.scores. Stoil was hurt after flying a great round getting off in 3secs and landing last for a 99 when someone in the group must have gone short that we didn’t see and posted a 9:58.1. All three juniors were solid and we just have to remain patient.
The drop was not kind to our Junior Team score at all though as we slipped back to 6th and some 400 points away from a podium position. With this game though you never know what can happen.
I have got to go help Jeff now. be back soon.
Jeffs flight was spent out to the west in steady but light lift for the first 4 minutes. Before we transutioned to better air further South and downwind. It was sort of a relief to be flying o the opposite side to the mountain where visibility yesterday was crazy difficult. Unfortunately during Jeffs landing the model bounced forward from a 100 to a 9:55.7 -98 and 994.7
Daryl found air almost overhead and moved around a little but never did really leave the field. It was the landing where the drama began as many of the models flew through very lifty air on final and Daryl’s model almost stopped and he had to clean it up to get it home and it was literally screaming at him as he made up the time. He and Joe Wurts in lane 1 suffered the same way to finish up early at the spot and a 9:56.5 -98 and 994.1
Jim got off first and landed last. Apparently this is a good recipe in F3J 🙂 He had seen the flags showing a shiftand went for it. After a nice flight he competed the deal for a 9:56.2-100 and 1000 for the Team.
The day has been hot and sultry with thermals plentiful but light. Not many taking short tows but enough to harm some groups a lot.
The hot sticky conditions forced a glove cleaning exercise so this Audi Oven came in handy.
ROUND 8
DP was up in Group 3 before lunch.and after a 2 second launch found air to the west where the entire group got out. One model short towed and hooked up looking like he might bury us again but missed his landing. It is a tough contest where in the prelims a 9:54.6 -99 that DP ended with only gets you a 996.7 score.
Jeff was first up after a 45 minute lunch break and a short Team Managers Meeting where they announced that we will fly one more Junior round today and three more senior rounds and the prelims with be over. We have weather coming on Friday afternoon and wind on Saturday and we will begin FLYOFF rounds tomorrow one hour earlier than usual start time at 8:00 am. The plan is to fly 6 senior and 6 junior rounds before rain comes. Ceremony and prize giving is also planned for tomorrow.
Jeffs position of 19th will put him right on the cusp of making the flyoff group once the drop kicks in after this round. We had a great read so I provided good tension for a short tow but the German team beside us got off first. Jeff took a beeline for our read down the tent line and eventually after a few minutes sniffing around we hit the mother lode of Vipava hot air and Jeff was out of here. His landing was a gem as he used up the entire last second to just beat the horn for a 9:58.3 – 100 and the 1000 points. (The German pilot scored a 9:58.6-99)
Jim made a 998.3
ROUND 9
Juniors flew their last prelim round with Stoil first then Noah and then Dillon.
Stoil put in a doozy as he turned left off a two second tow to take lift straight off the top and drifted north east toward the mountain. His lift was more than sufficient to stay above the escarpment in the blue sky and this was a huge relief as he finished very high and very far away before returning to drop into the LZ for a slider scoring a 9:54.9-96 and a 990.1.
Noah was next and he also turned left off the top of a good tow and acquired immediately to give us a carbon copy of Stoils flight before returning to make his final landing of this worlds. He was a little fast on final and had to touch and go to stop the clock at a great 9:57.4 and continue on for a second or two to slide through for a 90.
Dillon took a short tow with Max Fink doing the same in the adjacent lane. They both got out downwind and Dillon put in a gem at the end swooping in fast with one wing tip about 2inches off the deck to finish the prelims with a 9:58.4 and 99 while Max eclipsed this with a 9:58.8-100 to take the final 1000 from Dillon. Pretty tough when you only score 998 points for a 58.4-99 huh?
That was the completion of the juniors prelims seeing Dillon take top honors with Max Fink 2nd and Ivaylo Dimitrov 3rd. The other boys to make tomorrow’s finals are Nikita Shalom, Marc Token, Malden Totev, Jan Write, Marco Gallizia, Cedric Fuss and Felix Parachute.
Round 9 Seniors was next with Jeff up first. Jeff took a 1.5 second tow and went straight for a read downwind to the left following another short tow pilot from the other end of the line. Not hooking up he started moving back crosswind up the road toward where the pack was getting out. He never did make it with enough height and although he made a couple of minutes gaining and then losing a long way downwind he finally succumbed behind the treeline over the highway. Although we launched a second model there was really no point as his earlier 980 score would now become a keeper.
Jim flew next and we really thought he took the 1000 as he stuck a great landing off an impeccable flight where he tasted air upwind of the group went right and found the meat of it and ended up back against the mountain miles high. The German team got him with a longer time by hitting the 100 where Jim’s missed by a smidgeon for a 9:55.8-99 and 999.7 points. Really nice flight.
Daryl was last of Team USA pilots to fly in Rd 9 in Group 7 and the first to fly in Rd 10 in Group 1 . As a result we don’t know what his score is yet for Rd 9. Oh they just posted it. 9:56.5-98 and 998.6
The position s with just one round left to fly are Jeff 21st on 7969.7
DP on 12th with 7982.6. (11th place 7982.8.)
Jim in 4th on 7988.8
The USA Team now has a solid position in 2nd for the Silver as a Team.
His Rd 10 launch was a full 3seconds along with everyone else as the day is getting long and the lift less.H e flew a safe flight, hit the 100 and scored a 9:55.7 and the 1000.That should be enough to get DP in the big deal tomorrow.
Jeffs flight was an epic in many ways. We just needed to take a full tow stay with the group get a good time and landing and the USA Team would be in the Silver position on the podium. He took a full tow and we went downwind to Dillon’s read to the left of the group and just did not find anything great. We tried a few turns in different air but nothing was paying off and the group was getting out to the right of us upwind so we decided to abandon that air and move back up the right side along the mountain to where the.reat of the group was getting away.
Jeff.found air but low in the heart of the mountain and made turns for 6 minutes never gaining a lot but just making enough to save the flight. At 2 mins to go he began the long trek hone and at 45 seconds out it was apparent that he would make it. Hr did his normal approach but really stretched the clock and pushed over way too late for such an important flight to land at least 1/4 second late. The result was a deafening silence as the full gravity of what just happened sank in. We just slipped from a solid 2nd to 9th place as a team in less than half of a second.
It was a moment of total despair that the total USA Team’s fortune, (success or failure) would come down to the reflex action of one pilot at the very end of one epic flight where he ground it out for 9 minutes and 56 seconds and saved what looked like a disasterand, made it back after amazing flying and then pushed half a second too late when it really, really mattered.
I don’t know what to say. The USA Team is devastated. Jeff feels really totally bummed but we must move on.
Jim’s flight was a gem.Firmly planted in the top 11for the flyoffs he was in the same group as Jiri who held .2 of a point on the last flyoff position keeping DP out. DP already had a 1000 in the bank so all Jim needed was a good 1000 here and Jiri had no chance and DP was in. That is the reality of the game so Jim took a shortish 2second tow and got off before everyone else made it work, came back for the landing and stick it secure the position for DP in the finals. What an elation for the team to get two pilots in after the disappointment a few groups earlier.
Tomorrow we have two pilots in the senior finals with DP and Jim.
We have Dillon in the Junior Finals.
We are in great shape to do really well and make USA proud. It could have been so much better but it is not to be at this worlds. We can have both Junior and Senior Champions if things go our way. We have the pilots to do it. We have the Towers to do it.
Let’s cheer Jim, DP and Dillon on tomorrow.
Go Team USA