11/09/2001 Day 3 Competition (Schedule A)

Me and my team members arrived at the first airfield at around 6:00am this morning to prepare for radio impound.  The weather was fine today with just mild breeze.  When we headed for breakfast, we found there were a lot of planes circling the skies, which was not usual.  After we finished our breakfast and back to the field, I heard about the news that commercial jets, hijacked by terrorists, slammed to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  I did not believe the news until later when I went to a motor home of a buddy at the field and saw the news.  It was terrifying, and I held myself back very much not to break into tears when I saw the jetliner slammed onto the World Trade Center tower.  This should happen only in movie!  It was so dramatic that it looks unreal to me, but that's real!  Inside the motor home there were my buddies from the States, Hashimoto and his Hirobo team members, and myself, and we all agreed that events like that should not happen.

When I brought the news to my team members, all of them had red eyes immediately after hearing the news.  I had to spend some time with them comforting their moods.  One of my team members was a fireman in Hong Kong, and he expressed deep concerns about rescue workers there, and when he learned that a lot of rescue workers was trapped and might be dead when the World Trade Center tower collapsed, he just walked out without saying a thing.  Another team member was working in the Hong Kong airport as a engineer, and the whole day he remained wordless.  It must have hit them hard....

In the fields, ring tones of cell phones rang through the day.  The scene of people talking in intense tone, in a variety of languages, were common all through the day.  The organizer continued the event, but called the local sheriff department to beef up security of the site to prevent any unpleasant things being happen in the event.  In addition, the Israeli team members were requested to be grouped together, with the local sheriff provided escorts where ever they go.  All participants were requested to wear their pass, or they would not gain access to the field.  The mood of the field was dull, but the competition carried on.

Today, almost all pilots had better score compared to yesterday.  Hashimoto did a great flight today and scored 295.5, but not better than Curtis Youngblood who scored 298.5 in the same flight line.  Dobashi, who also was in the same flight line as Hashimoto and Curtis Youngblood, did a marvelous flight, and in my opinion the best amongst all, but the judges only gave him 293.5.  Looks like I would have a long way to learn judging....  Anyway, below were the top 10 results on raw scores by flight group.  After today and tomorrow's round finished the normalized score would be calculated:

Group A

Group B

My team finished with higher score today, many thanks to Mr. Phil Noel of Canada and Mr. Dag Eckoff of Finland who expressed their views of how my team members could improve in their flying.  I was glad that my team members were professional in a way that when they were in the pilot box they were all business, but after their flight all would wear the dull face again due to the incidence happened.  After the competition finished for the day, all the Hirobo pilots that participated in the event were grouped together for photo.  The same night, Hirobo threw a dinner party at a fine local restaurant, and every participants enjoyed the moment.  That's a temporary leisure moment for me.  I was terribly exhausted when I reached my room.  The more I saw what's happened in the TV, the more I feared and thank god that I was still alive.  I said a prayer, and could not held back my tears...  I could not sleep well that night...

Hashimoto getting ready in the start box	Hashimoto hover his Freya EX
Hirobo pilot photo	Sheriff guard on the event premise

Interesting machine of the day

During the last few days, some emails to me requested more photos of Curtis Youngblood's machines, especially details on the rotor head and special parts.  Curtis' flight was scored top today.

Vigor CS of Curtis Youngblood	Special rotor head
140 degree ECCPM system	OS 61 SZ-WC with Taya 1000 carb

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