Belgrade F1D WC: Thrill of Victory, and well, you know the rest!

For the Juniors the day was a challenge but there are some bright spots. Parker flew first and hung up at 7:00. The half motors were all flying at nearly 14 minutes at below the halfway up to the ceiling. The full motor was a different store. Parker was at the roof is 5:30 and then it did its normal race for the side and hung on the prop. It turned out that the exact thing happened to Steve Brown on his first flight. Curtis choosing to fly ship number 2 with a flaring prop at extremely low torque to just get a decent flight on the board had the same problem...to the roof and down the side. So Curtis's first round was a 5:47. After backing out a half turn on the high high pitch and a half turn on the preload, Parkers second flight was still passing the halfway mark at 2:30, great for Lakehurst, but definitely not here. So he had the same issues with the second flight...to the top and down the site. Have you ever tried to steer a model that is bouncing off a curved ceiling? I'm sure glad I don't have to. At any rate he got between the wing and stab on the steer and the wing tucked and down she came. So Parkers second flight was also a bust with a 7:16. Curtis changed to his VP plane #1 but suffered the same fate. He made a great steer though after the plane bounced down the balloon right onto the line and he got it back to the center of the floor and posted a 23:58.
John on the other hand had a great day posting the two highest times of the field. He flew immediately after the horn sounded and started the day putting up a 35:09 for everyone to look at. It was a great flight that looked like it never got above 80'. John's second flight was also a great one and he managed to increase his time to 35:59. Steve, despite still racing to the ceiling again posted a 31:24 for his second flight. I am confident he will figure that climb out. Brett goes quietly about his business and is working out some cruise rpm issues but still managed to post a 33:41 and a 32:47. The senior team is in a great position after day one.
Parker and Brett put up a couple of trim flights after the rounds and Parker managed a 25:50 after backing off to a lower torque. That would have been the second highest Junior time of the day so we are hopeful for tomorrow. And if we can keep Curtis down out of the currents we think we can boost his times as well.
Did I mention that Romash is doing his thing and i have to tell you, he is a glider building machine. He asked to borrow some glue, and the next thing I know it is about an hour later and he is standing up tossing a Snifkin (Serbian Nifkin) across the room at a near perfect decent rate. I saw it, but still don't believe it. A young man by the name of Tasa is getting a Masters Class in glider building and Romash calls him a human milling machine. It is a lot of fun to watch. Well, we hope toworrow brings decent weather and that we can stop these planes from climbing too high.

Had to put this in just because I like it...we pass it every day on our way to the dome and 3 more different ones on the way home. I think they are exceptional billboards.