Flyin' Unlimited at the Shootout

[Boulder]

We have the privilege of having a pilots perspective from none other than our very own Ken McGuire, aka rcplanefan. Ken is giving us an idea of what your typical day of flying is for a pilot at the TAS, where he happens to be flying Unlimited this year.

Take it away Ken!!!!!



The first day of the Shootout is in the books. Everyone here is flying extremely well. I'm flying in Unlimited and so I haven't had lots of time to watch the other pilots, but everytime I look up, clean flights are everywhere.

We are flying single sequence rounds which means each flight takes about 5 minutes. All that practice boils down to about 10 minutes of flying each day. That means there is absolutely NO room for mistakes if you hope to make the finals. Before you finish your sequence, the next pilot is in the air. I think we went through the first sequence round with 13 pilots in Unlimited in about an hour. These guys are extremely well organized.

Will Berninger drew the #1 spot for the first flight. Nobody wants that spot, but Will seems to have magical skills - seems like he is always the leadoff pilot. He flew extremely well and set a standard that looked hard to beat. I wound up in the #4 slot and was incredibly nervous. My first flight of the '07 Shootout is one I'd like to drop. What a rush! My thumbs were shaking so bad I'm sure everyone could see the plane wobbling all the way through. Trent Byrd killed us all in that sequence.

All the pilots flying Unlimited stepped it up in the second sequence with Chris Brislin taking it. That kid can fly. Trent and I flew pretty close in score and Dan Rathbun made a run, too.

It is really interesting to watch the different styles of flight from around the country. Some of the NW pilots are emulating Kyle W's close-in, slow style. Everyone else is flying a pretty big box. Snaps look different between competitors, but I don't think anyone is getting zeros.

The unknown sequence always shakes thing up. I'm sure today will see some changes in the standings after it is flown. There are a couple of interesting figures that I'm looking forward to someone else flying first. We've got a down humpty bump with a same direction 3-of-4 followed by a SAME direction negative snap. There will probably be a few zeroes given for that figure. Also a cross-box hammerhead with two positive snaps up and 1-1/4 rolls down. That figure alone accounts for 57K - about 20% of the total. Don't want to screw it up. I think I'm up 7th in the unknown today. First tomorrow.

Big thanks to the FG crew for being here to cover this event. I'll try to post a little report each day on Unlimited. Anybody got anything they want to hear? Let me know and I'll try to run it down for you.

[DR10044]

Great report Ken and good luck!

[Boulder]

Remember folks...I'll be posting the scores for today, as they become available. You will find them here...


TAS SCORES...THIS IS READ ONLY

[prizzy]

Nice write-up. Are there scores posted anywhere?

[MattyMatt]

Pride... go Here: TAS SCORES...THIS IS READ ONLY

[JAS]

Great write-up Ken.

I heard the weather out there today is about perfect. Partly cloudy, about 85 degrees and light winds from the South (back winds). I hope they enjoy it as tomorrow's forcast is for the dreaded Shootout winds...

[Craven]

Nice write up Ken! Good luck!

[50%plane]

cool write up!

[Boulder]

Got some pics from today, ya'all!!

First off, here's a couple of pics of the Aeroworks Ultimate prototype.

[50%plane]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Boulder
	Got some pics from today, ya'all!! First off, here's a couple of pics of the Aeroworks Ultimate prototype.

[Rudy]

Thanks for the great info Ken. The best of luck to you all.

[Boulder]

And a few more of some candid shots of the pilots day.