Long Road to Tucson - Concluded

[Mike Bargman]

The Tale of Tucson
Tuesday, September 25th…4:15pm. I walked down to Heather’s office. “Honey, I’m outta here…See you in two weeks. Wish me luck. I love you.” No response, she stands up and walks over and puts her arms around my neck and says goodbye and good luck and she’ll miss me. Said my other goodbye’s on the way outta the offices and I went home and finished packing.
My mother was kind enough to let me borrow her brand new Dodge Caravan, so I took it to get the oil changed and get it ready. Now, I was setting off to Tucson with barely enough money to get there and back, so it was nerve wrecking thinking about getting down there and not having enough money to get back, so I had to watch my limits. I stopped at Jewel to grab a bag of ice for my cooler and stopped to put $2 in an instant lottery machine that spits out scratch off tickets. I used the $2 I had out of the $5 bill I used to buy ice and put it in the machine and scratched off the ticket right there so I could throw it in the garbage can on the way out. Scratch…..Scratch…..Scratch….WTF? $400??!?!?! I won $400 on a scratch off lottery ticket! This is almost poetic…what a load off my mind that was going to be…wow! Now I could go on my trip with a little more peace of mind.
I get out to the van after cashing in my ticket, strap on my seatbelt, put my bottle of water in the cup holder and put the van in gear trying to think real hard about what I’m forgetting…Phone, wallet, transmitter, plane…you know, the important stuff! Check…everything is here. Awesome. Off I go. Stopped at McDonald’s for my routine #6 for breakfast before every contest and onto I-88 I go. As I make the exit from I-88 to I-355, I could see the city of Chicago in the distance. Boy, I’m 30 miles away and the city looks so big…this is gonna be a LONG drive. Who cares, it’s gonna be a fun trip. It’ll be worth it.
Within an hour, I found myself e-mailing Heather and other friends trying to keep myself busy and trying to stay awake because when I’m bored, I tend to get tired. I think I wasted the whole charge on my cell phone within 2 hours. Music blaring and windows down, I found myself nearing St. Louis about 5 hours later. That was a quick 5 hours! Man, maybe this trip won’t be so long after all…Ring! Ring! Who could that be? I look at the caller ID, and it’s FG’s own Dave Fick! We talked for a good hour or so and while I was on the phone with him, I crossed the Missouri/Oklahoma border. Man…I’m making great time and I haven’t even stopped for gas yet….GAS! whoa…the gauge says I have over 100 miles left before I need to fill up, but that can’t be right can it? Passing every single gas station, I contemplate stopping to fill up to see if that stupid gauge is accurate, but I decided to press on and take my chances. I hate stopping. Even to go to the bathroom. Stopped time is wasted time…hold it.
Oklahoma City – 24 miles…I’ll stop for gas there and see about catching some Z’s in the back of the van. So, I pull into the gas station/truck stop and fill up on gas…that gauge WAS accurate! Nice…so, I hop into the back seat of the van, lay down next to my Dalton 260 and try to sleep and I could smell my gas can…great, that’s all I need. Die in the van from gasoline fumes in the middle of the night…bad idea. I sit up and there’s a cheapo hotel across the street. No worries, I won that money from the lotto ticket, so I might as well use it and get a good night’s sleep.
Get up the next day which is Thursday, Sept 27th at about 5am, shower, dress and get back in the van and hit the road again. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico! After Albuquerque, I turned south toward Las Cruces to pick up I-10 to go across top Tucson. Almost there! 5 more hours and I’m there. Cruising about 30 miles from the NM/AZ border I see the guy traveling in front of me drift into the left lane and then into the middle of the highway…skid left, skid right and then wham! Flips over and over and OVER the oncoming traffic lanes on I-10. Screech! Myself and everyone else on the highway pulls over to check on this guy. I was on the phone with Dave Fick at the moment and I didn’t even say goodbye, I hung up and called 911 like everyone else that saw it happen. The guy in the car ended up being ok, but he was helicoptered out. OK…now that I’m REALLY awake, time to finish my trek to Tucson…
Started to see mountains in the shadows of the night, so I knew that there was something cool that I was missing in the dark, but I couldn’t see exactly what I was missing. Pulled into SW Tucson around 9pm that night and checked into a hotel since my other reservations weren’t until the following day. Got a good night’s sleep and thought I’d wait until the afternoon on Friday to go see the field and practice…screw that! I’m going to the field. I got to the field around 9:45am-10am and there were only two people there…Marian and Will Berninger. I walked up to Marian and gave her a big hug. Will was putting his airplane away and walked up and gave me a firm handshake and said “Good Morning, welcome to Tucson!” Wow…those words felt really good to hear. I sat down and just relished the moment. Will asked me where the airplane was and I told him I wanted to just kind of soak in the moment and relax after my long drive which was fine with everyone. So, I stuck around and met up with some more friends that were on their way and followed my friend Curtis Cozier back to the hotel since we were staying in the same place.
More and more people started showing up as the days progressed all familiar faces! Up until Sunday, the only people in Tucson practicing were from the North Central region. I think we know how to do it. We were there to practice, yet we were there to have some fun with each other and enjoy each other’s company. We’re all good friends and there isn’t a minute that goes by where one of us isn’t laughing. That right there is the number one reason I wanted to be there early. A calm environment with friends is perfect for such a big contest.
I got the airplane out and was briefed on how different the airplane would feel at the altitude that Tucson is at. Approximately 2200 ft. The airplane felt mushy, sloppy and underpowered. So, I fixed that by taking out exponential in my elevator and ailerons and adding about 5% throw. Much better! Nothing I could do about the lack of power except be patient with the airplane on climbing lines.
Eve of the shootout…I had a horrible day of practice. For some reason I didn’t seem connected with the airplane at all and honestly felt like giving up and going home. I didn’t want to have anything to do with an airplane I couldn’t fly in front of 70 of the world’s greatest pilots. How embarrassing! I left the field in a bad mood and when I got back to the hotel, I got a text message from Wayne Geffon. It said “It’s the night before the Shootout and you’ve worked your ass off. I’m really really proud of you and now it’s time to go get, so let’s do it. Fly the way you’ve been flying and you’ll be fine.” That was a total confidence builder. I went to sleep with the mentality that I couldn’t fly any better than I had been flying, so I would just do what I do and see where it leads me. So, I woke up around 5am, took a nice hot shower, got dressed and headed to the field. The drive to the field is actually very pretty. From Tucson, I would take Picture Rocks Rd. NW to the field. It’s so pretty with the sun coming up over the mountains. I stopped almost every morning and watched the sun come up on the side of the road.
Pulling into the field, I was the first one there every single morning. I had the airplane put together, charged, fueled and ready to rock and roll by 6:30am every morning. I could hear coyotes in the distance still howling and I could see jack rabbits running around in the field. I just sort of sat there and enjoyed the silence of the desert every morning. Pilot’s meeting at 7:30am and wheels up by 8:00am every morning. First round, I’m 10th to fly out of the 14 Intermediate pilots. Rounds go quick since we only flew single sequence rounds. So, before I knew it, I was up. Wayne Geffon was calling for me and when I stood up there to start my engine, he stopped and pounded fists with me and said “Let’s do it…first round ever in Tucson…make it count.” So I took off, flew my round and landed. I was so nervous I could barely get the antenna back in the transmitter on the JR 10X…I walked up to the impound and gave the gentlemen my radio and Wayne said “Let’s go look at your scores.”…uh what? Scores? I was figuring it’d be like 2 hours before we got scores. No, Anna Wood was doing the scoring and Anna did a fantastic job of taking care of the scores and had them up in almost real time. I was quite impressed! 2nd place! WOW! 2nd in the first round was pretty good for me against all the talent we had going. I figured I’d see myself in the bottom rung of the ladder after watching my competitors practice. My confidence level grew and grew and my nervousness levels went way down. Wayne was right, fly how I’ve been flying and I’ll be fine.
The days went on, we flew our unknowns and Friday came along. Time for the cut…at the end of the day, I was sitting in 3rd by less than 9 points, and the difference between 5th and 6th place was 2 points. What a close race. 5 of us had made the cut into the 2007 Tucson Aerobatic Shootout Finals. Ryan Archer, Seth Arnold, Me, Troy Broderick, and DJ Noerr. All awesome pilots and it was an honor to be able to fly with them on Saturday morning in the finals. We finished flying on Saturday and we all flew solid rounds, so we weren’t sure how we’d score until Sunday afternoon during the awards ceremony.
After watching all the Freestyles and lots of laughter, we all gathered around the podium and waited for our names to be announced. They announced the Sportman class first and then to Intermediate. Here we go…5th place was DJ Noerr…4th place was Troy Broderick…3rd place…..ME! I was so happy, it felt like 1st place. I didn’t care what place it was, but finishing in the finals was enough to make my trip worth while. I stepped up onto the podium and my friend Phil Oubre yells “WhaBAM!” hehe! I was laughing so hard and loved every minute of it. After handing out the trophies to Seth in 2nd and Ryan in 1st, we stepped down and made my way through the crowd and shook everyone’s hand and lots of hugs.
In the distance I could see my mom sitting in the bleachers getting good pictures and smiling and waving at me. She was so proud. Getting to Tucson was my goal, but making the podium was an honor and a privilege. I walked out of the TIMPA field with a lot… a trophy, an engine as a prize, great memories, pride, a sense of accomplishment, and most importantly, a lot of new friendships that I hope will carry on for years to come. If it weren’t for the people in the hobby that I fly with, I wouldn’t be doing it.

[nickb]

Does your mom know how good her new van jumps those whoopdee doos?

[Toro]

ahhh mikey.... That right there brings a tear to a glass eye....

Great story

[Road Builder]

Great write up Mikey and congrats to you and everyone who made it out there. Glad you made it back safely.

Jay

[3ddd]

got to say mickey after finally meeting you in tucson that you are a great guy with a fun attitude.keep up the hard work and someday you will win something big hahaha.way to go boy,see ya next year

[Mike Bargman]

Thanks, Ron. Good meeting you too, bro! I had the time of my life in Tucson...the best time I've ever had in my life, for sure!

[DA2000]

Mikey, great to hang with you as well. Congrats on the Shootout.

Hope we can get some more air next year. Don't forget the Cracker Barrell.

[Boulder]

Hey Mikey,

Great story bro!!

I have to say, the way you handled the pressure and pulled through, makes me want to shoot for the TAS next year, as a competitor this time.

Awesome meeting you in person, hopefully see you at the next one!!

[Wayne]

Mikey is the man and thats all I have to say about that.

[Ryans Rebel]

Okra and all!

[3D-Seth]

Nice write Mike!! Go NCFR!!! I had a blast, and I will definitely try to come again next year!!

Its kinda odd coming back home and seeing grass and trees . . . anyone else feel this way? LOL

Seth

[Wayne]

I miss the dirt.