As a community, the Flyinggiants members are nothing short of amazing. When we as a modeling community put our collective effort into something, we can accomplish almost anything. We have shown this many times over the last four years. At this time, I'd like to focus our collective effort on the 2009 F3A World Championships.
This year the United States is being represented by four amazing pilots who we all know and love.
Quique Somenzini, 2007 World Champion and 2007 USA Team member, chose the option of
competing at the 2009 World Championships as an individual representing the USA. This
decision allows the USA to send four representatives comprised of a three man team plus Quique
to Portugal next year.
So the Team consists of:
J
ason Shulman, Team Leader; Jason is a two-time National Champion and six-time USA F3A
Team Member.
Andrew Jesky, Team Member; Andrew is returning to the USA Team for the second time and has
proven himself to be a world class competitor.
Brett Wickizer, Team Member; Brett is an amazing young talent with a great future. This will be
Brett’s first World Championships.
These four guys will be traveling to Portugal in August, and they will basically live there for almost three weeks. During that stay, they will be practicing for many hours a day, learning how their planes respond to the climate and altitude of Portugal and finally competing against the Worlds best pilots in the World Championship.
The information listed above is generally common knowledge in the modeling community. BUT, what is not commonly known is that each of OUR Team USA Members for the most part pays their own way for the entire trip. These costs include: the competition airplane equipment, air fare, car rentals, hotel lodging, meals and many other small expenses.
I was speaking to Ben Fisher of 3DHobbyshop a few weeks back, and he mentioned that he has spoke to Andrew about the costs associated with representing the USA at the F3A World Championships. Andrew being the humble guy he is, didn't divulge too much info, but after some poking and proding, Ben and I were able to determine that each of the TEAM USA members spends around $9,000 - $11,000 of their own money to attend the World Championships!!
SERIOUSLY?! HOLY COW!!
Can you imagine any of the USA Olympic teams being invited to the 2012 games in London and we just say, "Hey great, that is awesome! Ok, hope ya make it.. Oh and if you can find the time between fund raising, try to get a little practice in, and bring home a GOLD for the USA!!" That is kind of what we are doing to these guys. "Hey thanks for working so hard, and representing the USA over there in Portugal... Hey guys.. Win one for the Gipper!"
I think it is time for us as a RC aerobatic community to step up and raise some coin for these guys. Lets help them relax a little and spend some extra time practicing. Lets support OUR Team USA!
I still have the Paypal account set up that we used to bring Wesse to the Nall. As of today, it is open for donations for Team USA. Every single cent that is put into that account will be delivered to the Team USA manager right before the trip in August. So come on guys we have several months to pony up and show these guys that we will support them! I would love to see the Giants raise a nice total of $10,000 or more in that account by August 1. The Giants has 40,000 members. If only 1/2 of the population gave $5 we could start a Team USA Fund that could support the team for several years! Also, I bet we could convince the guys to sport a small Flyinggiants sticker on their competition planes to show the World that FG supports Team USA!
So what do you say guys... Instead of that extra coffee, that pack of smokes or that donut you REALLY DO NOT NEED, throw those bucks into the TEAM USA ACCOUNT!
Lets help OUR Team USA out!
To donate please just Paypal whatever amount you can to: stephencinch@gmail.com
I will post bi-weekly account totals so we know where we stand.
Also, Any donations of $25 or more will get a 2009 F3A award under their name. So start Donating!
FG will start this off with $100!