2nd July 2004, Canada
The NZ Combat team are packed and ready to go and at this stage on behalf of Bryce, Chris and I, I would like to say a big thank you to all the Canadian combat guys that gave us so much assistance during our build up and an extra thank you to Brad LePointe. Brad was the ultimate host and without his time and hospitality we would have found our preparation very differ cult. Brad is rumored to be heading down under in February 2005 so we will attempt to return the favour.
3rd July 2004
We were up early for our
trip across the boarder into Detroit which was about an hours drive and on
the way we had to stop in at one of Canada's icons, Tim
Horton's. This is where you get your coffee and donuts or "Tim Bits"
and of course your travel mug!
The boarder crossing was a snap and we were soon cruising down Interstate
69 and as we got closer to Muncie the mercury rose and for a while the clouds
darkened somewhat and a bit of rain but as we reached our lunch stop it was
a nice sunny 28Deg C. We got into Muncie early afternoon and it was now over
30 Deg C and a little grey but at least the humidity was only in the 80% range!
We drove past the hotels where the USA and Canadian teams were staying and proceeded to what we can only describe as the "seedy" part of town! We were however close to the contest site and had a big swimming pool.
4th July 2004
Our Taxi arrived (Cheers
Brad!) and we were off to do some more trimming and testing and on the hunt
for props! The ones that were rubbish at home were the hot ticket in Muncie
and we were very short and managed to find a few more.
Today was a day to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones and
together with American Independence day it was the opening ceremony and it
was a great night of live entertainment and fireworks. The whole landscape
was alive with fireworks and continued into the wee hours.
5th July 2004
Today was official practice
day and to find some more airspeed and try some more props. We got our work
done and got our best 2 models sorted for tomorrows first round.
Today was also a day for us to get around to see some more of the other flyers
not only in F2D but also the other disciplines, for me this meant a visit
to the team race circle and catch a quick word with Yuri Sabashov whom I had
bought a model off some 14 years ago and still remembered me by name so that
was kind of cool!
We also got to see our speed team do there official practice followed by the Russian team and Brian and Bill both managed to get their models going pretty well with assistance from Neil Lickfold.
6th July 2004
Chris was first up at 9.30am
against Timo Forrs of Finland and flew well to record his first win. I was
next up at 11.30am against one of the juniors from Singapore Chris Wong, who
was competing as a senior! They were an unknown so we had to be cautious and
not get 'cocky' and fly them on merit. I had a win and now looked forward
to my next match as did Chris who also had drawn a Singaporean in the second
round.
Bryce was next up at just after 2pm against Mike "Whacker" Willance
from Great Britain and this was a great match but a narrow loss and Bryce
was one down.
Bryce was a little unlucky with the draw but also with the weather, in the
afternoon the wind had increased as it had for the previous few days and this
increased the "Luck" factor and made it a bit more of a lottery.
7th July 2004
Round two was much the same
as yesterday both in the draw and the weather! I was first up at 9.30am against
Douglas Tan from Singapore. I was lucky enough to have good speed and grunt
so in the wind I was able to fly high and let nature do the rest with my opponent
and with one cut and ground time in my favour I managed another win and more
importantly no damage.
Chris was next up against Christopher Wong who I flew in round one and Chris
also made short work of him but had to battle with the young Singaporean dropping
to his knees at times making it impassable for Chris to clear line tangles
or get in to make cuts but in the end Chris got in and tore him to pieces.
Bryce was again in the afternoon and the wind was getting up near the FAI limit and this was evident as we heard from the F2B circle that one of the Canadian models had been converted to an "Instant" kitset. Bryce was up against the Frenchman Xavier Riera who bryce had lost a match to at the last Worlds so he was up for the rematch. As we had practiced hard all year for this and had been trying so hard to take short cuts, in the wind this was a hard task and bryce made it hard by taking the lot as had quite a few others in the first min leaving plenty of time for the opponent to take his time to claim the inevitable. "Bugger" a loss by a small margin but a loss nonetheless and a tourist.
The next rounds would tomorrow would run through fast so Chris and I had to have at least 4 models ready so we had to test fly and make sure all our gear was ready for the next days flying.
8th July 2004
Round three and Chris was bout 4 at 9.30 so we were straight into processing before the first bout. Chris was flying the Lithuanian Dominykas Zubas and the wind was not too bad today so the combat was a little better as we could use a little more of the sky. Chris flew really well and out flew his opponent to record his 3rd win.
I was in bout 8 so we did
not have a chance to do anything else but get ready but I did manage to run
over to see the last 4 laps of Shaun and Andrews F2C round 2 race!
I was up against another of the French team Claude Bernard who had won the
last contest in Europe unbeaten and I was told he was a bit of a "Hard"
flyer. This was certainly the case and this was definitely the hardest match
I had ever flown and at one stage I was yelling at Vernon about 'sawing' that
was going on but in the end I had 4 cuts to 2, a huge smile and a third win.
So after lunch and some re flights we were straight into round 4 Chris was first up and I was the last bout up for the day against Peteris Brokans of Latvia. Once more the idea is to take small cuts....as Bryce has told us so many times! So the first thing I do is take the lot, but I did get Peteris into a line tangle and he hit the ground and me also about 20 secs later and lines in a hell of a mess but in the heat of the moment we made a tactical error not to clear the lines and declared them history allowing the match to continue straight away and about 3 mins for Peteris to get the 2 cuts needed to win and my first loss.
Chris flew Peter Norrie from Australia who had a loss in round three so he was pumped to stay in the competition and having seen how the Aussies had been practicing we were feeling pretty good as they had broken so many models in practice it wasn't funny. However, this must have been a plan as Chris was stunned to see the Aussie 'wrap and punch' him twice leaving Chris with no models despite a valiant attempt to put one of them back together with Cyano, trailing edge wood, cable ties and cellotape! We came unstuck so to speak with the cyano, as we fired the motor and tried to slip the fuel tubing off the clip we found it to be glued to the clip.....Doh!
So as was the case for today we needed to get all our models ready for another busy day and by the end of the day we were all very tired.
9th July 2004
9am and the rest of round 4 was completed and mid morning the draw for round 5 was made. I had a feeling I was going to get someone like Boris and I was not far wrong! I drew Igor Trifonov and Chris was drawn against Gonzalo Garcia from Spain. Today the weather was perfect, high overcast and almost no wind so the Lottery chance was reduced and we could use all the sky. Chris fought well and was narrowly beaten and in my match I was again hungry and took the whole streamer and although I had no ground time and Igor was using his second model I was unable to hold him off and nor could I do the Aussie "Wrap 'N' Punch" so I had to fly out the match knowing I was beaten. It was a small consolation that at least I went down to the guy who won the whole contest to become World Champion.
By the end of the day I think we got to about round 7 by which time there were only about 7 flyers, Mervyn Jones, Mike Wilcox, Mark Rudner, Peteris Brokens, Alexander Shalaev, Boris Faizov and Igor Trifonov.
10th July 2004
Today got under way a little
late and with the other events all timed to go in order the combat was dropping
the ball a little The Russian junior was the odd man out in this round having
flown his 7th round against Mike Willance who he defeated to finish off the
6th round.
The remaining bouts were all crackers with Mervyn Jones Vs. Peteris Brokans,
Boris Faizov V.s Mike Wilcox and Igor Trifonov Vs. Mark Rudner. So the classic
matches were all very exciting and the scores were all very close and the
round winners were Peteris Brokans, Boris Faizov and Igor Trifonov.
Round 8. saw Peteris Brokans fly the Russian Junior Alexander Shalaev who was just a machine and ran Peteris all over the place who just could not get near him as the young Russian took a big chunk of streamer in the first minute but Peteris had no answer for this talented flyer so Alexander Shalaev was the first finalist.
Next was Boris and Igor and what a match, to say it was a nail biter was an under statement and the result was never really clear until the last possible moment with Igor just beating out Boris to book his place in the final.
The Final
After the Team Race final we all headed back for the all Russian final for F2D between Igor Trifonov and Alexander Shalaev. They both fly in the same club in Moscow so knew each other pretty well and they flew a great final with Igor just edging out his junior opponent to take the World title and for what appeared the first time we saw Alexander smile and when they both landed all the Russian pit crew and supporters rushed in to congratulate there winners and they were both World champions. Alexander got the most 'Airtime' in the "lets see how high we can throw them" contest.
Final impressions
As a team we all learned
an awful lot about the art of F2D at this level! We are not aggressive enough
in the middle but I think our handle ability is right up there with the best
and if we had as many International contest as the Europeans did we would
be giving them a real run for there money. It was great to meet old friends
and make new ones and as the Olympics slogan from TVNZ says, "Being there
is everything!"
To Chris Renton I must say a very big thank you for his help in getting us
to the USA through Air NZ.
For Chris and Bryce,I hope you enjoyed "Cattle Class" on the way
home!
And finally to Brad LePointe, we must say thanks for all you did for Chris, Bryce and myself. You were amazing and I hope we get the chance to repay your hospitality in the near future.
See you in Spain. 2006
