F1D World Championships Senior team chosen
by John Kagan <REDACTED>
The 2014 Senior F1D World Championships team was selected during the Kibbie Dome Annual in Moscow, Idaho, held this past July.
The first spot went to Brett Sanborn, who is continuing his meteoric progress. Brett logged two spectacular matching 37:05s on day two and then went on to finish with an amazing 38:33 in the final round. Keep in mind that the previous site record was a mid-34.
Playing the what-if game, Brett’s Kibbie performance could have moved him further up the podium at the last World Champs. At the very least, it looks as though his program is now on par with Slovakian Ivan Treger and German Lutz Schramm, both of whom had separated themselves from the rest of the field by a significant margin.
It will be interesting to see how Brett stacks up in 2014, and if anyone else can crack the code and join this trio.
The second team placing went to yours truly. I also broke the previous site record, but with a much more modest 35:48 and 35:26. I am happy to be on my eighth consecutive team, but I have some work to complete before the next World Champs.
The year 2014 tentatively takes us back to the Romanian salt mine, which presents its own unique set of challenges.
The first two team positions were secured by a healthy margin, but much like the 2011 team selection, the third spot came down to the wire. Mark Bennett, Nick Ray, Jake Palmer, Ben Saks, and Larry Coslick were all in contention with times hovering in the vicinity of 30 minutes.
Eight-time world champion, Jim Richmond, sat on the bubble at the start of the final day with a 33:50 and 33:47, although he had only 86 qualification points instead of the complete 100.
Three-time world champion, Steve Brown, moved into third with 33:27 and 33:22 in the last two rounds (his 100 qualification points edged him ahead of Jim's slightly higher times).
Finally it came down to Kang Lee, of the 37-minute EZB fame. He is a natural talent and continues to build the experience required to be a consistent top performer. I timed a solid upper 33-minute flight for him as round eight ended.
"Great flight!" I said. "Where is your time card?"
"... [darn!] I forgot to process my model for this round!" he said.
"Oh ... well, great test flight then," I said.
Granted, this couldn't happen at the World Championships, because you can't even get a timer until you process, but it is also the kind of thing that only happens to a person once.
Kang sent up a Hail Mary in the last round that got into the jet stream at the top tiles, flirted with the curtain cables, and required several hairy steers. It eventually landed at 35:09—good enough—with his backup time of 33:27, for a solid third place and the final team spot.
FF Indoor
John Kagan
Brown, moved into third with 33:27 and 33:22 in the last two rounds (his 100 qualification points edged him ahead of Jim's slightly higher times).
"Oh ... well, great test flight then," I said.
The Junior Team Selection program became slightly complicated this cycle. Team veterans, Parker and Spencer Tyson, were not able to travel to Kibbie, and there weren't enough Kibbie Juniors to fill the team, so the team selection committee voted to select the Junior team at two contests. First place at Kibbie earns a team spot, and the next two positions go to the top times between Kibbie and the Nats at Champaign, Illinois.
Royce Chung and Evan Guyett battled it out at Kibbie. Each of them showed excellent poise, handling their models well and learning to steer amid practice is to take the Junior by the shoulders and steer using them, as you would if you were holding the line yourself. It gets the job done, and is a great way to teach them the nuances.
During the last round, Evan's model was lightly fouled by a Senior competitor's steering line. Technically, Evan could request a ref light and it is common to take advantage of these "gifts;" however, despite some spirited prodding, Evan refused, simply saying that he didn't feel that it affected his flight. It wasn't just his mature response that impressed me, but his calm conviction.
Perhaps karma was impressed, too. Evan's 27:04 and 26:16 earned him first place by a mere four seconds!
Royce and Evan are considering attending the Champaign meet to join Spencer and Parker in the quest for the final two team spots. The USA will be well represented by any combination of these four fine young men.
SOURCES:
National Free Flight Society www.freeflight.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
