It's Official- IMPBA D12 is racing FE's in 2010 !!!!

[Chilli]

Only four days to the Capitol Race. Unfortunately registration is down from last year with the lousy economy. We got the course up on Sunday. All my boats are ready to go. I switched over to 2.4g so hopefully no more glitches. I have a new turn fin and fresh booms on the JAE with a few H7's (Mark Sholund & Andy Brown) to try out. The gas Sniper will be doing double duty as I volunteered to run offshore to ensure there are enough entries to run the class. That makes four classes for me, plus my oldest son will run novice and I have to watch both kids (mom will be out of town) and run the retrieval boat. It should be interesting.....

Dick Loeb told me a few weeks ago he was going to have a P-mono ready for this race. We'll see if Mike got it finished for him. Other that that I don't know if we have any more FE's running this race. I guess someone has to do the dirty work.

[HOTWATER]

Only four days to the Capitol Race. Unfortunately registration is down from last year with the lousy economy. We got the course up on Sunday. All my boats are ready to go. I switched over to 2.4g so hopefully no more glitches. I have a new turn fin and fresh booms on the JAE with a few H7's to try out. The gas Sniper will be doing double duty as I volunteered to run offshore to ensure there are enough entries to run the class. That makes four classes for me, plus my oldest son will run novice and I have to watch both kids (mom will be out of town) and run the retrieval boat. It should be interesting.....

Dick Loeb told me a few weeks ago he was going to have a P-mono ready for this race. We'll see if Mike got it finished for him. Other that that I don't know if we have any more FE's running this race. I guess someone has to do the dirty work.

I wish I could be there with ya man! Looks like you will be going full tilt with everything...you will be fine! I hope the new JAE fin will bring you some good luck!! Your gas Sniper should do very well...beautiful boat and looks to be trimed out well!

I wish you the best this weekend Mike! Tell Carl, Tracy, Dick (Hi to Carol "the Cookie Lady"!), James and Robin I said good luck to them as well!! Please give me an update on how well everything is going there...I will be very curious!!

-Kent

[Chilli]

Sorry you can't make it Kent. John will miss your Snickers bars. LOL. See you down in Chesapeake in August. Hopefully we can get together before then. Get out there and run some laps with the DELMARVA Club!

[HOTWATER]

Tell John I will bring him some more Snicker's bars when I see you guys next time around. At least Carol will have some awesome cookies there!! .....Oh yeah, tell John that I also wish him good luck in the novice class!

Have a great time...Keep me informed!

-Kent

[D&D]

How many boats do you have registered? I remember when (late 80's to mid 90's) the Capitol RC'ers would have 180 to 200 boats registered and we wondered how we were going to get all the heats ran in two days. Then there was the 1990 NAMBA Nationals and I can't even remember how many boats we had then.

Sounds as though your hands will be more than full - kids, boats, and retrieval, WOW! Good luck to you and the Capitol RC'ers my friend.

[egneg]

Mike I will not be able to make it this weekend - I am on call for work.

[Chilli]

Thanks Dennis. Today is final day for registration. I don't know if we'll have a hundred boats this weekend. Very few if any of the Delmarva club is showing up. We're a bit disappointed but we'll have a good time no matter what. Less boats, less heats = less rush and more relaxed fun.

See you in Chesapeake Chuck.

[Chilli]

Well Race 3 in the D12 is over. I'm exhausted!!! We had to set up and break down with temps pushing 100 degrees. Thankfully no rain though. I was the only FE racing this weekend. Dick Loeb mentioned bringing his P-mono but he told me it wasnt running up to his standards yet so he kept it home. I ran 16 heats this weekend. Great practice. Some heats I looked great and got complements on my driving. Other times I looked like the sophmore that I am. Overall I came in first with the JAE in B/P-spec Hydro and third place in Stock Gas and Open offshore with my Sniper. I had some good moments and bad in all the classes. Yesterday I was running great with the JAE. Competition was a bit tougher than the last race but we still had many dead boats. I finished yesterday with two firsts and a third. This morning I had a rough stretch. I was a bit tired and it showed. I ran the JAE into a bank in my first heat of the day. Then a half hour later I ran up the ar$$$ of another boat at the start of the stock gas heat and munched a prop (other boat Okay and finished the heat). I rushed to clear the water out of the gas motor and do a prop swap as I was running back to back heats. I was very relieved getting it done, but then my pit man did one of those 180 degree barrel roll launches. Well, that's racing I guess. I took a break, got my stuff back together and ran some pretty good heats later in the morning in my final gas heats.

Now I havent mentioned my P-mono. I have been having problems the last two races and I think I have the situation solved but I welcome anyones input. The last two races I have had two speed controller thermaling on me on the mono after a few laps. This was the same set up that proved so reliable last year. I thought it may have been the radio's but I switched to 2.4 gig so that isnt the problem. Now during the last two race weekends, I had my FE mono and hydro heats very close together so I had to tape up the mono and let it sit for 20 minutes with the batterys all hooked up (RX off). Both races temps have been in the 90's. I was thinking maybe the heat was causing the problem. So on the final heat, I taped up the Titan on the clock (it's not like I have anything else to do). The result was no shutdown and the mono ran beautifully.

Thats about it. I did damgage the tub of my JAE. So I'll get to work fixing that. Our course is a bit narrow on the back stretch. I think I was one of about 5 to hit the bank. Here is a picture of my poor baby.

Next race. Chesapeake, VA in the Last week in August. We shoud have our larges FE showing of the year at that race with maybe a half dozen racers. Dick wants to do a FE shootout. I'll pass on the details as they come out.

[HOTWATER]

Argh Matey! I like the skull and X bones! That's great that you managed 1st overall!! Sorry about the bad luck with the JAE running ashore....at least it was in the final round! It sucks having to fix something after a race and then hoping you did a good enough job to run the last heat with it the next day!! I don't know anything about that at ALL!! LMOA!!

Have you thought about using a different ESC in your Titan? How about the motor? Does it seem ok? Solder joints ok on all the bullets?

Great job again Mike!!!!!!! Get some rest my freind! Email or PM me in the day sometime tomorrow...

-Kent

[Doug Smock]

Nice work Mike!!!
Sorry about the carnage, but it could have been much worse ehh??

Oh, thanks for testing the tubs for us, we haven't tested them... yet!!

Get some rest man!!
Doug

[Chilli]

Thanks Doug! As you can see the tub buckled a bit behind the front boom. I hope I didnt screw up the boom alignment.

Kent, I'm back using the Turnigy 180 for now but remember I switched back to my trusty Etti 150 at the DELMARVA race and the same thing occured. I ran that setup the previous year with no problems. Once I went to the last second tape up, the problem went away. I did get my CC240 back from warranty work but I'm saving that for a rainy day, or untill we get some real P-mono competition.

One side note (District 12 FE growing pain). On the first spec-hydro heat I did the "pull into the infield" manuver. Robbin didnt realize what I was doing and freaked on the back stretch. He ended up flipping his outboard rigger. On the following heats, I yelled out "pulling into the infield" just to remind people.

I posted a few pics on IW. There are probably a few faces you' guys will recongnize.