It's midnight in Las Vegas, the wind is howling and it's trying to rain! With any luck this will blow through overnight and tomorrow will be flyable. We'll know in the morning.

In keeping with positive thinking (for good weather)... tomorrow's finals will be two each of the Unknown, Known and Freestyle. No points are carried in from the semi-finals. Everyone gets a fresh start.

Saturday, October 21st, 6:45 p.m.

The semi-finals wrapped up about 5:00 p.m. tonight. Scores and standings appear below. The top 7 will fly tomorrow in the finals.

The weather guessers are talking wet tomorrow (40% chance). Lets all think dry!

More later...

Saturday, October 21st, 4:00 p.m.

The second Unknown round is complete (scores below). Most got throught it well, even with the gusty winds. Wind correcting and careful planning of cross-box maneuvers was critical.

Quique's engine failure was found to be a broken crank. He flew well in the second Unknown, placing third. The lower score of the two Unknowns and two Frees will be tossed, so his zeroed Free from earlier may not be too critical.

The second Freestyle in in progress now. More later, after the scores and Semi-Final placements are available this evening.

Saturday, October 21st, 1:30 p.m.

The first Free round is complete and scored (below). Most significant was Quique who deadsticked early into his flight. The motor sounded rough, then slowly lost power and stopped abruptly. His team immediately set about swapping out the engine, installing the engine from his backup plane into his preferred primary plane. Word is the engine quit due to a lower-end problem.

Awards were presented during the noon break for 21st thru 15th places. See Friday's report for those positions.

The wind is blowing, but its managable so far. The second unknown is about to get under way.

Saturday, October 21st, 11:15 a.m.

Today is the semi-finals for the 14 pilots who advanced from the prelims. They will fly two Unknowns and two Freestyles. There is no Known sequence today. It is expected that the awards for 21st through 8th will be presented this evening at the field. The top 7 remaining pilots will fly in tomorrow's finals.

Scores and standings appear below. Each pilot's best Known round score from the prelims was carried in to the semi-final scores.

So far, the weather looks great once again... clear blue skies and no evidence of the weather we were anticipating. The wind is begining to pick up, a good crosswind from the south, and could be a factor later in the day.

During the first Unknown, Dave von Linsowe lost the gears in several of his rudder servos. It affected his flight... and his score, see below. There wasn't time for him to change the servos before his Free round so he had to switch to his backup--another FC G202.

The first of two Freestyles is underway now. Some are making use of the wind for great hovering maneuvers. Christophe Paysant-LeRoux just flew another stellar Free. He has added a pair of Blue, White & Red streamers that he deployed from the wingtips about half-way through the routine. Later he did a sharp pitch-up at center that was low enough to leave the streamers in the bushes!

More later after the next round...