The preliminary rounds are now complete. The top fourteen pilots will advance to the semi-finals tomorrow. Awards for those finishing 15th thru 21st will be presented at the TOC field at noon tomorrow.

The freestyles of this afternoon all seemed to be stepped up a notch or two with a few more glimpses of what may come over the weekend. Marco Benincasa literally flew the rudder off his Extra. On a high-speed dive he threw the plane into a violent snap. The rudder separated from the fin, ripping the hinges out of the tail post. Marco landed without incident and the minor damage to the fuse should be repairable overnight. Roland Matt flew his free--the last flight of the day--with smoke canisters on the wingtips. Since the wind had died earlier in the round, the day ended in a reddish haze left from Roland's smoke.

The scores thru Round 2, Known #3, appear below. The freestyle scores and final results of the preliminary rounds will be posted Saturday morning. For those pilots advancing, their best Known round score of the preliminaries will carry into the semi-finals tomorrow.

Friday, October 11th, 12:45 p.m.

The first round, Unknown #3, is complete. The results are below. Today concludes the qualifying rounds, with the top-14 pilots advancing to tomorrow's semi-finals. Expect that some of the placings will change after the last round this afternoon when the low round for each is dropped.

At the begining of each new known or unknown round the sequence is demonstrated for the judges by either John Glezellis or Mark Leseberg, Jr. For today's second round it was to be John's turn to fly the demo. Shortly after take-off his engine abruptly quit. John was able to get the plane back on the runway where the cause was found to be a broken crank. The cowl of the FiberClassics Extra 330 suffered minor damage when the prop and spinner departed the airframe. The round was eventually started without the benefit of a demo flight.

The winds have calmed somwehat. The second round is still in progress now. We'll update the scores and standings later when we have them.

Friday, October 11th, 10:30 a.m.

Remember two years ago when Stephan Fink's G202 threw a prop blade? It happened again this morning to Peter Goldsmith. During the first round, Unknown #3, one blade of his Mejzlik prop departed. The resulting instantaneous out-of-balance vibration virtually destroyed the airplane, blowing most of the covering off the fuselage, shattering the canopy and severing the engine crank. Peter "landed" the big Cap in the bushes short of the runway. Work is underway now to prepare his back-up, another Cap 232.

The wind is up again... about the same as yesterday afternoon.

Scores later when we have them.