08/06/2026
We had a very nice turnout this year for the 100’th National Championships Team CKAero was well represented. Tim Taylor won the intermediate class with his Skywalker ,Lonnie Martin won Advance class with his Skywalker followed Closely by Joe Lachowski, and Oscar Cespedes with their Alchemy Pro’s
Masters class was hotly Contested between Chip Hyde and Dave Lockhart. Dave’s Style was closer in and good Pace but as always very technically flown. Chip flew a little further out and consistently with his PCK driven Balance Bipe consistently and improving each round.
As predicted Fai was Dominated by Bipes Only a few Mono’s ( me being one of the Few )🙂 I flew a little below expectations with motor issues and never got comfortable.
Joseph our top FAI rep. Flew pretty consistently and also eventually had motor issues. But also never looked comfortable. The Artemis Bipe looked solid even in some demanding conditions.
Now ,My take on the finals ( my opinions only )
I would have to say the Break out performance this year was AC Glenn with his new Bipe flew the best I’ve ever seen him fly in the Finals. And could have easily been the Winner of the Team Trials with a few scores changed.
His flying style has matured and I’m sure he will make a big impact at the worlds in South Korea if he continues his improvements look for him to be a threat to the podium.
Andrew Jason and Pete also flew solid each with their own styles that we’ve all become familiar with.
It’s always been my opinion that Jason’s style really exemplifies F3A for Grace and definition of maneuvers. Andrew known for his technical prowess and consistency continued his dominance in scoring and I’m sure will up his game when the time comes to defend his WC Title.
I judged two rounds of the finals this year one unknown and one F. The first unknown had a good deal of challenging Snaps all flavors , snaps up and down lines and a few fliers earned zero’s from me for no displacement regretfully.
As an organization we have become way to soft in judging snap criteria in my opinion. It really pained me to have to score them zero’s but I could not overlook some of them.
Spin entry’s are also very soft and not scored properly anymore but the grey area is a little broader here because you can show a stall better ( as per description) in a spin entry and it’s slowed down more, so it’s easier (to work the sticks )to keep from getting downgraded.
Our U.S. team will be strong again this year and we really have the talent to field 2 teams so getting on the podium is always a tough battle.
It’s really a shame in my mind that we are only taking 3 guys. We had the ability to take Four if Andrew would have decided to return as a reigning WC , and not tried out for the team and just defended his individual Title ,our alternate would have been the third team member and we potentially could have had four guys in the finals I’m sure the other country’s are happy about that:)
That’s the powerhouse of U.S. F3A fliers a pretty deep bench.
I know bipes will only get more plentiful in the near future in all classes the contra systems are getting better and more powerful and this will make for better competition airplanes overall.
As always it was great to see friends and customers again. I tried my best to hang out at site 4 this year to watch Lonnie and Barney Joe, Oscar, Tim and others fly but I just could not get over there. So if I missed you I’m sorry hope to see you all again soon.
