Jake Moon holding up the Advanced perpetual trophy with the first-place medal around his neck.
By Matt Neumann
As the contestants woke up from their slumber, they looked out the window and noticed clear skies and cool temperatures. For some, it was even a bit chilly. It still was going to be one of those “Don't forget the sunscreen.” days again. Winds started out very, very light…as in, nonexistent. The wind we did have could not make up its mind as to which way it wanted to go. The temperature and wind changed as the day went on, but the need for sunscreen did not. As the competition came to a close for the day, the temps had risen and so did the wind. Probably getting up to 10 mph at times, and at least in one direction. Most of the time, the wind was headed into the sun, giving contestants some trouble.
Today was top-20 day for the Open class and the top-16 day for Advanced. I originally thought Advanced was getting a top 20 but it was only a sweet 16. The reason for this is the number of contestants. There is a formula that says if the number of contestants drops below a certain point, then the top 20 gets cut down to 16. We reached this point this year. So, my mistake on that one.
With top-20 day in Open the objective is to determine the top five pilots that will move on to tomorrow’s top-5 finals. In Advanced, the objective is to determine the National Advanced champion of this year. Open and Advanced get to fly two flights total. One flight in front of one set of judges and another flight in front of the other set of judges. These flights are then added together to determine the top five and the winner. This is probably the hardest day of the week since there are no throwaway flights. The two previous days, you could at least try again if you messed up or had a mechanical issue. On top-5 day, a pilot’s top two-of-three scores are added together to determine the winner. But today, you need to put up two really good scores, or you won't be winning or moving on.
Unfortunately, we did have one mishap. Joel Constantino lost his plane during his first flight in Advanced. Other than that, things seemed to be running smoothly. At the end of the day, the top 5 pilots in open are Orestes Hernandez, David Fitzgerald, Paul Walker, Derek Barry, and Doug Moon. The top score was 1172.5 and fifth place was 1150. This is over two separate flights, so the margins between contestants are very, very small per flight.
On the Advanced side, Jake Moon, the nephew of Doug Moon, who is in the top five, son of Steve Moon, who came in 15th in Open and also lives in Singapore, won the National Advanced championship. This was a well-deserved win. Jake is an up-and-comer in a family of champions. After the win, he got the traditional surprise ice water bath! This is a tradition that started many years ago.
Tomorrow is what this week is really about, to crown this year’s National Champion in Open class. This pilot will be considered the best flier in the country for this year. In this year’s top five, we have three people, each of whom have won this contest many times before. All three are world champs, including the current world champ. The other two are hungry for their first win. Nobody will give up or back down without fight. I expect it to be a real knock-down, drag-out fight tomorrow, once the fliers step into the middle of the circle and fly their flights. However, outside the circle, they all remain good friends. That is the way is always should be.
