Soaring enthusiasts,

We need your help!!

As you are aware, Team USA F3F is preparing to make our journey across the pond to Germany for the first ever F3F World Championships. We are very excited and looking forward to a successful competition.

The team will consist of Kyle Paulson, Brandon Monte, Warren Day and Kyler Paulson who will be our junior representative. As we prepare, we are running a raffle to help raise funds for our trip. It is our hope that you can support the team with the purchase of raffle tickets and we certainly understand if you are unable as well. We hope you win big!

Airtronics and Soaring USA our sponsors have been kind enough to donate some product to help us raise funds. We are behind these 2 sponsors because they have believed in us as individuals and this is the best we know how to pay them back. We ask that because of their generosity in helping us get to we are, and there kind donation that you could in return send some business their way whenever possible. We would like to personally thank Airtronics and Soaring USA for their support and generosity! Thank you for believing in us!

We also want the soaring community to know we will be training hard and practicing not only in SoCal but also in NorCal to better prepare us for a variety of slopes and conditions we may see at the World Championships. It is our mission as a team to stand on the podium and make you our supporters and our sponsors proud to be a part of Team USA!


Please visit TeamUSAF3F.com to purchase tickets. Once again we appreciate your support of the Team and we look forward to a successful World Championship competition.

A special thank you to Gordon Buckland for helping us implement, design, and put all the wheels in motion for the team website. Thank you Gordon!

Team USA !!

PS-
We will be updating this thread with a list of great raffle prizes from our sponsors as we move forward.

Stay tuned for a list of great raffle prizes from our sponsor:



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Prize #1 donated by SoaringUSA.com is 2 MKS 6125 mini wing servos



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Prize #2 donated by SoaringUSA.com is a Hyperion LIFEPO4 1450 MAH 6.6V Receiver pack



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Prize #3 donated by SoaringUSA.com is a Sanyo 2000mah Eneloop AA Receiver pack



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Prize #4 donated by SoaringUSA.com is an Eagle Tree Systems Altitude Micro Sensor



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Prize #5 donated by SoaringUSA.com is 2 MKS 6125 mini wing servos



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Prize #6 donated by SoaringUsa.com is a high quality F3 wing bag Single Red



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Prize #7 donated by SoaringUSA.com is a Thunder Power 610C Balancing Charger

Stay tuned for a list of great raffle prizes from our sponsor:



Prize #1- donated by Airtronics:

SD-10G Transmitter



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Prize #2 - donated by Airtronics is a 2 pack of 94761 Digital Mini servos.



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Prize #3 - donated by Airtronics is a 2 pack of 94809 servos.



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Prize #4 - donated by Airtronics is a 2 pack of 94761 Digital Mini servos.



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Prize #5 - donated by Airtronics is a 2 pack of 94809 servos.

Reserved.......

Go Team USA!!!!

Cool pic's on the website.

Thanks guys,

Hope you get a lot of support for your efforts at the World Championships.

Bob

Raffle prizes updated....more to come.....

We thank you for your support!

Not a fund raising topic but I thought some of you might like to know what’s going on with our team and what we have planned......

July 7th we will be going to an F3F event up in NorCal. We would love to see a good turnout and see that F3F is thriving in NorCal... All are welcome! Please come and say hello even if you can’t race.

Click here for info: Thorton Beach F3F Race

Maybe we will see some of you there!

Kyle

Had a great practice today at Point Fermin. Then packed up and moved down the road to White Point. Conditions were really good at both locations. White Point is a great place to fly. Very tricky...easy to lose your energy. I am "starting" to get my F3F mojo back. I have not felt it for quite some time. Lots of training is the key. I need to be able to adapt instantly to location and conditions......and also very important....when I make a mistake, correct for it with "minimal" energy loss. Really excited for the WC. Working very hard!

Just put together a new wiring system for the buttons. Its allot more efficient. I can run the wires alone. No longer is it a 2 man job, one holding the spool while the other pulls the line.

So now this is my time saving set-up routine:

Leave one sighting devise and timing system at center course. Bring one sighting devise, wire on spool and buttons to one base. Setup sighting devise. Stick a nail in the ground for the small nail loop I now have in one end of the wire on the spool, plug that button in. Start walking back to the other base with the spool as it unrolls. (The nail through the loop will hold the line for you). When I get to center coarse both the A and B lines are tied together coming off the spool at the same time right on center coarse, which is where I allready put the battery, timing devise and the beep speaker. Don’t plug in yet. Continue walking the spool to the other base. Still your nail is holding the line for you because both lines are tied together, (no need for the extra person). Get to the other base and plug in your other button. Set up this sighting devise. Go back to center coarse. Plug in lines, connect battery and you are done!

The only part that takes the time is getting the coarse length correct but if you allready know your length like we do at Fermin.... it’s a snap!

I think if the coarse length is established, (like at Fermin) I can run wires and set up both bases in about 10-15min. Alone! At least I "think" I can. I have not timed myself yet.....ooooooh but I will!

Kyle

Brandon the pix you put up of our prizes look great dude!

K

More stuff being added soon!

Stay tuned...

B

In an effort to better my skills I am on a mission to fly as many "different" slopes as possible to better my skills before the WC. The idea is this; at the WC we will likely fly 3-5 rounds a day on slopes we may or may not have ever flew before. There are 5 slopes we will be flying in Germany. They will pick the best slope for the days forecast. So "getting use” to the slope for the first couple rounds of the day will only hurt my chances of scoring well. We must be able to show up to a slope that we have "never" flew before and execute a perfect run every time!

So.... I wanted to share with you what I did the last 4 days.....a true Flying Slope Safari with my son Kyler, our Jr. Team Pilot. The intension was to have the whole team but that did not work out.

We flew 5 different coastal slopes from Cayucos to Monterey Bay. It was AWSOME!!!!

Please don’t ask the "exact" locations because we were on a mission and would only fly each slope I found for about 15-20 min. Look at the slope, make a start plan, plan the turn style, launch and execute! Then off to the next slope. I did not take the time to record each location to give directions to each. Sorry! We were just so excited and ready for the next challenge.....and off to the next slope!

I will be going back very soon for more practice and will have better more accurate info next time.

Our original plan was to go more north to fly the Half Moon Bay area....Great slopes there too...but the forecast did not look good so we stayed more south...and scored big! Here are the pix! We did some site seeing also along the way. Our trip was incredible!

This was the first slope we found just north of Cayucos. The shot of Kyler flying puts the trip description in a nut shell. It was such an awesome time!

#2) Not going to talk about the secound slope we flew....... because I dont think we are suppose to fly there.....

#3) The 3rd Slope we flew was in San Simeon. Great slope, very technical and tricky because the "normal" wind direction corners. Nothing that’s not acceptable but it’s easy to lose your speed/energy with one wrong turn. LZ just like at Cayucos....perfect grass! Great slope for a race!

#4) Next slope North San Simeon....a vicious bowl with huge lift! The problem with this slope is you have to hope the fence that says don’t hop the fence! Also the landing is quite tricky! Not a good slope to have a race! But a freaking awesome slope to fly....if you like wearing diapers!

#5) Fort Ord in the Monterey Bay area. Getting to this slope was the challenge but once there it was very nice. Landing is a little tricky but manageable.

TONS OF FLYING! Yahooo! I’m worked!

But in between all that was sightseeing. Freaking awesome hikes and views in the San Simeon and Big Sur area! Crazy stuff you had to breathe in to really appreciate….but these pix will have to do! God I love being up there!

It’s amazing that my Iphone Camera took these shots. We hiked a lot, took pix and enjoyed our selves.

We even saw a California Condor! 10 foot wing span. The shadow when it flew by looked like a 747! No pix but on Sunday we saw a pack of 8 soaring at about 1000 feet or so over the Big Sur area. They are on the endangered species list but on the comeback in this area! Very cool!

Now for the bad news.... Kyler and I were up there for 4 days! On Saturday some folks came up to have a practice race with me and Kyler....it was the only day that the wind did not blow. It was the only day that Kyler and I did not sightsee and find new slopes. It was nice to be with my friends.....but man did it suck seeing them leave with a sour taste in their moths…..when Kyler and I could not make ourselves leave because of the awesome time we allready had hoping for one more day. Sunday was that day, and it was our best day....ironic isn’t it?

Sorry guys! I really hope you all give it another chance.