Bellhorn Family

Saturday was the first day of the US team tryouts. One of the events I wanted to compete in, S4 boost glider, was held in the morning. I decided the night before to skip it this year. I was just too far behind in building my gliders, and there were quite a few people competing for a spot on this team. One of the designs popular in this event is a swing/flop glider. This is a design I have not attempted before. They usually perform well in competitions, but I will probably stick with my current gliders using a fixed wing.


All members of the unofficial Team Texas attended the flyoffs. James Duffy and Tony Reynolds both competed in the scale and scale altitude events at the last World Championships. James is from the Austin area like myself, and Tony resides in Dallas. One difference was Tony did not enter a scale model this time. He did enter models in most of the other events. You can see him and his son George placing a rocket into a launch tower. I believe he performed well in the S6 streamer event, though he may be the alternate.


James only entered a scale model like myself. One of the unique rules for this tryout allowed a boilerplate model to be flown rather than our primary model. James simply used the Little Joe model he took to the World Championships for scale judging. He brought along a test version to perform the actual flights. The pictures shows his launch with a four motor cluster.