Here we go!

Hi folks and welcome!

Yes it's that time again! Pattern West iNews is set to travel to the 2012 Canadian Precision Aerobatic Nationals and F3A Team Trials at the Pine Ridge Flyers site in Ontario, Canada. CD Harry Ells performs double duties as not only CD of the event but as Canada's representative to the FAI F3A Precision Aerobatics Judging Panel.  Harry and his gang of hard working helpers will be host to many local and out of province flyers that will attend this years event. For our FAI flyers, this event is also the Canadian Team Trials used to selected the top three team members that will represent Canada at the 2013 FAI F3A World Championships in South Africa.  The FAI class is open to anyone but special application and qualification criteria must be met in order to enter the "Team Trials" portion.

The Team Trial events are usually run opposite the World Championships which, for those unfamiliar, go every two years. Many countries will be running their respective trials this summer in an effort to establish their teams and allow for proper planning and practice for those selected. It's a major deal for those trying out as the time commitment to practice and travel can be costly.... but the chance to represent your country on the world stage is the greatest reward you'll find in precision aerobatics.

We will see a change in participants as numerous former team members have stepped down to pursue other interests. Both Deszo Vaghy and Mark Byrne have left the RC scene and we have a new FAI pilot in Michi Akimoto from Victoria stepping in to try and fill the shoes of these top individuals.

Chad Northeast continues to dominate the FAI world in Canada and has shown strong improvement internationally with his second place finish at the 2011 US Nationals last year. He hopes to improve on that outcome in the months leading up to the 2013 Worlds event. Chad has been the top Canadian since I came into this hobby/sport and has a huge list of achievements including design work on aircraft and RC parts.

Chad's ZNLine Caelestia

Xavier Mouraux continues to push for a spot and will be ready this year with his Xigris airframes. Xavier has been involved in the Canadian team as both an alternate (2009) as well as helper/caller in Argentina (2007) and in Muncie at last years World Championships. Xavier enjoys taking pictures and has an extensive Picasa Web album with plenty of plane pictures.

Paul Hepworth is also in the mix but I know he has been very busy with a new house acquisition... hope he's been practicing :-)

I hope to have a list of all the precision aerobatic competitors as well as those competing in the trials in the next few days and will list them when I can. Please feel free to share this page with anyone interested. As well I will continue to grow this page with additional links and other interesting RC related items concerning this event. As I mentioned on the PWN site, I will be taking a more relaxed approach to this year's trials reporting and focus on the flying portion as a priority.