After the 2012 world champs in Bulgaria, I thought that I would not go to Poland for the 2014 competition. We had moved to a new house the year before, so money was tight. My Newtron model did quite well in Bulgaria and I placed a creditable 38 th , but then I got to fly world champion Igor Burger's winning model just after his finals flights. I was absolutely blown away with just how easy it flew through the pattern and at the same time I realized just how far off my model's performance was, and in fact, have been for many years. Since that time, Igor explained how to fine tune and trim a control-line stunt model to perfection. This was done via e-mail so it was not the easiest thing to get right, but I started to feel such a good improvement in my model. Igor then invited my wife Bokkie and I to Slovakia and told me that I would then be able to warm up and practice with him for about 4 days or so before going on to Poland for the world champs. He had a spare flat for us to stay in while his son works in the USA, so this was an offer that we would never get again. I have done seven previous world champs since 1996 and I would be turning 64 in Poland. It gets tougher to fly well as you get older, so I reckoned that this one would be worth breaking my neck over. My governor timer system for C/L was doing really well so this would help with getting enough money to go. Nobody else for SA wanted to go to compete but Conrad Cloete from Cape Town decided to go as a supporter.
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