Richard Burnoski (Pilot)
Richard (52 yrs old),
wife Debbi married 33 years raised 3 kids and 9 grand-children followed. For
work he and Debbi operate their Roofing/Construction business in the western
suburbs of Chicago and live in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Richard participated in all but one F3B team
selection process missing only the 1976, (was attending college/getting
married), and flying in all the F3J team selects.
Richard loves soaring
because of its pureness in flying sailplanes with mother nature. There are no
two flights the same. The challenge in each flight is to find one of those ghostly
thermals and ride it out for a full flight time, and of course nail the landing.
Being a senior pilot on
last years’ USA Team that competed in Turkey taught Richard a lot. The team
work that had incurred by everyone on the team as well as the team supporters
that were present was simply amazing. Everyone was helping on repairs and
rebuilds on the field. Then encountering off the field personal team needs, (like
eating), when traveling to a far away country
to compete has left a lasting memory what a USA
“TEAM “ is all about.
Richard looks forward to the USA Soaring Team
trip to France. The new Team of Daryl Perkins, Cody Remmington and Richard have
been communicating a lot and sharing what they each need to do in flight and
landing performance to have good things happen. All three have worked together
at many events and have found a comfort level of confidence. Richard also adds
that with Mike Versuh acting as Senior team manager, the USA soaring team
brings loads of experience to France next year.
Daryl Perkins (Pilot)
Daryl is a 48 year old professional now living in Lake
Havasu City, AZ. He is Operations Manager for a successful medical
transportation company, Statewide Express.
 Daryl was born and raised in Southern California. He pretty
much loves anything with wings. He is an accomplished full scale pilot,
accumulating over 2300 hours and his multi-engine instrument rating in just 8
short years. His interest for RC began at a very young age, when his father
would take him to some of the local power fields to watch the noisy, smelly
models go around in circles. He and his father would begin projects together,
but never completed one until finally, at the age of 23, Daryl built his first
model on his own – a Sig Riser 2M. It turns out it just wasn’t fast enough, as
Daryl blew it up on the slope. His quest for faster and faster models is never
ending.
Daryl has now been flying RC gliders for about 23 years. He entered into competitive soaring as a
successful slope racer winning multiple Hans Weiss Memorial trophies, and the International
Slope Race. He is probably best known for his successes in F3B, where he is a 4
time World Champion – ’95, ’97, ’99, ’01. Don’t let his love of speed fool you, Daryl
has had great success in thermal duration soaring as well. He is a multiple time Unlimited Class and 2
Meter National Champion, 5 time Visalia Fall Fest Champion, and multiple
Southwest Classic title holder. Other victories include twice winning the
International Hand Launch Glider Festival, multiple Rose Bowl Soaring Festival
titles, National F3B and F3J championships, National Hand Launch champion,
Spring Fling winner – just to name a few.
This is Daryl’s 9th time representing the United States
as a Soaring Team member, but only his second time on the F3J team.
As he goes
after his 5th World Title, he plans on campaigning an I2 from
MapleLeaf design.
Cody Remington (Pilot)
Cody
Remington, 20, is a student at the University
of Colorado in Boulder. He is currently studying business
management, and plans to get a minor in private piloting.
Since
he can remember Cody always wanted to fly. His earliest memories are of him
jumping off tables with plastic bags trying to fly. He took the first opportunity
he had to fly, when he was 12 years old, with a Zagi combat wing. Since then he
has started flying giant scale IMAC 3D, DS, F3J, TD, is working on getting his
full scale glider license, and private pilots license.
Cody
has been competing with RC sailplanes for 7 years. His first contest was 2003 US
F3J Team Selections after only 3 months of flying full house sailplanes. Although
he did not do well in that contest he knew he wanted to make the next US team.
In 2005 he made the US F3J Junior Team. That team went on to win the gold medal
in Slovakia,
and Cody went on to win the individual gold medal. This was the first time a
junior out side of German had won the Gold medal for either the team or the
individual medal. Cody has been on every US F3J team since he made the team in
2005. This year has been Cody’s most successful year. He placed first in the
South West Classic, first in F3J in the Rockies,
first in the US F3J Team Selections, and first in the RMSA contest series for
the second time in a row. He still sees many areas of improvement that he is
working on perfecting before the World Championships.
Cody
is training hard, and is very excited to help out the 2010 US F3J Team in their
pursuit of the Gold medal. He has worked with all of the current team members
in previous competitions, and he feels this is one of the strongest US teams that
has been put together. In the worlds he will be flying Jaro Muller’s new F3J
model the Eldorado, and will be using Airtronics new 2.4 radio system the
SD-10G with Airtronics 761 servos.
Mike Verzuh (Team Manager)
Mike lives and works in the Boulder Colorado
area. He and his wife Terry live in Berthoud,
Colorado. They have one son,
Keenan, two dogs and three horses, which keep them very busy. He is a Colorado native and
works at Ball Aerospace and Technologies. Mike heads up the Mission Assurance
Program Execution group at Ball. Ball provides a wide array of aerospace
imaging products all the way to complete satellite systems. One of Mike’s
proudest achievements at Ball was work on the Wide Field Camera III recently
installed by the STS-125 space shuttle crew on the Hubble Space Telescope. The
camera system provides the highest resolution images of our universe from space
or from earth to date. Mike’s passion for space and flight started at a very
young age.
As a young modeler Mike built many show models and then moved on to model
rocketry. He built and flew most Estes Model Rockets available at the time and
designed several custom rocket designs. Then he moved on to control line models
which he flew for many years. After several years away from model aircraft he
jumped back into sailplanes in 1995. In 1999 Mike joined Rocky Mountain Soaring
Association and was instantly hooked on competitive sailplanes.
Mike is a past President of Rocky Mountain Soaring
Association. He served the club for two years in that capacity and continues to
be at the fore front of club activities. The club is very focused on F3J. That
focus has kept Mike involved with F3J competition and WC team selection for the
last eight years. The love of competition and F3J has led Mike to again support
the US team, this time as the Team Manger.
Brendon Beardsley (Junior Pilot)
Brendon
Beardsley is a senior at Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Washington. He is an honor student with a college-bound
class load.His favorite subjects are engineering
drafting, calculus, and physics.
In
addition to flying models, Brendon is starting his private pilot training and
hopes to have his certificate before he is graduated. High school is a busy
time, and the weather in the Pacific Northwest isn’t conducive to flying
year-round. Still, Brendon makes time to practice soaring between the rain
drops and girl friends.
Brendon started flying radio controlled models when he was 4 years old, but has
been around model aviation since he was born. Brendon learned to fly models
with help from his dad and step dad, both of whom are active contest pilots in
the USA. Since his appearance at the 2008 F3J Worlds in Turkey, where he placed
second, his involvement in flying has increased. His abilities have improved alongside the
other two USA F3J juniors who share the same interest and soaring club; they often
practice with or against each other at the club field.
For the last several years Brendon has been in top form throughout the
Northwest contest soaring circuit. He has recently won several regional level
events, with year–end average scores of about 98% perfect in Expert Class. He’s
won or placed in expert class at many national events; including a third in
Denver at F3j in the Rockies, and his latest feat, a win at the Northwest
Soaring Society end-of-year tournament. As a member of the Seattle Area Soaring
Society, he flies hand-launch at the field where DLG was born. Brendon also flies
helicopters, large scale gliders, F5D-400 pylon racers, giant scale IMAC 3D
aerobatic aircraft, and is one of the local tow pilots for scale glider events.
Michael Knight (Junior Pilot)
Michael is a 16 year old kid that loves doing one thing. Spending as much of his dad’s money as he can!
Mikey grew up in Kirkland Washington and currently attends
Redmond High School
along with teammate Connor Laurel. This
junior team is unique, because Mikey’s two best friends, Brendon and Connor are
also on the team. Almost every weekend
and any day after school you can find him out at the field with is pickup truck
flying something with wings. Because his
two teammates are usually there too, every flight turns into a
competition.
Besides flying, Mikey just got his hands on a blue 1984
f150. It is turning out to be a bigger
project than he thought it would be but with the help of his dad Sherman (the
Sherman Knight that’s been around so long he almost invented soaring) they got
it running great. Several years ago,
after many years of hard work he achieved his black belt in martial arts. Martial arts didn’t just teach him how to beat
the crap out of bullies but it taught him patience and respect, two things that
have definitely helped him to become the pilot he is today.
Mikey has been flying since he was about 6 years old and
says he’ll never stop. TD has been his
favorite for the last 10 years with F3J fine-tuning his technique. He started stretching his piloting skills
with his new favorite type of flying, pylon racing, mostly because he can go as
fast as he wants. Lately he has really
been stepping up in local and regional contests such as, placing 1st
in the junior class in Visalia
and a score that placed him 15th out of 183 pilots in the Senior
class.
Michael traveled to Turkey as the alternate pilot for
the Worlds in 2008. After watching World
Championships in Turkey, Michael
can’t wait for his chance to compete in France in 2010. He is looking forward to attending his second
World Championship and seeing friends from around the world that he met in
2008.
Michael and his teammates are working hard (practice,
practice, practice) to bring home the GOLD.
Connor Laurel (Junior Pilot)
Connor Laurel is a 17-year-old student from Woodinville,
Washington. From birth Connor’s parents began fostering his interest in anything
that flies. Most kids got soccer balls, basketballs, or toy trucks to play
with. Connor’s toys were mostly
airplanes and he ended up with a lifelong passion for flight.
Born in Hawaii, Connor and his family moved to the Seattle
area when he was four years old. He is
currently a junior at Redmond High School and his favorite classes are math,
Spanish and chemistry.
Connor began flying model gliders with his Dad when he was 7
years old with a Skeeter hand launch plane, and by age 13 he began competing in
thermal duration contests. He has been
active in the Northwest contest soaring circuit for the last few years and has
done very well in both Unlimited and 2 Meter classes.He also enjoys flying electric pylon racers
and helicopters.
Connor is an Advanced Open Water scuba diver, with Enhanced
Air Nitrox training. He is an accomplished traveler, having visited over 22
countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He also loves alpine
skiing, playing classical guitar and just hanging out with friends.
All three of the US F3J Junior pilots this year are best
friends and have flown sailplanes together for many years. They work well
together as a team and are looking forward to taking some names in France next
year! These guys play a lot of Xbox Live
together and they’ve got their cooperative skills honed to a fine point.
This will be Connor’s first time attending the F3J World
Championships and he, Brendon and Mikey are training hard with dreams of
becoming the next F3J Junior World Champions! Connor will be flying the Jaro
Muller Espada RL and Kennedy Supras with the JR 12X, Airtronics SD-10G radios
and Airtronics servos.
Dave Beardsley (Junior Team Manager)
Dave
lives in Snohomish,
WA with his wife Veronica, and 3
sons, Brendon (17), Cameron (12), and Ethan (6). He is the manager of the
Surfacing and CAD support services group for Microsoft’s PC Entertainment and
Devices group. He also runs multiple business out of his home, including
photography, Engineering / CAD consulting, and Digital
Imaging.
Dave’s father instilled the fascination of flight at a
very young age. By the time he was in High School, he and his father were
creating designs and flying models regularly. Dave’s focus shifted to RC cars
for several years, then to RC boats, but came back to planes by the early 90’s.
Dave flew pattern planes in competition, then moved to slope racing gliders,
helicopters, IMAC, pylon racing, and aero-towing, but found his home in US
Thermal Duration contest flying, where he has remained very competitive at
national events for the last 15 years.
Being
selected as the 2010 Jr TM is an honor for Dave. For the last 3 years Dave’s
main focus has been on training and coaching the Jr pilots from the northwest
region of the US. Having flown weekly with all the
of the Jr pilots over the last 10 years, Dave is very familiar with the Jr.
Team’s flying style and skills. The entire US F3J Jr team comes from the same
club (SASS), due in large part to Dave’s coaching and guidance. Dave is also
supporting the team with general operations tasks including merchandising, and
procurement.
In
addition to RC Soaring, Dave plays soccer, enjoys bicycling on and off-road, and
is a private pilot. He flies his Cessna whenever he’s not flying toy
planes.
Phil Barnes (Tower)
Frankie Burnoski (Tower)
Rick Helgeson (Tower)
Dave Kalaman (Tower)
Chris Keller (Tower)
Fran's bio.
Barry Kennedy (Helper / Photographer)
Barry’s interest in sailplanes started with a Thermic 50 controlled
by a SN escapement and a single tube receiver back in the 60’s.
He joined the AMA and became a CD and now is on the Soaring Contest
Board representing District 8. Sailplanes have advanced rapidly
recently and so has his involvement with them. Barry’s company,
Kennedy Composites, is involved with development and marketing of
many state of the art sailplanes and accessories available to the
modeling world.
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