Words Of Wisdom by Randy Spencer

For many people the ultimate goal in learning a new task, whether in your job or in your hobby, is to be better than the next person and to reach the pinnacle of success. This success can be in the form of more pay, plaques for your alls, winning the Nats or the World Championships.
How do you reach this level of success? For me, success has been the result of two specific actions. The first, and probably most important thing that I could pass along, is PRACTICE. As with any sport, hobby or task the more you perform the better you get. Fly your model as much as you can. Fly it in the calm mornings, the sunny afternoons, the cloudy, windy days. Get to know your model and what it will do given different flying conditions. There is no substitute for "stick time". If you know the performance envelope of your model, you will be able to make it perform better than others with "super ship" who do not have the same familiarity with their models as you do. I have seen people with Paragons beat people with Falcons simply because they flew nothing but the Paragon, and they flew it all the time.
The second thing I have found to be important to me is to try and do the best that you can on each flight you make. Always strive for the best performance possible from your model and yourself. I found when I tried to "beat" another pilot in a contest, I really ended up hurting myself. I would concentrate so intently on what he was doing I got out of synch with myself and my model. Use the other pilots as guides. Where do they go? What do they do with the conditions they are in? Where is, or isn't, the air? Let them indicate but not dominate your decision making. Use your own skills to attack the task, not the other pilot. When the task becomes the focus of your flight, you end up flying against the conditions. If you have been practicing as much as you can, you should be able to master the task and be successful in the contest. -- Randy Spencer