By Rachelle Haughn and NatsNews authors Photos as noted As seen in the November 2022 issue of Model Aviation.
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Indoor FF
By Don DeLoach The 96th AMA Nats got underway May 24, 2022, with Indoor FF. The flying site, the Round Valley Dome in Eagar/Springerville, is a large, domed stadium in a small town in far eastern Arizona. It is the only indoor high school football stadium in the US and is also used for gymnastics, track, and basketball. In the off-season, it hosts car shows, community events, and, yes, FF. The official height of the dome is slightly less than 100 feet, putting it just below the limit for an AMA Category III venue. The first Round Valley Nats was in 2019. The 2020 Nats was also scheduled for Round Valley, but fears of COVID-19 forced its cancellation. The Indoor Nats was held in Pontiac, Michigan, in 2021. Excitement is definitely at a high level for this Nats, which is run by the National Free Flight Society (NFFS). The flying runs five days, Tuesday through Saturday. There was a unique flying schedule this year. Each of the event classes, except for the mass launches, is permitted to be flown throughout multiple days. This meant that we didn’t receive final results until Friday night for the seven lightweight events (F1D, F1R, Cabin, Hand Launch Stick, Intermediate Stick, Helicopter, and Ornithopter). The other 31 events didn’t finish until Saturday. Wednesday, May 25, was the first full day of official flying. This day started with the arrival of a number of additional entries. The contestant count was up to 45. Quite a few wives, moms, and daughters came too. Kids (and parents) were building P-18s under the tutelage of NFFS volunteers. It was a swirl of meetups and quick setups, then on to flying.Image
David Aronstein launches his FAC Embryo Endurance model. The original design is called the Dewdrop. David won the event at the Indoor FF Nats. DeLoach photo.
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Three-year-old Paul Finn set an AMA Electric record of 3:55 enroute to winning the Hi-Point Junior Championship at the Indoor FF Nats. DeLoach photo. The color-block flying schedule meant that a flier could show up for only two or three of the five days of competition and still be able to fly all of the events on the schedule. I heard nothing but positive feedback about this change. The morning and midday of May 26 were filled with Rubber model flying of all shapes and sizes, from AMA hyperlight stuff to 1/2-ounce Scale aircraft. The Nunezes (Jonathan and his father, George) led the way in the Scale events. Each brought approximately a dozen museum-quality models. Rich Adams also had a table full of great Scale aircraft, as did Dave Wagner and several others. The Scale contest on Friday, May 27, included three mass launches. Thursday’s marquee happening was Ross Clements’ performance in AMA Cabin, one of the oldest and most challenging of Indoor events. He brought three new Cabin models to this Nats with the intent of capturing the Senior AMA record. He did so easily at least three times. His model was expertly built and flew like a dream. In the Glider events, Tim Batiuk found a strong piece of lift and paired it with a perfect launch to post a monster Hand Launch Glider flight of 1:17.9. This put him roughly 8 seconds ahead of second place going into the final day of competition. In Unlimited Catapult, Stan Buddenbohm still had a comfortable lead. In Standard Catapult, Stan was also leading but only barely. Tim was an agonizing 0.1 second behind. Four more National records fell on Friday! Guha Ekambaran did 14:57 in F1D Junior. Caleb Finn did 9-plus minutes in F1L Junior, plus he upped his F1R record to 10:37. And lest we forget about little 3-year-old Paul Finn, who made a record flight of 3:55 in Electric Junior.
RC Scale Aerobatics
By Amanda Darling The RC Scale Aerobatics (International Miniature Aircraft Club; IMAC) Nats 2022 began as a sunny day with mild wind and lots of practice. After a brief refresher on rules, safety, and judging criteria, pilots were given personalized stick airplanes with which to practice maneuvers. The first official day of competing was June 28. The IMAC Nats opened with 18 pilots striving for perfection and competing in Intermediate, Sportsman, Advanced, and Unlimited classes. The second day of the contest started with a round of Unknowns. It was a great round with plenty of amazing flights. Four rounds of Knowns were then flown. There were seven rounds of Known sequences and two rounds of Unknowns, finishing the day at 5:30 p.m., just in time to gather for an amazing shrimp boil. Day 3 promised a mild breeze and plenty of sunshine. Pilots later attended a banquet and fireworks show, presented by Nick Scharping, at sunset. Friday, July 1, was the final day of the contest. Freestyle was the last event and was it a show! The Bennett Cup went to Kurt Koelling, and Brian Christensen received the Schroder Cup. Gavin Woodruff took first place in the Sportsman class, Michael Marcellin topped the Advanced class, and Kurt bested Benjamin Batts to win the Unlimited class. Vincente "Vince" Bortone came out on top in the Intermediate class.Image
This pilot inside the cockpit of Ted Roman’s Aeronca Champ looks ready for takeoff. The aircraft is finished in dope and fabric and powered by a Kavan K50 engine. It was entered in the Open class. Alexander photo.
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RC Scale
By Stan Alexander The weather for the start of the RC Scale Nats looked promising. Although the ground at the Mike Barbee-NASA Site 4 was hard because of a lack of rain, pilots looked forward to getting some practice time in before the contest kicked off. As in previous years, all of the AMA RC Scale classes were offered. These included Sportsman, Expert, Open, and Designer classes. Back for the first time in a number of years was the FAI F4H class. A meeting about this class and the F4B Control Line (CL) Scale class was held during the Nats.The National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA) is raising money to send a Scale team to the 2024 FAI F4B/F4H World Championships for Scale Model Aircraft, set to take place in Romania. In F4H, John Buckley placed first and Mike Barbee finished second. Although the RC Scale Nats typically runs Friday through Sunday, on Saturday, Contest Director (CD) John Boyko got things started as early as possible because of predicted storms on Sunday. Some highlights included Tim Dickey’s Fairchild PT-23, Jack Buckley’s Mini Max, and Greg Hahn’s C-47. There was a tight race in the RC Fun Scale class, with Dan Landis eking out a win over Frank Noll by a difference of 0.125 points.Image
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CL Scale
By Fred Cronenwett The big change for this year’s CL Scale event was that Authentic Scale was replaced with F4B competition. F4B was held in preparation for the 2023 F4 Team Trials. Round one of the F4B flights was held on Friday. The new F4B rules, which were adopted in April 2022, allow 2.4 GHz to be used (except for the elevator). Before this change, F4B pilots had to find down-theline electronic controls. The new F4B rules will be officially posted in January 2023. The other big change for F4B was that model judging was done from 5 meters (16.4 feet). In F4B, Allen Goff took first place, while Peter Bauer finished second. In the past, the Nats had allotted one day for static judging and the next two days for flying. But, as in 2021, we were forced to get some of the flights in on Friday because of incoming weather. One round of AMA events and round one of the F4B flights were completed then more rain came in, so everyone packed quickly to get the models under cover. The goal was to get in the remaining flights on Saturday, knowing that the weather forecast for Sunday looked to be on the wet side.Image
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CL Precision Aerobatics
By Matt Neumann We came from all walks of life and traveled from Washington, Florida, New York, and California for the 2022 Nats. We even had some pilots from Canada and Poland. We came to forget our day-to-day worries and meet with friends so that we could share a common connection: model airplanes. In this event, a maximum of 645 points can be received per flight. Of those, a maximum of 20 points can be awarded for appearance. These can be important later because many positions are decided by less than a point, so the more appearance points, the better. The airplanes were set up in rows according to their awarded points. The pilots also voted on the Concours d’Elegance award. This year, congratulations went to Bob "Sparky" Storick for his absolutely gorgeous Minado. The main flying event is composed of two skill classes: Advanced and Open. This year, we had 18 Advanced fliers and 37 Open fliers. The contest appeared to be typical until The Twilight Zone appeared. The day started out normal. While putting in my early morning practice flight, I heard what sounding like wood being chewed up. After I landed, I found out that one of the strands of cable that made up the lines on another pilot’s aircraft was frayed. He asked his helper to flip the switch to off and bring the aircraft back to the pits, but the helper forgot to pull the arming plug. The motor inexplicably started! The airplane then moved forward with its propeller spinning and chewed up the model in front of him. The Twilight Zone continued. We had not one but two wings fold during a flight. And the story was still not over. Another contestant lost the outboard wing of his aircraft while in flight. In this case, the airplane kept flying with half a wing. We were still not done. One flier scraped the asphalt while in the middle of his outside loops, causing him to lose his airplane. This was the only case of pilot error. Saturday had an equally strange ending. Normally on Top 5 day, the top five contestants fly three flights and add their two best scores together to determine the winner. Well, that did not happen. The day started out nice enough, with a light breeze and cool temperatures. We even had cloud cover, so we did not have to look into the sun. That wound up to be the problem. We got one round in, and then the contestants started to get a static discharge in their hands while they were flying. A thunderstorm was approaching. With us waving 70-foot lightning rods around, a static charge can build up to the point that it will shock the pilot—and it did. Twice. Howard Rush, who was the first pilot in round two, and then David Fitzgerald, who flew second, got zapped, so all activities were halted until further notice. AMA later called the contest.Image
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CL Racing
By Tim Stone CL Racing started on Monday, July 18, after some brutal weather the day before. Rain flooded much of the area on Sunday, causing many to have to detour to even get to Muncie. The team race was run by TJ Vieira from the Dayton Buzzin’ Buzzards club. TJ won the Concours d’Elegance award with his fine-looking Good News model. Three teams were entered, so it was decided to just run a 140-lap final. Both TJ and Richard Kucejko had mechanical problems, leaving Bob Heywood and Bob Oge as the only team to complete 140 laps. Bob used an old BTR built by Bob Whitney with a Veco .29 engine that ran well. Mouse Race was run next, and 10 teams entered. Races were all run as three-up, 50-lap, back-to-back preliminaries. Paul Gibeault came in from Canada after the pandemic border restrictions were lifted. Mike Hazel flew for him. Paul turned a near-record 2:15 preliminary time with great airspeed and great pits. The final race was Paul, Bill Lee, and Melvin Schuette. Bill turned a 2:30 preliminary time, and Melvin a 2:45. A 100-lap final was run. The final placement was Paul and Mike in first with a 5:00 time. Melvin was second, with Bill Bischoff in a dead-stick situation for the last two laps, and Bill Lee was third. F2C only had two entries, so it was decided to just run a pair of leisurely 100-lap races. The team of Bill Lee and Patrick Hempel was the faster of the two. Two events were run on Tuesday, July 19: AMA Slow Rat and AMA Goodyear. Slow Rat was run first, knowing that this was going to be a 90°-plus day. All entries ran GO .25 engines, with the exception of Richard’s beautiful SH-powered Bearcat. The attrition rate was terrible, with three of the six teams that were entered not posting times. In round one, Bill Lee’s well-worn airplane suffered a glow plug clip hang-up on the engine head that sent both pilots running as the airplane’s wing went into the circle at 90°. In round two, Richard launched after a good start, sadly with a stuck elevator. His model looped and entangled Bob’s lines, but after three laps, pilot Chuck Barnes was able to shut it off, saving Bob’s airplane. It was a particularly good save and handled well. CL Racing ran a shortened schedule on Wednesday, July 20, because of weather conditions. The wind picked up early and continued through the morning, gusting to roughly 30 mph. We were able to get in Texas Quickie Rat, but Dallas Sport Goodyear was moved to Thursday morning. The weather calmed down on Thursday, and racing got off to an early start. Dallas Sport Goodyear was run first. Twelve teams entered—the highest turnout of all CL Racing events this year. In round one, Bob had some mechanical issues, and Patrick ran the second fastest (4:06.24). Mike Greb posted a decent time as well. After all of the preliminary races had run, contestants decided to stand on preliminary times with no 160-lap final because of pilot shortage and time constraints. Clown Race was run next with five teams and was followed by Super Slow Rat. Each contestant got two 100-lap races. The team of Bill Bischoff and Mike Greb won with a solid 5:20. All other teams were at least 24 seconds behind, and the week’s racing wear was beginning to show! A banquet was held in the evening, with Bill Lee winning the High Point award and Tim Stone winning the Sportsman award.Image
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RC Soaring
By Walter "Wally" Adasczik The 2022 RC Soaring Nats kicked off with Cross-Country Soaring at Monroe Central High School, near Parker City, Indiana. First off the field was Jeff Carr, who logged a 4.7-mile effort. John Marien was up next and threw down a .4-mile flight into squirrely winds. Ed Dumas stepped into a 2.5-mile effort. John was up again and fought his sailplane upwind for 1.5 miles before rekitting his platform into a zillion pieces. Jeff then took advantage of a good lift cycle and marched down the course for another 3.2 miles without a variometer. John assembled an Exploder 3 and worked his way down the north course for 1 mile. Up last was Ed at approximately 4:30 p.m. He wanted to go so badly, so he did. He made it to end of the driveway, where he worked for 30 minutes and racked up 40 feet! On day one of F3K, yours truly dropped his Surface Pro laptop. Mickey Nowell saved the day with the display boards, John Garber brought his laptop over, and Gil Gauger provided his PA system—well, almost. I still needed the Glider Score MDB file. Yeah … mayday. Minutes later, Micky Nowell saved the day again and loaded the voice files. On the upside, F3K got in all of the groups for round one. Reid Roberts, Jeff, and I colluded on ForeFlight and pulled the plug 30 minutes before the 60- to 90-mph wind rolled through. The wind blew so hard it literally ripped most of the tents on the field to shreds. A quick call to the Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) site determined that the damage there was much worse. Quite a few models took one for the team as some of the pilots waited a bit too long to start taking things apart. A visit there revealed that many pop-up frames were destroyed and port-a-potties had been tipped over. The weather forecast on day two of the F3K Nats was abysmal, and after meeting with the CD and support group, they chose to cancel. The F3K pilots decided to try to get in three rounds before the storm’s arrival. The good news was that F3K got in 10 rounds that day because the storm stayed just west of the field. Site 4 sits in a protected area of the AMA property, so the wind was not that bad. When the dust had settled, James Hohensee came in first, Eitan Rotbart came in second, and Ivan MacKenzie came in third. We had great support from Canada and people from the West Coast this year. I love Hand Launch because conditions play an integral part of the contest, whether it is all-up, last done, or Poker. The pilot skills are integral. If you wanted to see standing changes dependent upon a slight change in wind speed, F5J was the contest for you. The leaders took chances and paid for them dearly. Do I go high and play it safe or low and get a bunch of points? That is the beauty of F5J. Chances, chances, chances. Jon Garber later flew his Ultima 2 to victory. He showed them all how it was done. A few hundred points behind was Steven Wilcox, a new entrant to the League of Silent Flight (LSF) Nats. Slightly behind him was Jerry Shape in third place. What a great set of pilots flying a challenging schedule.Image
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CL Navy Carrier
By Melvin Schuette The AMA Nats is a time for people with a common interest to come together in friendly competition while renewing old friendships and making new ones. This year, however, the Navy Carrier events, started Tuesday, July 19, and, unfortunately, on a sad note. Longtime Navy Carrier competitor and volunteer Paul Kegal, from Fargo, North Dakota, had recently passed away. Paul will be greatly missed. There were a number of people who had pre-entered the Carrier events, but because of their own medical issues or those of a family member, or family obligations, they were unable to attend, including one who had volunteered to do the tabulating for the Carrier events. We wish everyone a speedy recovery and we hope to see them next year. Processing for the Navy Carrier events took place on Monday evening. Electric-powered models and glow-powered models in Profile Carrier events were flown on Tuesday. Both of the Profile Carrier events were divided into two different skill classes: Sportsman and Expert. Similar to the skill classes in CL Aerobatics, Sportsman Carrier allows beginners to compete against people of the same capabilities. On Wednesday, July 20, the Carrier Scale classes were flown. The difference between the Profile events and the Scale Carrier classes is that Profile only have to resemble an actual airplane that was intended to be used or was used on a carrier ship. In the Scale classes, the models must be plus or minus 5% of the actual outline of an aircraft that was intended to be used on or was used on a carrier ship. Let’s discuss what a difference a day makes in terms of the weather. Tuesday, however hot, was calm, making for almost perfect Navy Carrier event weather. Then there was Wednesday. The weather called for even hotter weather and the wind speed by noon was predicted to be roughly 17 mph. I think the wind at 9 a.m. had already reached the 17-mph mark. This made for some interesting low-speed flights. On Wednesday, Class I and II electric-powered Carrier models and Class I and II glow motor-powered models were also flown. In all classes of Carrier, you must signal for the low-speed portion of the flight. If you do not signal for low-speed flight, the flight is considered an attempt, you do not receive a score, and you are not eligible for a trophy in that class. The Navy Carrier Society (NCS), the Special Interest Group for CL Navy Carrier events, bestows the Eugene Ely award to the person with the highest combined score for either one of the electric or one of the glow-fuel-powered Profile, Class I, and Class II Carrier events. This year, the award was given to Pete Mazur. Pete now has a total of 20 of the silver-platter awards. The two hardest parts about flying Navy Carrier at the Nats and/or any contest is setting the deck up and figuring out where to put it, and packing it up at the end of the contest. If the events are held over multiple days, you hope the wind direction doesn’t change, causing the deck to be moved. Luckily, this year, the wind was from the same direction on all three days.Image
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RC Pylon Racing
By Dan Kane I had been in Muncie for the previous 14 days working at the 2022 FAI F3D/F3E World Championships for Pylon Racing Model Aircraft and I was ready to get some flying in for myself. On Sunday, July 17, we had AMA 424 (entry-level Quickie-500) scheduled for competition. The weather looked problematic. Model processing for AMA events 422 and Electric Formula 1 (EF1) were handled by Dean Stone and Ray Brown. Terry Frazer completed AMA 426 processing. CD Mike Condon runs a tight ship, and he and his crew set the bar during the World Championships. Tom Melshimer showed off his new lighting system. The plan was to use it during the Nats as well. Tom designed and built the new system with some major upgrades from former ones. Matrix duties were again managed by Chuck Andraka. It is always great to see all of the competitors arriving on-site and prepping their models for competition. We have competitors from across the US. COVID put a wrinkle to our plans during the last couple of years, but it was refreshing to see some familiar faces taking the time to make the trip to Muncie. Sunday, July 17, was scheduled to be the first official day of Pylon Racing. We were scheduled to fly AMA 424. The weather had other ideas. It rained most of the day, causing havoc with large pools of water throughout the site. At one point, we all simultaneously received a national weather service warning. On Monday, July 18, the plan was to fly both 424 and EF1 and shoot for six rounds of each, with the possibility of only getting five rounds of each in. The day started with some thick fog, and racing began as soon as the ceiling lifted enough to safely fly. We ended the day with a group gathering. We had 30 pilots in EF1 and 28 pilots in 424. Both classes were run in a single matrix with a breakout time to determine Standard and Expert. We had two Junior pilots and one Senior pilot competing as well. A variety of models and motors were used in the 424 Quickie-500 class. We recently opened up the rules to allow full-composite models to compete. The rules are the same for both variations, with the only difference being the construction method. Every year, the National Miniature Pylon Racing Association (NMPRA) hosts a banquet that allows the competitors to sit and enjoy stories and good food. It has been common practice to introduce the NMPRA Hall of Fame recipients at the banquet, and this year, Tom Scott was inducted into the NMPRA Hall of Fame. Tom was surprised by his daughter, Amanda, and his granddaughter, Ella, which made the presentation even more special. Tom’s never-say-no attitude and his ability to lead are some of the qualities that made the NMPRA Hall of Fame decision so easy. I am honored to call him a friend. Congratulations, Tom!Image
Outdoor FF
By Don DeLoach and Rick Pangell The Outdoor FF Nats were back on July 25-29 for—can you believe it?—the 96th running. Under the sponsorship and volunteer support of NFFS, pilots flew more than 70 official and unofficial events, plus several informal ad-hoc events. This year’s FF event director was Glenn "Doc" Schneider of Diablo, California. Glenn is the NFFS vice president for the western district and a seasoned Free Flighter with many years of experience. He assembled a large group of dedicated volunteers. NFFS Director Lisa Pacelli handled scorekeeping. Pat Murray and George Bredehoft directed the Flying Aces Club (FAC) portions on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Without these volunteers, there would be no Nats. The Nats is an experience. Much more than a model airplane contest, it’s a convention where like-minded people get together. It reminds me of the stories of the Pikes Peak Magnificent Mountain Men who get together every year to renew friendships and trade stories and experiences. Of course, this is not just a male experience—many women are right in there competing and winning. That’s the beauty of FF. Arriving on the field Sunday afternoon, all of the camaraderie sessions were in motion at the RV campground. Many fliers had rented RVs and had them there. A cookout was started by Dan Berry, using chicken parts (his words) and a cauldron of beans with all sorts of ingredients. The days before the contest did not bode well regarding weather. Some AMA tents had been blown down, but starting Monday morning, the weather gods smiled on us. Sure, the flightline moved as the drift changed, but in all, it was a gorgeous day for FF. Thermals were abundant, as well as models willing to take advantage of them. The fliers were no less eager, and the engines started roaring. Gerald Brown drew first blood and posted a Rubber flight! The board wasn’t populated for a while until the usual test-flying had been accomplished. The NFFS has obtained a new NFFS Nats headquarters trailer. Through the hard work of Patty Lorbiecki, aided by former NFFS president and Patty’s husband, John, the "new and improved" trailer was ready for its inaugural Nats. Tim Batiuk and others conducted a youth build on Sunday, and it was a huge success.Image
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