2024

What has a 2-meter wingspan, is 99% wood, and gets shot into the sky on a big rubber band? If you said a glockenspiel, you might be correct, as I have no idea what the specs are … of course, it's an F3RES sailplane!

There be winches here! The Quadfecta, a competition consisting of four classes of sailplanes, began at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, July 20, and flew through Sunday afternoon, July 21. The weather was perfect!

The AMA Outdoor Free Flight (FF) Nats have officially entered their centennial era, as 2024 marks the 101st AMA Nats. The attendance for this year’s Nats is significant, as 121 contestants have preregistered.

The final day of the AMA RC Scale Aerobatic (International Miniature Aerobatic Club [IMAC]) Nats in Muncie, Indiana, dawned gorgeous, with low winds and plenty of sunshine.

Charles Thomas, Contest Director Wally Adasczik, and Bob Burson setting up the winch lines Friday afternoon for the weekend’s Quadfecta competition.

By Mike Bergerson

The weather gods have granted mercy! What a beautiful day to fly gliders. There were quite a few flights made from the winch, and just as many were electric flights.

Day four of the AMA RC Scale Aerobatics (International Miniature Aerobatic Club [IMAC]) Nats greeted us with cooler temperatures in the mid-50s and steady wind gusts of 5-10 mph. The weather held steady, allowing for a full day of flying, and tomorrow's forecast looks promising as well.

We now have day two of the 2024 AMA Cross Country (XC) Soaring Nats firmly in the books. There were Explorers, Maxas, a couple of purpose-built XC Catalinas, and even an old House of Balsa “2T” Crunchie. Rick Bothell, of “Hands Free Retriever” fame, was out flying his 2T, AVA, and others as the day progressed.

Day two of the AMA RC Scale Aerobatics (International Miniature Aerobatic Club [IMAC]) Nats started with a low ceiling, delaying our flights until 1:30 p.m. While waiting for the skies to clear, pilots swapped stories and jokes, including a baffling tale about getting a negative score on a maneuver—say what?!

Everybody is on their weather app the day before Cross Country (XC) Soaring is scheduled to start. “It’s gonna be great” … “Nah, the weather’s gonna be lousy” … well, it’s the weather—you take what you can get! That’s what we did, and we made the best of it with tons of fun flying and swapping stories!