NatsNews

Whether fighting demons in the air, spectating, or simply having a good time, the three days at the Indoor Free Flight Nats are always special. For me, memories are made here, and the 2025 Nats at the ETSU dome in Johnson City was no different.

The 2025 Indoor Free Flight Nats is in the books. The participants are in the process of returning home with new memories and plans for what to build before next year’s contest.

The third and final day of the 2025 Indoor Free Flight Nats saw a change in the outside weather. The morning was a bit cooler and a light rain had settled in. Opinions were mixed around the dome as to how the change in conditions would impact the buoyancy of the air and drift patterns inside the building.

The morning of the second day of the 2025 Indoor Free Flight Nats competition featured several popular events. Limited Pennyplane saw the largest participation of any of the events so far, with 16 entries.

The first day of the 2025 Indoor Free Flight Nats opened with glider events being flown from 8am to 11am. There was a flurry of activity during the three hour window that left Joshua Finn on top of Hand-Launched Glider and Don Slusarczyk in a close second.

The 2025 Indoor Free Flight Nats return to the East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Mini-Dome in Johnson City, Tennessee. Tony Italiano brought the Nats to ETSU in 1987. The venue’s stable air and relative proximity to much of the United States’ indoor flying population led to its popularity as a Nats site.

Again, that annoying rooster crowed, waking up the sun. Why does it always have to crow so early? So, now that the sun is starting to wake again, it is starting to illuminate the words on the history page for the August 8 Control Line (CL) Precision Aerobatics events.

By Melvin Schuette

Thursday was the third and final day for the Control Line (CL) Navy Carrier events at the 2024 AMA Nats. Today was a little disappointing. Even though we had people who had entered the unofficial events, a number of them, for one reason or another, chose not to compete. In a couple of cases, the entrant only managed an attempt and did not receive a score, so they were not eligible for a trophy.

By Tim DiPeri

The 2024 AMA RC Helicopter Nats and US F3C & F3N World Team Selections have concluded. In addition, Sportsman, Expert, and three different categories of Scale have also concluded. With a single flightline and about 150 “competition” flights in front of judges, all involved needed to be on top of it all.