NatsNews

By Jim Quinn

AMA has published the “official” dates for this year’s Nats. The real question, however, is when did the Nats begin for the pilots?

Yes, they had to register before the deadline, they made transportation and living arrangements, they coordinated with friends, and many other things.

Many traffic delays caused my arrival at AMA’s IAC to be much later than was the plan. On arrival, the sun was setting, but that didn’t stop pilots from one extra trim flight. Bryan Hebert was flying his biplane on Site 3. Check out the setting sun.

By Rob Romash

By Gary Freeman Jr.

On Friday, we woke up to cloudy and windy skies. It was decided to wait until 9 a.m. and see what the weather was going to do. It did start to break up slightly, and we were able to finish up the last two qualifying rounds and a 5-round final.

By Matt Neumann

Well, Wednesday I left off with the statement that Thursday could be a very interesting day. It was!

Contestants were again greeted with cool temperatures and some wind. The temperatures were a little warmer than what we have been greeted with from the past two days, but light jackets were the norm to start out with. The temperatures increased throughout the day, along with the wind and the competition.

By Warren Gregory

Thursday was the final day of Control Line Speed.

Perkys everwhere.

By Gary Freeman Jr.

422 started Thursday. This is the fastest class we fly at the nationals. The aircraft are semiscale Pylon Racers. They can do around 190 mph. There are lots of different options for aircraft and two motor selections. One is from Dub Jett and the other is a Nelson from Mike Langlois. Both engines are very competitive.

By Tim Stone

Two events were run Thursday, NCLRA Clown Race & Super Slow Rat/Fox Race (SSR) combined. Weather was again an issue as gusts up around 30 mph made racing very difficult. SSR is a “no shutoff” event, so it became a real chore for pilots to get planes landed, and in a good pitting position.

Photos by Rachelle Haughn

Speed Combat took place Thursday afternoon at Control Line (CL) Combat. The strong wind made for some interesting flights on the final day of the CL Combat contest.

Mike Evans prepares to fly.

By Gary Freeman Jr.

Pylon had two more rounds of qualifying on Wednesday, and as I previously mentioned, lots of things changed as far as who made it in. Dennis Cranfil came out with a mission and won both of his heats and made it in. The top 22 made it in, along with the wild cards, 23rd (Ray Brown) and fast time (AJ Hemken).

Sorry but I have to be a proud dad one more time and mention that Brody did an amazing job for his first 426 competition at a Nationals. He finished up with a personal best time of 1:17.

By Matt Neumann

Wednesday turned out to be a very interesting day. The normal chain of events is that all of the contestants are seeded into four groups. Wednesday and Thursday we each fly two flights in front of the judges. We then take the best score from Wednesday and the best score from Thursday and add them together to see who the top five are from each group. Friday, we then would combine all of the groups to form the top 20. We then fly two flights and add them together to determine the top five. Saturday we would then have the top five flyoff.