NatsNews

By Rick Pangell (themaxout@aol.com)

The morning started out with some “iffy” weather, and choosing a launch line for the F1 events was being debated. F1C and F1Q were sharing the same starting positions but the issue wasn’t that, it was the prevailing wind direction. F1H was on its own but piggybacked on the big model location. The first round was delayed until it got straightened out and a suitable place was found. The wind blew southwest to northeast, so much of the flying came from the southwest corner of the complex.

By Santiago Panzardi and Dan Kane

As the week heated up, the weather moved in. There were storms all around and rain soaked the field.

AMA 426 Super Sport Q-500 is spec class racing with only one approved engine. That is a Dub Jett Super Sport Quickee engine. There are many different airplanes available for this class, most being of the composite wing variety. The most popular design seems to be the Vortex built by Chuck Bridge, with the next being the R-200 made and sold by Randy Etken of Minnesota.

by Santiago Panzardi and Dan Kane Helsel did it again! Congrats! He is now two for two in winning the Nats. Two three-pole events are in the books and Mike has won them both. Stay tuned for what happened next. This year we had 34 entries in EF-1. This event falls under the unofficial event category, as it is not in the AMA rule book.

By Santiago Panzardi and Dan Kane

By Rick Pangell (themaxout@aol.com)

I guess that when you come to the Nats, there is a growing anticipation of energy in the crowd. Plus, it’s an excitement that comes from seeing all of the “usual suspects” of fellow fliers from last year. And then seeing the new fliers come into the ranks, and this is their first Nats and they make great showing.

By Tim Sparks

If you thought you had the “Right Stuff,” Muncie, Indiana, on July 13, 2019, was the place to be! We had great weather. It was hot but the racing was hotter.

Similar to the last couple of years, we started with some fun two-pole racing, which is a nice change from the hectic pace of the AMA three-pole events. Club 40 is a class that allows sport-type airplanes to race head to head on a two-pole course. The pilots fly out in front of themselves for 10 laps, normally against three other pilots.

The 2019 RC Combat Nats were held July 16-18 at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana. See all the highlights of this year’s event and final results with our NatsNews 2019 RC Combat edition.

NatsNews: 2019 RC Combat

The 2019 AMA Nats F3K Hand Launch Glider took place August 3-4 at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.

Photos by Matt Ruddick.

The 2019 AMA Nats Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) took place August 3-4 at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.

Photos by Matt Ruddick.

By Don DeLoach

The Free Flight Nationals are back August 5-9... for (can you believe it?) the 93rd running.

We will fly 71(!) events this week, plus several ad-hoc evening and morning “fun” events. There were about 145 preregistered fliers as of Sunday, August 4—an excellent turnout. The weather forecast looks very promising for the week with only a couple chances for rain in the middle of the week.