NatsNews

By William Drumm (midair72@hotmail.com)

Just as everyone was ready to fly the first round of Combat for the 2019 Nats on Tuesday, the sky opened up for a brief morning shower. Everyone did his or her best to get his or her gear covered up to prevent water damage.

After that little setback, RC Combat started out with Slow Survivable Combat (SSC). SSC is the most popular class RC Combat has to offer. Only having a .15 engine and an rpm limit reduces the speed and the severity of the crashes that are bound to happen.

Congratulations to James Gager (left) and Danny Kane (right) who were both inducted into the National Miniature Pylon Racing Association (NMPRA) Hall of Fame during the NMPRA Nats banquet Monday, July 15, 2019.

James, who has spent much of his life very active in model aviation wanted to give back to the hobby after receiving the award. He decided to make a very generous donation of $2,000 to the AMA Foundation and $500 to the NMPRA.

By Matt Neumann (mrstuka@cinergymetro.net)

Monday was the official start of Control Line Precision Aerobatics. It was officially about appearance point judging, and to have the pilots’ meeting. Unofficially, it was to meet and greet old acquaintances and to make new friends. To many, the latter is more important than the primary reason.

By Dick Perry (tailhooker@comcast.net)

By Tim Stone (stone-tim@sbcglobal.net)

Welcome to the 2019 CL Racing Nationals! I’m happy to be back to do the reporting after a few years off. Thanks to Melvin Schuette for his Nats reporting, as well as Brenda Schuette and their business, MBS Model Supply, that continues to be an invaluable source for specialty CL supplies.

This year’s racing schedule follows that of the last few Nationals. It’s reduced in time and has consolidated events to reflect the declining interest in CL Racing.

By Phil Cartier

The first day of the 2019 F2D Team Trials had plenty of interesting incidents. A total of 28 fliers registered and flew. It’s not a record number, but a good turnout, nonetheless.

About half of the matches had loads of very intense, close-quarters flying. Actually, there really were not many cuts. The pilots were so good at evading them that it was hard to run up a big score.

By Stan Alexander (onawing4602@att.net)

After a beautiful Saturday, Sunday dawned with cloudy skies and the threat of thunderstorms. We were out early scrambling to cover models under tents and pull sides down on canopies. The storms then sort of sideslipped the AMA site and we didn’t receive more than a few sprinkles.

Round 3 started around 8:30 a.m., and the conditions were great for flying competition. Several pilots put in their best flights of the weekend.

By Fred Cronenwett (clscale7@gmail.com)

The goal for the last day of flying was to get the airplanes that needed repairs flown or fly the models again to improve your scores from Saturday. There was a little bit of both going on Sunday.

By Stan Alexander (onawing4602@att.net)

Wow! What a perfect day! Yes, there was a little wind from the southwest, but everyone had a great time flying the first two rounds of competition Saturday in Designer Scale, Expert, Open class, Sportsman, and Open Fun Scale and Novice Fun Scale classes.

By Fred Cronenwett (clscale7@gmail.com)

The weather for the first day of flying was about as perfect as we could ask for. The temperature picked up later in the afternoon, but everyone was done flying by 1:30 p.m. before it got any hotter. Allen Goff gave new meaning to the term Dawn Patrol when he was one of the first pilots up with his Neiuport 17 World War I fighter. The flying started at 7 a.m. in both circles.