RC Helicopter

By Mike Unger

Well, it's the beginning of August and that means it's Heli Nats time again. 

With COVID turning everything upside down last year, it is nice to have a more normal Nats competition this year. 

The 2020 Outdoor Nats took place July 12-August 5 at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana. Although the pandemic made for an interesting and complicated year, several events still took place safely, allowing competitors and AMA members to continue to enjoy our hobby.

We have created a photo gallery for this year's event. Please feel free to like, share, download, and print a few!

By Mike Unger Tuesday: Day 2 and the final day of the Heli Nats is now in the books. We arrived at the field to low cloud cover and cooler temps than expected, so we delayed the start of the final rounds of competition a few hours. This gave everyone time to charge batteries, tweak helicopter settings, and mentally prepare for the final three competition flights of the 2020 Nats. Once the clouds burned off, we started with F3C flying the F schedule. The F schedule is not only another set of maneuvers to learn, but it is also more difficult than the P schedule.

By Mike Unger

Well its finally that time of the year again: the 2020 Helicopter Nats! If you are like me, given everything that is going on in the world, I never expected to be writing about Nats this year, but here we are …

AMA looks forward to hosting a fun and safe Nats this year at the International Aeromodeling Center (IAC)! Today, we have new developments to announce for Nats 2020. 

After careful deliberation, the AMA Executive Council has agreed to not cancel the 2020 Outdoor Nats. This decision is aligned with state and federal guidelines for events concerning COVID-19.

The 2020 AMA Nats will take place to the extent that individual Nats organizers plan and conduct their respective events. Additional safety measures will be in place to protect our members, staff, and community. Nats participants and visitors to the International Aeromdeling Center will have limited access to AMA facilities and should anticipate a scaled-back Nats experience.

The 2019 RC Helicopter Nats were held July 21-23 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 Helicopter edition.

NatsNews: 2019 RC Helicopter

By Mike Unger (mike97unger@yahoo.com)

The final day of the RC Helicopter Nats brought mild temperatures and blue skies—a huge contrast to the previous two days of rain and scorching temps.

By Mike Unger (mike97unger@yahoo.com)

Day 2 of the RC Helicopter Nats finished without any issues … well I guess I can’t say that. The weather made things fun.

After a heat index approaching 100° on Sunday, pilots were greeted in the morning with 60° temperatures and scattered showers on Monday. Sam Corlett, the guy from Texas who was commenting that the hot weather on Sunday was comfortable, wore insulated coveralls all day Monday. Like they say, if you don’t like the weather in Muncie, just wait, it will change.