AMA Slow Rat Race winners (L to R), Chuck Barnes Sr. and Chuck Barnes Jr. – bronze, Bob Oge – silver, Bill Bischoff and Mike Greb – gold.
Welcome back Control Line Racing fans. This morning started out in perfect weather with AMA event 312 Slow Rat racing. We had four teams this year which made for two heats.
Jeff Gitchel is at the starter motor while James VanSant holds his father, Glen’s, A Speed plane, ready to launch it for a 182.75 mph run.
On Tuesday, the third day of Control Line Speed, we flew three events, A Speed, FAI/F2A peed and Fox 35 Stunt Speed. There were five contestants in A Speed and F2A Speed, and there were 13 planes entered in Fox 35 Speed.
As the sun comes up, here is the line up for early morning practice.
Contestants were greeted by clear skies, light winds and cool temperatures. Sunscreen was one of the words of the day. In the past few days, you could get away with not much sunscreen. Today was just the opposite. It probably was a good idea to reapply it every couple of hours or so, just to make sure.
A quick start to day 2-of-2, the final day of 426 Super Sport Quickie 500. Jacob Raquet gets the jump on pushing pilot Matthew Fehling’s Q500 plane off the line.
Day 2-of-2 for the 2026 AMA Nationals for 426 Super Sport Quickie 500 is in the books and a national champion has been crowned. In between, there was plenty of action on the course.
Alex Dementiev, Max Sim, Bob Mears, Rylan Ritch, Mason Willcox, and Dave Fischer.
Saturday started off with F2D combat. It was incredibly hot! There were twenty entries, consisting of most of the finest pilots flying in the USA. We flew a triple-elimination event and had a huge amount of fun despite the heat.
I know there have been plenty of knockdown, drag out, blood-for-blood battles in RC pylon racing, and I’ve been in this for over ten years now. But by far, the closest, hardest-fought, toughest battle I’ve ever witnessed unfolded today in round 4.
The Canadian-designed "Streaker V" model swept the top 3 podium places this time out.
AMA Class I Mouse Race is arguably the simplest of all the book racing events. Only reed-valve .049 engines are allowed and all contestants used versions of the Cox Black Widow .049. There are no engine restrictions.
The Saturday before the Navy Carrier events were scheduled to start, the gentleman that was scheduled to be the event director had a family emergency that prevented him from attending the 2026 AMA Nationals
Paul Walkers amazing B-17 is the talk of the town. It has four electric motors.
Today we had no official flying. Instead, today was a practice day during the morning and evening while the afternoon had the appearance point scoring as the pilots’ meeting.