August 6, 2024: CL Precision Aerobatics

By Matt Neumann

As a new day breaks and the rooster crows, the sun starts to illuminate the words on the history page of August 6 at the 2024 AMA Control Line (CL) Precision Aerobatics Nats.

The early birds who got there at daybreak to try and get in a warmup flight before the official flights start at 8 a.m. were greeted by clear skies and warm temperatures. One of the guys said we were the “yawn patrol” since we got there so early. Another way of putting it is that we all could use some caffeine! The “weather guessers,” as I like to call them, were predicting a hot one. They got that right in more ways than one. Not only were the temperatures hot but the flying was, too. The winds started out nicely and stayed okay through mid-morning. Then, they started to increase, and by noon they were a bit nasty.

Today, August 6, is the first day of qualifications for Top 20 day, which will be held on Thursday. As mentioned earlier this week, the contestants were divided into four groups in their respective classes, Open and Advanced. This was a seeding process to hopefully spread out the top fliers evenly among the four groups. The object of today is to get into the top five of your respective group. You want to do that both today and tomorrow. Each of the four top five groups will then move on to Top 20 day on Thursday.

Flying started at 8 a.m. sharp. With a hot one predicted, we all wanted to get through this as quickly and professionally as possible before getting back to the air conditioning. We had added urgency due to a prediction that the winds would be picking up as the day progressed.

The first round of flights went fairly well. The wind stayed low for the most part during the entire round. There was a little bit at 9:30 a.m., but it was nothing but a slight annoyance. It pretty much stayed that way throughout the entire first round of flights. However, shortly after that, things started to really pick up. It got to the point that some of the chairs were starting to get knocked over due to the wind. So, it was starting to get a bit dicey.

Unfortunately, we did lose one airplane today. Richard Huff was trying to improve upon his first score with his second flight when he lost his airplane in one of the maneuvers. The wind came up and caught him just right, causing the lines to go slack, resulting in the loss of control. Our airplanes use a pull-pull system for control to the airplane. If you lose tension on the lines, you lose control of the airplane.

This is what happened to Richard. When the lines went slack, he was unable to recover, and the airplane went straight into the new asphalt under full power. This resulted in a pile of lots of little pieces and the very loud sound of an airplane hitting the pavement. This is a one-of-a-kind sound that you never forget once you hear it. It is also a sound that no pilot wants to hear. This was a really nice airplane. It had a very unique feature; the electric motors tilted up and down with the controls, resulting in vectored thrust. This was achieved by some homemade linkages made from carbon fiber. I hope that Richard develops this idea more in the future, because I really would like to see what he comes up with for a successor.

In the end, many of the pilots actually decided to pass on their second flight. I was one of them. Those that passed are the ones that are currently well in the top five of their group. We look at who is behind us and see how many points there are between us and them. With the deteriorating conditions, it was almost impossible to improve your score anyway, so why risk the airplane if you did not have to. It was better to run away today and fly again another day … and that day is tomorrow!

We are having a big cold front coming through tonight. This is what is bringing the winds. Unfortunately, it might still be passing through in the morning, making flying a bit tricky. But as I like to say, the weather guys are actually weather guessers, in my opinion. So, I try not to dwell on that too much. I would lose sleep if I did.

So, with the high winds tonight, nobody is going out to practice. We are all eating supper, catching up on each other’s lives, and doing a lot of hangar flying with friends and family. After all, that is what this hobby is really about—friends and family.

As the sun sets on another day, the words of this page in history have now been written. Tomorrow, the rooster will crow again, the sun will come up, the “yawn patrol” will arrive, and the words for August 7 will start to appear.

Note from AMA: Do you have photos from the Nats that you’d like to share? If so, email them to Clarissa Poston at clarissap@modelaircraft.org. Please include a brief description in your email, naming any individuals pictured in the photo(s), the name of the event that the photo(s) were taken during, and the name of the individual who took the photo(s). Your submission(s) might be posted on AMA’s Flickr page, which can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/modelaircraft/albums!