August 8, 2024: CL Precision Aerobatics

By Matt Neumann

Again, that annoying rooster crowed, waking up the sun. Why does it always have to crow so early? So, now that the sun is starting to wake again, it is starting to illuminate the words on the history page for the August 8 Control Line (CL) Precision Aerobatics events.

Today is Top 20 semifinals day for the Open class and finals day for the Advanced class. Of all the days of the AMA Nats, today is the hardest. On all of the other days, the fliers have had a throwaway flight. They could take the top flight out of two flights, and so on. However, on Top 20 day and Advanced finals day, that is not the case. Both Advanced and Open classes fly two flights, and both of them count. The two flights are added together for the final score; there are no mulligans. So, it is again time to either do or scoreboard watch.

The goal for today in Open is to get into the top five for tomorrow’s final flights. There will be three flights flown, with the best two out of three counting. The goal for the Advanced class is to crown the National Advanced Class Champion.

Contestants were again greeted with cool temperatures and cloudy skies, and the “yawn patrol” arrived before 7 a.m. to set up. Again, fashionable sunglasses were traded in for jackets … which, later on, were again traded back in for sunglasses. However, unlike yesterday, the wind was almost ideal, even to the point of coming out of the sun. This let fliers fly away from the sun, making it much easier to see. Later on, the clouds completely disappeared, and the sun came out in full force. However, the wind still stayed coming out of the sun with just a mild breeze, so it was not much of a bother. And even with the sun coming out, it really was not turning into that hot of a day.

Yesterday, I mentioned that anything can happen, and today was no exception. We had two fatalities in Advanced before the contest began. Both were during the morning practice flights. One was due to a mechanical linkage failure during flight. In short, a bolt came out of the control linkage. Once this happened, there was no control of the airplane and down she went. Unfortunately, it was a total loss. It hit so hard and flat that it broke the electric motor mount off of the airplane, including the motor, and we found it across the ravine next to circle 1. The next one that I know of was due to an electrical issue. I believe it was related to the electronic speed control for the motor. This failed and resulted in a crash. The third issue happened during the contest itself. A contestant ran out of fuel during the last maneuver. The airplane was in a spot that was unrecoverable and crashed. So, the Advanced fliers did not have a good day.

In the end, however, a National Advanced Class Champion was crowned, and that flier was Rick Campbell. Congratulations to you, Rick!

On the Open side, where the main objective is to make the cut into the top five pilots for tomorrow’s finale, it was a really close one for a lot of positions. The competition was fierce. There were less than 15 points between 14th position and sixth position. This was out of just over 1,100 points total. That is a very small margin. Remember earlier when I said appearance points can really make a difference? Because each score is added together, the difference in appearance points doubles. So, say you have two fliers with a 2-point difference between them for appearance. Today, that is doubled because you add the two scores together. That is a 4-point swing. With scores this close, it can mean the difference between several positions.

We had no accidents or weird happenings in Open. Everything ran smoothly throughout the morning. We were actually done a little before noon. So, it was an easy day overall. In the end, the top five competitors for tomorrow are David Fitzgerald, Paul Walker, Orestes Hernandez, Todd Lee, and Derek Barry. Congratulations to you all. Their wins are well deserved.

However, tomorrow starts the last page of this year’s AMA CL Precision Aerobatics Nats. The scores of today mean nothing tomorrow. Anything can and will happen. The top five list is never a shoo-in for anybody. We will also have the Junior and Senior Champions crowned as well. So, while most of us are now scoreboard watching, the competition is just going to get hotter. What will happen? 

Well, as the sun sets on today's page, we will have to wait until the pesky rooster crows one more time to wake up the sun and illuminate the words on the final page of the 2024 CL Precision Aerobatics Nats. Better get some sleep. It is going to be a busy day tomorrow.

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!