The 2020 Indoor Free Flight Nats has been canceled. The Outdoor Nats will be held July 12-August 5 at the International Aeromodeling Center, in Muncie, Indiana. You can learn more about the 2020 Nats at modelaircraft.org/nats. Don’t forget that if you’ve never attended the Nats, the $50 registration fee is waived for you this year. Watch for an announcement about registration soon!
In this first blog of the series, written by Rich Whitlow, learn how International Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC) pilots predict the ever-changing Muncie weather during the RC Scale Aerobatics Nats.
Weather Prediction
Every year, the enthusiasts of Scale Aerobatics (IMAC) come together and compete at the Nats to see who the year’s Top Dog is.
With all of the preparation, travel, and practice, it becomes very important that the IMAC event team running Nats pays special attention to the weather. The weather affects performance and scheduling, and if the schedule is not adjusted just right, it could affect the whole contest.
Although many of the SIGs depend on local weather meteorologists, weather sites on their phones, newspapers, and outdated methods such as that, IMAC likes to depend on the latest of technologies to ensure the contest is run in its most efficient manner.
After much study in technology and scouring the earth for the “latest and greatest” methods to predict the future of the weather system, foresee the fogs, prophesy the next rain shower, and foretell if Freestyle will be flown in the rain, IMAC has settled on its latest technology to give the pilots the information they need.
Let me introduce you to the weather rock. This nifty piece of technology is everything you need for weather prognostication at a contest. Some of the features built into this technology include:
- If the rock is wet, flying will be stopped due to rain.
- If you throw the rock and at the distance thrown, it becomes hard to see, flying is halted due to fog.
- Lastly, if the rock is dry … start up your engines!
As you can see, the IMAC team has invested in many of these rocks to make sure we have a redundant system, with zero down time!
Team-Building Skills
One of the new competitions introduced in the last couple of years, is the Team Speed engine swap.
This event has the criteria, that you must land in one round, swap the engine, and be ready for the next round without missing any competitive rounds.
To date, there is a tie in this ongoing competition. Team Clover Creek and Team Kam-Aero both have completed this gauntlet. Congratulations to these teams and we look forward to more action in the future!
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