The first-place winners in the 2025 Nats are (L to R) Gabriel Alimov (Senior Class), Orestes Hernandez (Open Class), and Wesley Smith (Junior Class).
By Matthew Neumann
On Friday morning, the group was greeted with warm temperatures and light winds. So far this week, we have been very lucky in that when we were flying the weather cooperated. Today would be no different.
Today was the last day of competition, so we found out who our Nats champions are for 2025, not only in the Open class, but also the Senior and Junior classes. These classes are age classes and not skill classes. Open Class are those pilots over 18, while Senior is a little misleading in that the ages are between 14 and 18, while Junior is 13 and under.
The Open Class had been whittled down to the top 5 from all the week’s elimination rounds. In the Senior Class, we had two entrants, while the Junior Class had one. The way things go today is that each contestant has three flights. The top two scores are added together to determine the winner in their class.
First up for the day was Doug Moon. As the day progressed and the scores started to come in, we could see that there was going to be a dog fight for the top spot. In the end, there were only 9.5 points between the first and fourth places. This is with over 1170 points total over two flights! This was a typical top-five close one.
Orestes Hernandez came out on top for his sixth Nats championship win. Congrats to Orestes. I have to admit his corners were VERY sharp and precise…very impressive indeed. But there is more to the pattern than just corners. Size and shape make a big difference. He may have been off on size while others not as good in the corners may have been better in size making up for the lack of a little corner. It was a tough call for the judges.
On the Senior side of things, we had Gabriel Alimov and Angstrom Eberenz. As a side note, these two should be on basketball teams. Gabriel is the short one at 6 foot 2 inches, while Angstrom is just a “measly” 6 foot 8 inches…and these guys are teenagers! Between these two, Gabriel came out over Angstrom. Congrats to Gabriel for his Senior 2025 Nats win!
In the Junior Class, we only had one contestant. So, it was a given who would win that. Wesley Smith made another appearance and won the Junior Championship. He is only 10 years old. It was quite fun to watch him fly two-handed, even with a smaller plane, compared to earlier in the week. He can do the full pattern, but sometimes it gets a little interesting when the wind picks up. Even so, this is the future of our hobby and he got plenty of encouragement not only from his immediate family, but from everyone else. He had a great time and said he would like to come back next year. I hope he is able.
When the dust settled and we found out who the Open, Senior, and Junior champions were, we still had one more fly off. This was when the Open, Senior, and Junior champions flew against one another to determine who would win the Walker Cup. By this time in the later morning, the winds were starting to pick up. First up was the Senior champion Gabriel. He put in quite a good flight. He also has some very hard corners during his maneuvers. Oh to have a teenager's reflexes.
Next up was was the Junior champion, Wesley. His grandfather goes out to the center of the circle with him to tell him what maneuver to do next. He sits down on the ground next to him with his back to the judges. Wesley really had to hang on with two hands with the wind blowing. Because of his inexperience, the flight was a little hairy at times. There were a couple of times the plane got away from him and it started off towards the back of the circle. I thought a couple of times he was going to lose it completely and crash, but he made a couple of remarkable rescues. I noticed his grandfather did not turn around during those maneuvers. I heard him later say he did not want to look. But to Wesley’s credit, he saved the plane. At the end, he got a thunderous applause from the people watching and a big hug from Mom. Third up was Orestes, and he showed the crowd why he was crowned the Open Class champion with an excellent flight.
In the second round, all three flew again. Gabriel and Orestes did a great job in the wind but again Orestes came out on top. Wesley did fly again and did not have the heart stopping moments of the first flight. He actually did better than the first, but he was not going to come anywhere close. He again got a big round of applause from the group watching when he landed.
For the third and final round, the only pilot to fly again was Gabriel. He is a fierce competitor and even though he could not catch Orestes with his third flight, he flew anyway to try and get closer. At this point, since Orestes knew he had won, he opted to pass his third flight. Wesley also passed since he also did not have a chance, and to also make sure he came home with an airplane.
And with that, the 2025 Control Line Precision Aerobatic Nats has come to a close. Final pictures were taken and goodbyes said as everyone either went back to the motel to clean up and cool off to depart on Saturday or leave from there for home. It is always a bittersweet moment. We look back at all the fun we have had this past week and we all hate to say goodbye. Yet, time marches on and we must. Since time does march on, we know we will make every effort to be back next year for another great week of fun, not only flying model airplanes, but enjoying each other’s company.
