By Stan Alexander (onawing4602@att.net)
For the last few years, we have had the pleasure of flying off of Site 4 at the very back of the AMA property, in Muncie, Indiana, at the national flying site. This not only allows the RC site a great grass field to fly from, but provides enough room to include the CL Scale Nats division at the same time on the other side of the property.
The grass runway at Site 4 is one of the best I’ve seen, and with the AMA grounds crew, it continues to improve each year. If you have a conventional-gear aircraft, taking off and landing on the grass is a huge benefit.
This year’s banquet ticket is included with your entry fee. The meal will be catered, with Allen Goff taking care of all of the prep work. We expect a great banquet on Saturday night, where we will induct several members into the NASA RC and CL Hall of Fame. It should be a fantastic evening for everyone, including the families and friends of the inductees.
If you’ve never flown in competition, it’s pretty easy. You have to pick out five optional maneuvers and there are five required maneuvers. The required ones are takeoff, Figure Eight, straight flight, landing, and realism. The optional maneuvers should be something that your model would do as a full-scale aircraft, such as a fighter performing a military roll, and a J-3 Cub in a straight flight out procedure turn and a straight flight back (this combination counts as three maneuvers).
Practice is Thursday and Friday, with static judging on Friday—happening at the field. We usually have a Friday night pizza party at the field provided by Barbee Concrete and Mike Barbee, NASA’s president. Saturday is the official start of the flight competition for all classes in CL and RC Scale.
Saturday night we have a very special banquet planned. This will include a cash bar, which should open approximately 6:30 p.m., seating will be at roughly 6:50 p.m., and a chef-prepared dinner will start after that. The hall of fame inductions will be filmed and, from what I’ve been told, the videos will be available approximately a week later. Also that night, all of the high-static awards will be handed out and sponsors will be recognized.
Sunday will be the final two rounds of flight competition and the final results will be posted for everyone.
While you are at the Nats, be sure to check out the National Model Aviation Museum and AMA Plans Service, which has more than 14,000 sets of plans on file. Ask to see Greg Prater and he can either enlarge plans or reduce them depending on what you need. AMA has acquired all of the plans from Model Builder magazine and several other magazines.
There are a lot of us camping on-site, either at Site 3 or Site 4, so check out the competition and stay awhile too! Enjoy!
Dale Arvin, longtime Scale competitor and administrator, bringing his J-3 Cub in for a landing. It was built from a Balsa USA kit.
Frank Noll with his Bob Violett Models F-16 with smoke on!
Al Kretz’s Ju 87 Stuka built from Nick Ziroli Plans makes a low pass in Expert class.
A World War I Eindecker E-III looks at home on the smooooth grass runway.
Jeremy Arvin brings in his F4U Corsair for another landing in the Fun Scale class.
Jeff Pike’s Top Flite Cessna 310 on a landing. Take a look at those tip tanks!
Jack Buckley with his two entries at the 2018 Nats, along with his 1/3-scale Tiger Moth, his scratch-built Mini Max, and an electric fun model.
Al Kretz and his wife, Carol, putting in another flight at the 2018 Nats.
Winners in Team Scale (again) were Mike Barbee and Frank Noll with a big Beech twin.
The winner in Fun Scale Open was Dan Landis with his Top Flite P-40, which is well detailed.
Event Director Carl Handley awards the first-place plaque for Fun Scale Open to Dan Landis for his P-40.
The T-28 US Navy trainer, which is a foam ARF by Horizon Hobby, was entered in Fun Scale.
A rare, radial-powered J-3 Cub built from a Sig 1/4-scale kit.
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