Neal Menanno (L) and Rocco Ferrario with Vintage FAI Power models.
By Don DeLoach
Very light breezes out of the east greeted competitors on day two of the 2025 AMA Outdoor Free Flight Nats. Easterly drift meant we could keep the same flight as Monday…yay! Every little bit of energy saved on moving flight lines can be used on actual flying.
Drift was under 5 mph the first third of the flying day. This was helpful, given the wind direction–the shortest chase distance on the field East-West. By 11 am, the time of my 4-minute Mulvihill flight, models were just barely staying on the field. By noon, the wind had increased to 5-8 mph, and most flights over 3 minutes were over the beans to the west in 3-4 minutes, and waaaay off the field in the corn past Cecil Road on 4 minutes-plus.
Regardless, this is the Nats, so flyers persevered. The Nats is the one contest you can count on for TOP-level competition, which is what most free flighters truly crave. There is nothing more satisfying than trying your hardest with your best models, one week a year.
Speaking of Mulvihill, George Dalecki won the grand 1923 Bernard Mulvihill Trophy this year, earning his place in history. He was the only competitor to max the second (6-minute) flyoff flight. This writer earned second with a 5:25 on the 6-minute max. I was 35 seconds short due to an agonizing decision to press the RDT button early–as it turned out more than half a minute early. Oh well, I’ll try again next year.
C Gas was a great battle as usual with seven top names slugging it out. Gerald Brown came out on top with six maxes (750 sec). At least one competitor–I believe it was Denny Dock–also short DTed himself in C. Nats can be heartbreaking.
F1Q had three top flyers–Bob Sifleet, Aram Schlosberg, and Dave Sechrist. Only Sechrist and Schlosberg maxed out (flyoff results TBD). Sifleet missed the max-out by an agonizing 3 seconds.
Tuesday was day two of two at the Rise Off Water (ROW) ponds. There were four flyers in ROW Gas and 6 in ROW Rubber. The Gas winner was Dan Berry with 337 and the Rubber winner was Hope Finn with 207. It is hard to believe, but the ROW events seem to be gaining popularity after decades of apathy.
A Nos was as popular as ever with 11 flyers. Tom Bell of Houston won with 1084 seconds.
One-Design Combo keeps hanging on in popularity. Scot Lapraik won it with 632 seconds.
The most popular event of the day was Old Time Catapult, with 17 flyers. Of those, three were youth. The results were: me in first place with 303, Rocco Ferrario with 241, and Billy Batkins with 211. Oliver Dillon, the top youth (Junior), had 172.
A final event of note was E-20. This was the first year the event was held during the daytime as a regular Nats event, instead of a mass launch. Paul Bradley was first with 460, followed by his brother, Ralph Bradley, with 440, and Stan Buddenbohm with 372.
My daughter, Skilly, has arrived and will resume reporting duties for Wednesday’s flying. See you on site bright and early!
