Outdoor FF Nats Day 3

By Rick Pangell

Rain, rain, go away …  The morning was at best described as raining. Loud thunder and rain put a damper (pun intended) on the start of flying. Stopping at a local restaurant for breakfast, stalling my arrival, didn’t stall the F1B or F1J fliers from getting to it.

FAI fliers are a hardy bunch. Seven fliers put in flights, and Alex Adriukov and Patrick Mackenzie remained tied with scores of 960 requiring a flyoff to be flown later. Faust Parker kept up his dominance of F1J over Bobby Hanford and Mike Fedor. Sadly, Mike crashed on his first flight.

The flightline was pretty vacant as folks stayed under their shelters, setting up their models and then stepping out to fly. But the rain slowed to a drizzle and ultimately to a mist which brought out fliers. Then the mist lifted, and the flightline got more populated, but there were a few events that did not get flown due to the delay.

B Gas had 6 fliers and had a four-way-tie at the end of flying at 600 seconds! B NOS had 8 fliers, with Tommy Bell besting the pack with a score of 720.

The real test was flying E-36. Being a very popular event in recent years with many entrants, 10 fliers braved the wet conditions. There was some concern about the motor and the moisture, but it did not stop anyone from flying and some good scores were posted. Jack Murphy topped Drake Hook 651 to 467 and the 2nd through 4th placers were separated by only 16 seconds!

Small NOS Rubber and One Design had less than the usual number of fliers, and still good numbers were posted. See the results link at the end of this article.

The FAC camp was set up under the tutelage of Pat Murray judging and flying. It was common to see a Scale model flying along the FAI and AMA flightlines. They provided a nice distraction as fingers pointed to them and the words, “Look at that!” were heard.

Later in the day, the glider pen gathered a bunch of fliers with their models, all trying to find the elusive thermals. The new 90-second flight time still was a challenge, and the wet conditions caused a few models to lose their trim, yours truly falling prey to it.

Later in the day, the mist and rain stopped and there was some great weather for glider flying. Eight Juniors, 1 Senior, and 21 adult fliers crowded into the pen for official flights. The top junior was Skilly DeLoach, Senior was William Reuter, and top adult was Don DeLoach, only 16 seconds ahead of Rocco Ferrario and 17 seconds ahead of Tim Batiuk. This year’s CLG Team Trophy was won by the team of Rocco, and Skilly and Don DeLoach.

Thursday’s flying has NFFS Gas One Design special added to the schedule and the NFFS cookout/raffle at the end.

Again, flightline scores are obtained by using the following web link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTbTqo_IZE33Qi4eUssAr3Tf1oQ7CNmisn_KmCIupY5cfHY0g90ebjGPvM9P973ZadYstLiBiJW-tlb/pubhtml?gid=379879557&single=true

Thermals!!