Nats have concluded for 2023. Check back for next year's dates!
By Gary Freeman Jr.
422 started Thursday. This is the fastest class we fly at the nationals. The aircraft are semiscale Pylon Racers. They can do around 190 mph. There are lots of different options for aircraft and two motor selections. One is from Dub Jett and the other is a Nelson from Mike Langlois. Both engines are very competitive.
By Tim Stone
Two events were run Thursday, NCLRA Clown Race & Super Slow Rat/Fox Race (SSR) combined. Weather was again an issue as gusts up around 30 mph made racing very difficult. SSR is a “no shutoff” event, so it became a real chore for pilots to get planes landed, and in a good pitting position.
Photos by Rachelle Haughn
Speed Combat took place Thursday afternoon at Control Line (CL) Combat. The strong wind made for some interesting flights on the final day of the CL Combat contest.
By Gary Freeman Jr.
Pylon had two more rounds of qualifying on Wednesday, and as I previously mentioned, lots of things changed as far as who made it in. Dennis Cranfil came out with a mission and won both of his heats and made it in. The top 22 made it in, along with the wild cards, 23rd (Ray Brown) and fast time (AJ Hemken).
Sorry but I have to be a proud dad one more time and mention that Brody did an amazing job for his first 426 competition at a Nationals. He finished up with a personal best time of 1:17.
By Matt Neumann
Wednesday turned out to be a very interesting day. The normal chain of events is that all of the contestants are seeded into four groups. Wednesday and Thursday we each fly two flights in front of the judges. We then take the best score from Wednesday and the best score from Thursday and add them together to see who the top five are from each group. Friday, we then would combine all of the groups to form the top 20. We then fly two flights and add them together to determine the top five. Saturday we would then have the top five flyoff.
By Tim Stone
Two events were run Wednesday, Texas Quickie Rat (TQR) and Dallas Sport Goodyear.
TQR had a decent turnout with eight entries. Motors were all K&B 4011s or 8011s—long out of production but easily found on auction sites. Top finishers had close races, and there was an unusual number of mechanical problems with others. The final race winner was Chuck Barnes Jr.
By Melvin Schuette
Wednesday, June 23, was Class I and II Carrier in both the internal combustion glow motors and electric-powered planes. The difference between the events that were flown on Tuesday and those on Wednesday is that the planes flown on Tuesday used profile fuselages that only have to resemble an actual plane that made a takeoff and arrested landing on a carrier ship or is designated as a carrier-based plane. The classes of Carrier flown on Wednesday have built-up fuselages and must be within plus or minus 5% of the actual scale outline.
Beginner Stunt report by Mike Stinson
The Control Line Beginner Stunt at the Nats was held Sunday, June 20. I would like to thank the volunteers who made this possible. Mark Overmeir, Wes Eakin, and Eric Taylor judged while Kenny Stevens and Dale Josephson critiqued the fliers. Most importantly, Beth and James Mills ran admission and tabulation, while Ben acted as a runner. David Ebers volunteered to handle the weigh in, pictures, and pull test. This made my job easy.
By Mike Stinson
Tuesday, the Control Line Combat at the Nats 2021 finished four days of F2D Combat. Since the Team Trials were canceled late in planning, Saturday and Sunday became kind of the ”Non-Team Trials.” Contestants came from all over the US, Mexico, Russia, and the Ukraine.
Monday and Tuesday were the Official AMA F2D Combat event. There were 25 contestants, including two Junior/Senior, Austin Minor and Alex Dementiev. There was some really great flying, despite the heavy wind on Monday, which reached 23 mph.
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