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Nats News

July 16, 2020: CL Combat

By Phil Cartier

The 1/2A folks had a good time with 15 entries. Along with the usual old timers, some 5 or 6 relative newcomers showed up. They were all “friends of the family” so to speak, being family or friends of the fliers.

1/2A uses much smaller airplanes, and 0.049 motors—maybe a teaspoon and a half of cylinder volume. The motors are very potent though with modern Schneurle transfer ports and double ball bearings. Most common are the Cyclone and Fora engines and the models are dizzyingly fast due to the shorter, 42-foot lines.

July 16, 2020: CL Racing

By Tim Stone

Racing Wednesday were two events Texas origin: Texas Quickie Rat and Dallas Sport Goodyear. These events usually bring out some of the best races because of their time proven rules. Both events use stock engines that are still easily available and cheap, simple models with no exotic parts.

July 16, 2020: RC Pylon

By Gary Freeman

Wednesday we finished up two rounds of qualifying. There were a lot of changes in the top 24 with many tight races. Mike Condon chose the two wild cards as the racers who finished 23 and 24.

The finals, as always, are some very intense heats of racing. Gino DelPonte was one of the favorites to win, but unfortunately, nosed over slightly in the first round, and then in round two, he kissed Pylon 2.

July 15, 2020: CL Navy Carrier

By Melvin Schuette

COVID-19 has had an adverse effect on the 2020 Nats. Control Line Navy Carrier is a prime example. While the number of contestants is down across the board and Navy Carrier may be one of the smaller categories, the number of people who chose to stay home could be easily noticed. More than fifty percent of our regular contestants decided to stay home due to the virus. In fact, the numbers of event entries were so small; a category that normally takes three days to run was done in one day.

July 15, 2020: RC Pylon

By Gary Freeman

I would like to start off Tuesday's coverage saying thank you to Dennis Cranfill, his parents, and Mark Parker for an amazing evening fish fry. One of the best ever.

Today we started 426. This is a Q500 class of racer where everyone runs the same engine, which is a Sport Jett .40. These engines are all very close in performance and very easy to run.

Husband and wife team of Bruce and Joanne Coffey made the long trip from California and are looking fast. It is really great watching them work together—they make a great team.

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