10 Perky planes lined up in the pits, waiting to get flown for their Speed runs.
Today, we wrapped up the last four events for Control Line Speed. We flew 1/2A Speed, 21 Sport Speed, Perky Speed and new this year, PerkE Speed. There were a total of 57 attempts and there were 49 official Flights. That is a bunch of flights for just one day of speed.
Jeff Gitchel is at the starter motor while James VanSant holds his father, Glen’s, A Speed plane, ready to launch it for a 182.75 mph run.
On Tuesday, the third day of Control Line Speed, we flew three events, A Speed, FAI/F2A peed and Fox 35 Stunt Speed. There were five contestants in A Speed and F2A Speed, and there were 13 planes entered in Fox 35 Speed.
Mike Couts holds the starter motor as Bill Hughes holds Dave Rigotti’s 21 Proto, getting ready for another speed run.
Welcome to the first of four days of Control Line Speed. We flew four different classes of Speed today: 21 Profile Proto Speed, Formula 40 Speed, ½A Profile Proto Speed, and Sport Jet Speed.
Two Fast Jet models waiting their turn on the circle.
This was our last day of Speed. We would usually fly three classes of Speed. But alas, two of the fliers were so worn out from the day before, they elected not to fly Class C Speed and Class D Speed. Three other competitors wanted to fly their Fast Jet models, and that was all the noise you could hear coming from Site 2.
Jeff Gitchel puts the electric starter to the spinner on James Van Sant’s B Speed plane.
We flew A Speed, B Speed, and Sport Jet Speed. Yes, that was us making all that noise over on Site 2. A Speed is flown using a .15 cubic inch motor. B Speed is flown using up to a .29 cubic inch motor. There were a total of five entries in Sport Jet. We had five entries in B Speed and four entries in A Speed.
Glen Van Sant ready to launch his Formula 40 plane while his Son James is all set to fly it for him.
On day 3 of the Control Line Speed Nats, we flew Formula 40 Speed, 21 Profile Proto Speed, and Fox 35 Stunt Speed. There were a total of four flyers in 21 Proto, three entered Formula 40, and 11 flew Fox 35 Speed.
Bill Hughes holding Dave Rigotti’s 21 Sport Speed plane in the takeoff dolly. The dolly drops away when the plane gets enough speed to fly.
We had a total of 17 planes entered in Perky Speed alone. So, we knew we were going to be having a lot of flights today. There were also six entries in FAI/F2A Speed and four in 21 Sport Speed.
Monday July 7, 2025 was the first day of Control-line Speed. We flew ½A Speed and ½A Proto Speed. The difference between the two events are that ½ A speed is timed for five laps after the plane gets up to speed. Proto, however, is flown from a standing start and is timed for 10 laps total.
(L to R) Bill Hughes, Patrick Hemple, and Chris Montagino hold their F2A speed models
Welcome to the 2025 National Aeromodeling Championships for 2025. My name is John Moll, I’m from The St. Louis, Missouri area and I’ll be filling everyone in on Control Line Speed events for the week.