nats

By Dick Perry

Thursday was the day for all of the unofficial Control Line (CL) Navy Carrier events. As late as Tuesday evening, the forecast was predicting thunderstorms all day long on Thursday, so we had some concerns that the events might be adversely impacted. Things changed overnight, and the day dawned clear and calm with no rain forecast for the entire day. It ended up being a truly great day for flying.

The Outdoor Free Flight (FF) Nationals (Nats) are back in Muncie, Indiana, this week, July 17-21.

Today is the day that we have been waiting for all week—we got to see who won the 2023 Nationals.

The last day of Pylon has arrived.

As we roll into our last event—AMA 422, the fastest of our events—we shift gears for the format.

Many of the competitors who had flown in the Team Trials or the F2d National Championship headed home, but their ranks were filled with new faces. Many are specialists in the event and fly nothing other than Speed Limit Combat.

Today was the second day of qualifying. The best score today gets added to the best score of yesterday. Since the Open class is divided into four groups, the top five from each group get to move on to Thursday for top 20 day. The Advanced group is divided into three groups, and the top four from each group get to move on to Thursday. Those twelve get to have a flyoff to determine the winner in the Advanced class.

The weather went from being a real challenge on Tuesday to being a really good flying day on Wednesday. Control Line (CL) Navy Carrier enjoyed light winds all day with reasonable temperatures that allowed for some good flights. Where weather dominated the late-day competition on Tuesday, Wednesday saw equipment problems keeping some contestants grounded and preventing others from completing their flights.

F2d Combat at the AMA Nationals is the most prestigious of any event flown in the USA. The winner is deemed the National Champion, and Austin Minor was destined to take the top spot. He remained undefeated until his final challenger, Andrey Nadein, gave him his first loss. Austin came back from his narrow loss and took the final match. The crowd agreed, Austin was hot!

Today was the first day of qualifying. This is the day that we start to find out how everything is stacking up. We flew two flights today and the best score counts toward the best score tomorrow. The two are then added together to determine who moves on to Thursday’s qualifying.