Mark Leseberg brings his Precision Aviation Extra 300 in for a gentle landing. He won Unlimited RC Scale Aerobatics with his four-cylinder DA-200-powered model.

Johnny Berlin ready to set his 149-inch Nostalgia-class Sailaire, by Dream Catcher Hobbies, down for a day of flying.

The question I asked almost every competitor I met was, “So why did you come to the Nats?” Everyone—and I am not making this up—answered, “Because it’s fun.”

            I’ve enjoyed model airplanes for as long as I can remember, and the Nationals, or Nats as so many like to call it, has been something I’ve promised myself I’d make it to one day.

            I’m into all kinds of models, from FF to CL, but I have to admit that my primary interest is in RC. The fascination with things that fly, if you asked my wife, is most definitely an illness, and I’m happy to report that the treatment of its symptoms is to enjoy modeling as much as possible.

So there I was, planning to go to the Nats some year, more or less with the thought in my head that I needed to practice really hard before I would be “worthy” to compete against those pilots. The practice would do me good, of course, but frustration arose because it was almost as if I was forcing myself to go to the Nats and, in turn, making myself practice.

            It got to the point where I was forcing myself to fly model airplanes. The harder I tried, the more  stress I encountered from thinking about going to this contest, and that caused me to put off the trip.

Mac Hodges’ Minus RC Competition Fun Fly model is brought in low and slow for the limbo portion. Note the EPP foam on the tips of the LE.

 
Kevin Siemonsen’s model performs an inverted pass through the poles during Masters Unlimited Limbo competition in RC Competition Fun Fly. His five passes under the string took less than a minute.

            My year for being able to attend the Nats seemed farther away than ever, when an unexpected opportunity arose: MA was seeking an associate editor to help with the magazine. A native of New Jersey, the thought of uprooting my family and moving to Indiana was heavy. I applied for the job, and the short story is that AMA and the town of Muncie are now my home.

Ready or not I was going to the Nats this year, and I was happy that participating in any of the events was the furthest thing from my mind. Instead I would be reporting on the event every day for five weeks, July 4-August 7. It was made loud and clear to me that I should get out in the field as much as possible and gather as much of the “Nats experience” as I could.

            This sounded like the best idea in the world for me. Looking at the schedule of events, I was excited about seeing firsthand some competitions I’d only read about in magazines.

            One of the things that wound up my interest in reporting on the Nats was the new way in which it was going to be covered and distributed to the membership. In the past MA provided complete Nats coverage in a dedicated issue. Because of the normal printing schedule, people wouldn’t see any news about the competition until close to the end of the year—nearly four months after it was over.

            In today’s day and age the Internet has surpassed the print medium for reporting news in a speedy fashion. This year the AMA crew and magazine staff decided to cover the Nats by using the Internet to expand NatsNews: an online newsletter that has been published in past years during the event as a service to the membership and competitors who planned on coming to the area.

            This year we were able to take advantage of exploding the Nats coverage potential by publishing as many photos and as much of the information as we wanted, and publish the scores daily so that friends at home and people around the world could find out what was happening, who was winning, what was flying, and how much fun people were having.

Don Belfort entered NEAC RC Electric Scale with his Piper Tri-Pacer from Wendell Hostetler plans. It has a Speed 400 motor for power and functioning flaps.

Glenn Dunlap scratch-built his 24-foot-span Rutan Voyager from composite materials and foam. Each of the two geared Astro 40 motors has its own 22-cell pack.

            Every event during the Nats had its own reporter on-site, besides me, taking pictures and noting the daily happenings. This included the Indoor FF portion of the contest, held roughly a month before the outdoor activities in early June, at the East Tennessee State University Mini-Dome in Johnson City, Tennessee.

            If you want to know what action took place and haven’t done so already, check out NatsNews online at www.modelaircraft.

org/events/natsnews.asp. You’ll find 217 pages of coverage with stories told by the experts.

On the Fourth of July the Nats began with RC Scale Aerobatics (SA). When people first see these airplanes up close, their first impression is usually that they’re monsters. Having handled this type of model myself, I know that size doesn’t hold a candle to the way these airplanes fly.

            These “monsters” are tame to fly, with gobs of power and control authority that is crisp and almost intuitive. Although they are capable of unlimited aerobatics, to fly one gracefully step-by-step through a maneuver is as comfortable as reading a cake recipe from a cookbook.

            I’m used to flying precise airplanes, but in a manner that is much faster paced because smaller airplanes perceptively fly faster. When I first got my hands on one of these 40%-size models, I was amazed by how it felt as if there were more time to fly through the maneuver, observe the necessary corrections, and input those corrections without feeling panicked. Hasty corrections can easily disrupt a pilot’s concentration and blow the entire flight.

            After the SA competition, the flying site began to see a greater variety of activities spread across its 1,000+ acres. Where to go first was my most and least favorite decision of the day; RC Helicopter was being contested on the far south end, the RC Pylon Racing event was happening on the center site, and CL everything was stirring up the eight blacktop and multiple grass circles on the north end of the site.

After a careful watch of the wind and temperature, Sarah Radziunas lets her F1B Wakefield model fly. US team member Phillip Schieman waits to launch.

Tom Poole competed in RC indoor Fun Scale with a 36-inch-span Mountain Models Cessna 180 covered in Solite film.

            If you’re wondering how two RC contests can happen at the same flying site, it’s basically done with a tight system of frequency control. Each site is given a spread of frequencies to use, and custom-made pins and boards enforce the policy and make everyone aware that safety is the highest priority.

            That week of July 10-16 was extremely busy. With so many events going on, it was hard to get around to see them all. I was grateful that NatsNews had its own group of reporters covering what was going on at all the sites.

            The pilots at the helicopter site were dealing with a stiff wind that intensified their struggle to perform the hovering sequences. This happened to be the year when the first electric-powered helicopter was entered in competition. The little 1-pound T-Rex had its work cut out in Class III, but its pilot giggled all the way. The 90-size helicopters appeared to have a more solid presence, especially while hovering when every little correction is obvious.

            Pylon Racing is one of the most thrilling events of the Nats, and it is so well organized that the excitement doesn’t let up until the sun goes down. The racing is scheduled so that there is a new heat almost every five minutes.

            The race itself is only slightly more than a minute long, but in that time four airplanes scream through the air, completing 10 laps in the fastest time possible. The contest is a thrill to watch, and the sound the aircraft make as they round the pylons is excitedly haunting.

            Speaking of cool sounds, contestants over at the CL Speed circles were setting records with hard-to-believe lap times using aircraft minimized beyond belief. Pilots are whipped around these circles by models flying 90-140 mph, using only engines from 1/2A to .15 size, and the sound they make is unmistakable.

            Then there’s the class of Speed models that use pulse-jet engines. You have to hold onto your ears because these engines are incredibly loud, and the aircraft can fly at speeds close to 200 mph.

            Just across the road was where all the other CL events were taking place, and Combat fliers were busy on the grass field. That is where two pilots share the same space in the middle of a circle and fly their airplanes strategically around, trying to trim down the paper streamer strung to the aft end of their opponents’ models.

Not your typical indoor RC model, Greg Hahn flew a Fun Scale DJ Aerotech Flying Fortress at the indoor competition.

Scott Christensen competed as a Team Scale pilot, but he brought his Peanut-size RC indoor model to show off. His all-balsa Staggerwing has a DWE motor system.

            What these pilots did with an airplane frantically whizzing around amazed me. They weren’t always lucky, though, and many times their models finished the round with some kind of battle damage. This is an area of the sport where ARF technology has surely helped.

            Catty-corner off the grass CL circles was another group of modelers. They were participating in a similar event to Combat that had pilots fighting for a pole position and for a place to stand in the flying circle: Racing.

            Racing spectators can watch as many as three airplanes fly at the same time. This is an exciting event to observe, especially if all the contestants are equally matched.

            CL Precision Aerobatics, or Stunt, dominated the northern end of the flying site, with practice sites spread across the grass area. The contest circles on the main site were busy with slick-looking models that were skillfully flown in a manner that is comparable to school figures in figure skating.

Ronnie Thompson looks for good air on an overcast day. He must have found it; his Classic Towline FF model maxed out that flight.

Twins, warbirds, jets, you name it. More than 70 feet of CL Scale models, two deep in some areas, are ready to fly with their lines stretched out.