Daily Coverage of the 2011 National Aeromodeling Championships July 5, 2011 Wednesday RC Pylon CL Events -1/2A Speed -1/2A Profi le Photo -Rat Race -F2D -Beginner Stunt* -Intermediate Stunt* - NCLRA Clown Race* RC Combat Thursday RC Pylon CL Events RC Combat Friday RC Pylon CL Events RC Combat *Unoffi cial Event The RC Pylon Racing Event Director hard at work. Inside: Academy of Model Aeronautics International Aeromodeling Center, Muncie IN website: www.modelaircraft.org; email: nats@modelaircraft.org Copyright Academy of Model Aeronautics 2011 Editors: Ashley Rauen, Liz Helms, Rachelle Haughn
CL Navy Carrier The first day of competition is upon us in the official AMA Profile Navy Carrier event. All hands pitched in for the yearly ritual of unloading the USS Melton carrier deck and preparing the venue for competition. Aircraft were processed on Monday evening by Event Director Bill Calkins. He will be assisted throughout the competition by Ted Kraver as Center Judge and John Vlna running the pull-test processing. There are a variety of models entered this year. In spite of the popularity of the Glenn Martin MO-1, there is only one entered this year in the Profile Event. One of the more interesting models is Michael Smith s Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf. The TBY was a Vought design produced by Consolidated in insufficient numbers to go operational before the end of World War II, so it s not a well-known aircraft. At only 33 ounces, it is the lightest Profile aircraft flying this year, so its performance potential is good. Though this is not Michael s first Nationals, it is his first one flying the AMA Navy Carrier events. With the forecast for very good conditions in the morning, there should be lots of activity early in the day. Look for results in tomorrow s NatsNews. Dick Perry Above: Michael and David Smith (North Carolina) with their Profile Navy Carrier entries. Below: Dave Rolley (Colorado), Art Johnson (Illinois), and Melvin Schuette (Kansas), take time out from processing to visit and catch up on activities since the last Nationals. 2 Photos by Dick Perry.
Sally O Brien RC Pylon Racing Day 2 And let the racing begin with the 2011 Pylon Nationals underway early Tuesday morning with Gary Freeman Jr. as our Event Director. This year s event has a new class in Pylon Racing 426 which requires a motor from Jett Engineering. It began as a search to better bridge the gap between 424 (Sport Quickee) and 422 (Q-40) with speeds between 120 mph and 190 mph. With the one and only engine for this class, your setup should put you in the 150 mph range. Since the new class has become an official event as of January 1, 2011, we have noticed new pilots arise from the Sport Quickie Class to now here at the Nats. This year alone we have seen five new pilots show up who are not only flying the Jett class, but now have the racing skills and confidence to be racing the Q-40s. The new team to watch this year is Lonnie Finch and Moe Vereecke from Kansas City. They have been teamed up and have been racing Sport Quickie for the last two years. Without the new Jett class, they said would not have been able to race at the Nats as quickly as they did; they are a perfect example of why the Pylon community needed this. Today the field of racing was split into two matrixes, A and B, which will fly 5 rounds each with 2 rounds on Wednesday morning to determine who is going to be in the finals. Fourteen pilots from each matrix and two wild-card pilots with fast times will make up the 32 pilots going for that precious Nats wood that everyone dreams of returning home with. This year we have a returning youth who had a thought. She wrote a little something down that I thought we needed to share. Let me introduce the young Sally O Brien from Apopka, Florida, 13 years old... Can You Imagine Can you imagine where any of you would be without the loyal friends you have sitting next to you right now. What you would be doing right now if the tradition of racing models had not been passed down to you by parents, grandparents, or simple discovered it yourself. Hard right I myself even think about it. What if I had decided not to come the 2010 Nats, I would have never met some of the amazing people I know today, such as, Mike Maci, Joe Tropea, and Hank Kaufman. The experience is amazing but, Can You Imagin? Sally V. O Brien Matt and Alexandria Russell The new team to watch from Kansas City, MO, Lonnie and Moe. 3
New to the Nats this year are pilots (L to R) George Reynolds, Ray Dolat, Lonnie Finch, Moe Fereecke, and Robert Vess (not pictured). More than 50 pilots were ready for the start of the Pylon Races. 4
CL Stunt scenes Pictured here are Peter Bauer and his son, Aaron, at the Scale circles. Aaron is a recipient of an AMA scholarship. Photos by Allen Brickhaus. Below: P.J. Rowland, Frank McMillan, and Ronnie Farmer chat alongside the edge of the grass circles. Frank s Stardust model is sitting on his PCV stand. Above: Gene Martine of Florida, and travel partner with Stan Powell, is also preparing for a practice flight at the city circles. 5
Above: P.J. Rowland s cowl is a very effective shape to allow engine cooling, and an easy way to change venturi between practice flights. He was able to pull and replace the old venturi on his Stalker.81 in 10 seconds or less. Right: P.J. Rowland uses a Bob Palmer twin lead out location with double slots to separate the up and down line. Above: A wonderful rendition of a Laird Super Solution was seen in the Control Line Scale static judging. Richard Raftery helped me publish a Profile CL Scale similar model in Flying Models in the mid 2000s. Ours was powered by an O.S. Max 40 fp. The builder of this fine model is Jim Fruit from Zion, Illinois. 6 A local and former A&W restaurant is located on the western end of Memorial Drive in southwest Muncie. They have car cruises and shows during the summer. I ran by the business Friday night and found the show going in full force. This nice 55 Chevy is for sale, if you are looking for a different direction for your investment portfolio.
CL Racing: Day 2 Independence Day kicked off with Rat Racing and NCLRA Clown Racing. Rat Race has been run with maximum.15-cubic-inch engines for roughly four years now and has failed to attract much new interest. The full pan, cowled designs still seem to suffer from reliability problems, and some choose just to enter their Goodyear in this event. Eight entries were signed up and two teams scratched on race day. For the past three years, Floridian Bob Whitney has dominated this event using an F2C airplane and diesel engine. The worldwide popularity of F2C has led to some very reliable equipment; current F2C engines are as fast as the fastest glow motors. This year some of the glowpowered entries were game on, including Canadian Les Akre and Arizonan Steve Eichenberger. There were no records set this year but Steve posted an excellent preliminary time of 2:53. Two final races were run with Eichenberger dethroning King Rat Bob Whitney by 21 seconds with a solid 6:07 final. Clown Race, once considered an entry level event, has become one of the quickest and physically demanding CL Racing events. Races are timed in 7½-minute preliminary and 15-minute final races. This is a fuel limit event (1 ounce) so competitors try to balance speed with fuel economy. Diesels are permitted. The popular engines are F2D combat motors or converted RC car engines of maximum.19 displacement. Six teams came to do battle with some very respectable 7½-minute heat times: Les Akre/Dave Hull Dave Hull/ Les Akre Bill Lee/Russ Green 167 laps 166 laps 162 laps For the finals, Les Akre recruited New Zealander Andrew Robinson for the second year. Andrew had been waiting on the sidelines just waiting for the chance! Dave Hull enlisted veteran pitman Bob Oge for the race. The final was good for Les with a near-record 339 laps for the win. Bill Lee suffered a bad initial needle valve setting and took second. Dave Hull sprang a fuel leak that limited him to 30 laps per tank for third. Tim Stone Clown Race preliminary. 7 7
Rat Race winners. Russ Green and his Fora-powered Clown entry. Clown Race winners. Bob Whitney pitting his Rat Racer. 8 Steve Eichenberberger and his winning Rat Racer.
CL Speed Day 2 There were 55 attempts made in ½A Speed and ½A Proto. Early Monday morning was cloudy, cooler with 60% humidity from last night and early morning rain. Most of the days top speeds were accomplished before the lunch break. The sun came out in the afternoon and engines became more difficult to get a handle on. First place in Open ½A Proto went to Jerry Rocha with 106.027; he only made one flight. Second went to Chris Montagino at 89.471. Third through fifth places were really close. Glen VanSant was third at 87.174, fourth went to Carl Dodge with 87.132, and Bill Hughes was fifth at 86.795. In the Junior/Senior age group, first place in ½A Proto went to James VanSant at 82.110 and second went to Ivan Valishev, now eight years old! Ivan practiced all afternoon with a new F2A profile trainer which proud Dad says he has flown at 200 kph. In ½ A Speed, Carl Dodge with only one flight and a good one took first with 136.608. Chris Montagino was second at 131.197, third was Charles Legg with his home-built engine at 124.758. Incidentally, Charlie will be 80 years young on August 14, still flying monoline and two wire. Fourth place went to Jerry Rocha at 124.758. Bill Hughes was fifth at 114.566. James VanSant made a sweep of the ½A events with first place in ½A Speed at 93.316. There were 14 attempts with 13 official flights. Photos by Warren Gregory. Warren Gregory 9
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Unofficial Scores Please note that all scores are unofficial until tabulated by Nats staff. 2011ScaleNatsEntriesandAircraft Control Line Scale 526 CL Fun Static Flight Flight Score Mason, Ed B17 9.50 80.75 91.00 94.88 Brownhill, Chris Fairchild 7.80 83.00 81.00 89.50 Avera, William P51 Mustang 7.75 88.00 69.50 86.50 Witt, John PT22 9.00 58.00 48.00 62.00 510 CL FAI (F4B) Goff, Allen Waco 791.8 804.0 755.0 1571.0 Bauer, Charles Bristol M 1C 665.3 692.0 567.0 1294.8 Beatty, Frank Borg Parrakeet 805.0 192.0 0.0 901.0 Fruit, James Laird Super Solution 0.0 0.0 0.0 crash 521 CL Profile Brownhill, Chris Hampden MKI 96.50 92.00 90.25 187.63 Avera, William LA 5 92.00 91.00 87.25 181.13 Crespo, Harry Yak9V 96.00 92.00 90.25 179.50 Klepsic, Peter B25 PBJ 95.00 75.50 0.00 132.75 Bauer, Charles Super Connie 80.50 18.00 0.00 89.50 521 CL Profile JS Bauer, Aaron TA 154 97.00 83.00 85.50 181.25 Bauer, Jason A 26 70.00 0.00 74.00 107.00 509 CL Sport Brodak, John Shoestring 96.50 90.00 92.75 187.88 Goff, Allen Ryan STA 91.50 91.00 92.50 183.25 Witt, John JNA D2 Jenny 96.00 54.00 93.50 169.75 Beatty, Frank Hawker Fury MII 92.00 66.50 75.25 169.38 Mason, Ed B29 83.00 77.00 0.00 121.50 Arnold, Clancy Taube 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Bauer, Charles Cub 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 509 CL Sport JS Bauer, Aaron Islander 82.50 84.50 89.50 169.50 Bauer, Jason A26 83.00 62.00 0.00 114.00 CL Team Ken, Stevens Sr. (B) Ken, Stevens Jr.(P) YAK18PM 76.50 78.25 87.00 82.63 Bauer, Charles(B) Bauer, Peter(P) Mosquito 77.00 86.00 62.85 74.45 Barbee, Michael Piper Cub 5.00 94.50 96.25 100.83 Pinegar, David Cessna 31 5.00 92.50 97.50 100.00 Dever Jr., Earl Clipped Cub 5.00 89.75 92.75 96.50 Eagle, Steven PT 19 5.00 89.25 92.00 95.63 Pike, Jeffery Cessna 310 5.00 88.00 93.25 95.63 Terry, Edward Chipmunk 5.00 89.50 90.50 95.00 Parenti, Harold Skyraider 5.00 88.75 90.25 94.50 Ort, Steven Extra 5.00 89.50 89.25 94.38 Brucken, William Curtiss Jenny 5.00 86.75 90.25 93.50 Buckley, John P 51 Mustang 5.00 85.50 88.25 91.88 Dever Sr., Earl Porter PC6 5.00 85.75 87.00 91.38 Arvin, Dale Extra 300 5.00 92.25 79.75 91.00 Schmidt, Raymond Nieuport 28 5.00 87.25 83.75 90.50 Rediske, James Decathlon 5.00 87.00 83.50 90.25 520 RC Fun Novice Ort Jr, Steve Rav 4 0.00 79.00 87.50 83.25 Dunn, John Chipmonk 0.00 83.75 79.00 82.50 511 RC Sportsman Eagle, Steven Nieuport 17 85.50 90.75 93.50 177.63 Schmidt, Raymond B 133 83.50 85.75 87.25 170.00 522 RC Team Arvin, Dale(B) Arvin, Jeremy (P) SNJ 91.70 96.25 97.00 188.38 Frankel, Mark (B) Alverez, Frank (P) T 34C 92.00 95.00 95.75 187.38 Johnson, David (P) Semeraro, Steven (B) Albatross D5 91.70 91.50 93.25 184.07 516 RC FAI (F4C) Buckley, John Tiger Moth 906.5 906.0 885.5 1802.3 512 RC Sports Scale Expert Bush, Robert F 100 97.50 95.50 96.50 193.50 Barbee, Michael T 34C 95.00 96.75 98.25 192.50 Thompson, Billy Fokker D 7 98.20 92.75 94.75 192.00 Pinegar, David Piper Arrow 96.00 95.75 95.25 191.50 Kretz, Albert Fokker D 7 99.00 91.00 92.00 190.50 Alvarez, Frank J 35 Draken 94.50 93.75 95.75 189.25 Shelton, Arthur Belgium Neiuport 11 95.50 93.00 92.75 188.38 Brucken, William PT 19 95.50 90.25 89.50 185.38 Parentti, Gary Beta Minor 96.25 89.00 88.50 185.00 Pike, Jeffrey B24 95.50 86.75 88.50 183.13 515 RC Designer Radio Control Fixed Wing Scale 520 RC Fun Static Flight Flight Score Nitsch, Terry F86 Sabre 5.00 96.00 97.20 101.63 Noll, Frank MB339 5.00 96.00 96.00 101.00 Johnson, David Albatross D5 95.38 93.00 94.50 189.13 Arvin, Jeremy B 25 5.00 95.25 96.00 100.6311 Kretz, Albert Dornier Do23G 95.13 92.50 95.25 189.00
The Rat Race pit area. Photo by Tim Stone. 12