Meet the pilots of Joe Nall
Jim T. Graham
Every year I make the journey to Joe Nall—the world's largest outdoor RC event. Pat Harness hosts this amazing event for pilots of every RC genre each year at the Triple Tree Aerodrome in Woodruff, South Carolina. In the past I have written about the grounds, the new additions, and more. I thought it would be interesting to feature some of the Joe Nall week pilots.
During my daily event coverage of the show each year, I meet RC pilots from across the country. Here are a few of their stories.
Rob Grant—Floatplane Pilot
Rob Grant has thousands of hours of full-scale float flying. RC float flying is also one of his passions. I found Rob on the bank of the lake at Joe Nall giving Thayer Syme some tips on how to fly off the water.
JG: How long have you been flying off the water? RG: I have been water flying for 40 years.
JG: What would be some good float-flying tips for an RC pilot? RG: The first thing to do is to find your airplane's correct CG. After you get the CG right, you have to make sure the step on your floats is behind the CG. If you don't have the CG in the right place then controlling the plane will be a struggle. You see floatplanes porpoising. Most of the time it's because of the setup.
One fellow was having trouble so we reset his flaps and mixed his elevator with the flaps. We moved back his CG as far as we could. The guy said it was the first time he had really seen that airplane fly after we were done.
The floats have significant drag, which really affects taking off and landing. You have to compensate with a little bit more elevator on the takeoff.
JG: Where's your home airfield? RG: I'm from Morristown, Florida. We have quite a few lakes fed by springs on the east side of Ocala, Florida, that we fly on. I have a 40% Super Cub that I fly on those lakes. We have lots of fun with them.
Born to Fly
Jim T. Graham
While sitting under the RCGroups tent on the main line I noticed two young pilots flying an airplane that was twice their size. They were the Sabini boys. I met their father many years ago when I did a story about Yuri Higuchi for MA.
JG: How old are you two? JS: I'm nine years old. AS: I'm 10 years old.
JG: What are you guys flying? JS: A Giles 202—a two-seater.
JG: Does it make you nervous to fly at the Joe Nall fly-in? JS: It feels pretty normal because we have such a big runway.
JG: How long have you two been flying? JS: Since I was four. AS: I have been flying since I was four and I also fly a big Boeing B-17G model.
JG: Did you have a good Joe Nall? JS and AS: Yes, we had a good Joe Nall. We will come back every year!
Peter Stroukoff—XC 123-B
While driving my golf cart to the 3-D line, I noticed a beautiful airplane on a stand in front of an RV. I pulled over to take photos and the builder/pilot came over to talk with me. I had no idea there would be so much personal history behind this aircraft.
JG: Tell me about the beautiful airplane you have here. PS: This is the first prototype that flew for C-123s. My grandpa created the full-scale version in 1952. He owned Stroukoff Aircraft and my dad was the chief engineer.
When I was a kid, my mother got tired of babysitting for us and would send us to be with our dad at the airport. When they were putting the plane together it was my jungle gym, until they put skin on it. They built thousands of them, and it was called the Provider.
JG: Tell me about the RC version you have here. PS: The model weighs 24 pounds. It has two AXI motors, two 80-amp speed controllers, and runs on four cells per wing. Every surface on this airplane comes off for repair. The aircraft is family, so no matter what happens to it, I will rebuild.
Peter "Midair" Merkel—DLG Pilot
As I was making my way to the main line for the noontime demonstrations, I spotted a Discus Launch Glider (DLG) pilot. It turned out to be Peter Merkel. I got some background about the airplane and Peter's other RC interests.
JG: What types of RC airplanes do you fly? PM: I fly everything—helicopters, gliders, floatplanes—everything. That's why I have a golf cart at Joe Nall! I fly 3-D more than anything.
JG: I noticed that you were flying an Elf DLG. PM: I picked this up a couple of years ago at the Toledo R/C Expo from Kennedy Composites. I had never had a glider before and wanted something different. In fact, Devin McGrath was at a Scale rally in Canada and he was flying one of these.
Flying the DLG airplane takes a different kind of skill. You can't yank and bank as much as you do with a 3-D aircraft. You have to milk the air and find out where the rising air pockets are and stay within those.
JG: Where are you based? PM: North Bay, Ontario.
These are only a few of the pilots with whom I spoke at Joe Nall, but my goal was to give you a personal view of the many different types of RC pilots gathered in one place.
It's a rare event when you can see nearly every kind of RC segment spread out over multiple airfields. If you are an RC fanatic, you need to attend Joe Nall. It's mind blowing, and you never know who you might run into!
SOURCES:
Joe Nall 2013 www.tripletreeaerodrome.com/joe-nall-week.php
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
