I hope everyone has been enjoying the flying season so far. There may be parts of the country where the season lasts longer, but I believe that when the sun warms and the skies turn blue, there’s no finer place to fly than right here in the Midwest.
In May, I traveled to South Carolina to attend the annual Joe Nall Week and the AMA Open Membership meeting. This year’s fly-in featured nearly 1,500 pilots and thousands of spectators. Model aviation enthusiasts from more than 40 states and many foreign nations attended as did a large number of pilots from District VII.
The Joe Nall is all about modelers sharing fun, flying, and fellowship. Pat Hartness and the Triple Tree Aerodrome crew stop at nothing to see that everyone who travels there is shown a good time. If you haven’t attended, this is one event that needs to be on your bucket list.
I want to throw out one last reminder for National Model Aviation Day on August 16. Please attend an event being held near you.
This month’s event report comes from Terry Edmonds on the Misty Meadows Soaring Classic as part of the Ohio Valley Soaring Series. Thanks for passing this along, Terry.
The Misty Meadows Soaring Classic, sponsored by the Eastern Iowa Soaring Society (EISS), is a long-running annual contest dating back 17 years with roots long before that with the Iowa City Aerohawks.
The site is on private property located between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and it features unique topography for an RC Soaring contest. It is not your typical sod or open-field contest site. Within flying range there are rolling hills, valleys, meadows, woods, a pond, and a state park lake. For first comers, the site is intimidating, but it offers a variety of lift-generating conditions, depending on wind speed and direction. Nearly all who have flown at the site are eager to come back.
The contest is usually held during the first weekend in May, as it was this year because of field availability. Weather at this time of the year in the upper Midwest can be uncertain, but this year the date provided good conditions despite previously awful spring weather conditions.
The contest is Unlimited class with “seeded man-on-man” format. Pilots fly in groups with up to five launching sequentially with EISS matched winches. In each subsequent rounds, the groups are reformed according to pilots’ current scores.
Contestants came from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Mike Fox, from Andover, Illinois, took top honors. Others who placed were Mike’s brother, Rick Fox from Davenport, Iowa; Mike Trutwin from Lakeville, Minnesota; and Karl Miller from the Chicago area.
The contest is part of the Ohio Valley Soaring Series (OVSS). In 2014 Misty Meadows is the second of nine OVSS events where pilots can earn points for the yearly OVSS series championship. Misty Meadows is the westernmost venue of the series and one in Pennsylvania is the furthest east.
