FREE FLIGHT INDOOR
Steve Gardner, 1130 Pembroke, St. Louis MO 63119
The Indoor community was blessed with another year of flying the US Indoor Championships/AMA Indoor Nationals (Nats) in the magnificent East Tennessee State University Mini-Dome athletic facility. The Mini-Dome is an ideal indoor site; the Nats regulars are beginning to think of it as home, and the new competitors are pleasantly surprised.
Competition took place May 31 through June 4.
Endurance Flying
The F1D event was flown this year using the new rules, which reduce the absolute performance of the models, but not the participation. With a two-minute difference in the two-flight average of the first five places, this was a well-contested event. The fliers liked the new models, which stemmed from the new rules, better than expected.
- Larry Cailliau won the event with his two-flight total, nine seconds ahead of Richard Doig.
The MiniStick event has gained on some of the more popular events; with 29 entries, it matched the number of FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) EZB event participants this year. These little MiniStick gems are very tricky to fly well; the initial torque burst causes some of the models to fly an aerobatic show of stalls and rolls before straightening out and climbing. The airplanes are also hard to see way up there in the rafters, so they are almost impossible to steer.
- Larry Cailliau won MiniStick with a time of 12:20—just five seconds ahead of Walter Van Gorder.
EZB is one of the toughest events in indoor endurance flying. The lack of weight restrictions produces models that are incredibly light for their size. Building an 18-inch model that weighs less than 450 milligrams, and is strong enough to fly well, is a real job. (A new American penny weighs five times what an EZB weighs!) The ultraflexible airframes make these models a challenge to trim.
- Larry Cailliau won EZB handily with a 31:05—more than one minute ahead of Larry Coslick.
Larry Coslick did win Hand-Launched Stick, with an incredible flight of 44:56. His next-best flights were also well above 40:00; after the trouble he had in EZB, it seemed he could do no wrong in this event. However, Stan Chilton made sure Larry worked for it, with a second-place time of 42:38.
Pennyplane and Limited Pennyplane always have large numbers of entries, and the competition in these events is tough.
- Dan O'Grady managed the high time this year with his 18:23 to win Pennyplane.
- Larry Cailliau won Limited Pennyplane with a 16:29.
The performance of the Limited Pennyplane models is pushing the regular Pennyplane aircraft hard. To achieve the 10% gain, Pennyplane fliers are using variable-pitch propellers, rolled balsa motor tubes, large-chord biplane configurations, and other exotic techniques.
The Hand-Launched Glider event had some new all-time high scores. Jim Buxton flew unbeatably well with his two-flight total of 165.9 seconds, setting what I believe is a site record at Johnson City.
- Bernard Boehm was second, with a two-flight total of 149.7. Bernard's score would normally have been a Nats winner, but Jim's score achieved the largest lead for this event that I can recall in national competition.
Scale and Flying Aces Club (FAC) Events
As they have been for the past three years, the scale and sport events were blessed by the presence of Tim Lavender and his wonderful group of junior and senior fliers. The crew sported Flying Aces Club T-shirts, and brought dozens of models of all kinds. When they left for home, they also sported perhaps a dozen award plaques for various places—including some firsts.
The area of the stadium where this Smyrna, Tennessee group sets up shop becomes the "FAC General Headquarters," and is one of the most active places in the venue. With roughly a couple dozen people from this group flying in the event, the new rules for this category are proving popular. With more than 100 models in all kinds of events, you have a nonstop situation. Tim is a wonderful leader and a gifted teacher, but it would not work if it wasn't for the kids themselves. These special youngsters are mature, polite, and very informed.
The pure scale events at this year's Nats were not as well-attended as in some previous years, but the level of craftsmanship of the top models was as high as ever. The FAC events offer the greatest variety of classes in which to fly scale, so they are the most popular scale events. The AMA scale events are more complicated to judge than the FAC scale events, and the AMA scale models tend to be more detailed and less flight-oriented than the FAC models.
No-Cal Scale had the largest number of entries this year, with 13 fliers. The simplicity of these models, along with their flyability, makes them very popular with sport modelers. The Contest Director found the time to post a 7:05 flight, to capture second place.
Jack Boone brought his B-17 Flying Fortress again this year, and I missed seeing him fly this impressive four-motored model again. With the various events going on together, it was very easy to miss things.
FAC Scale represents a pleasant mix of detail and flight performance, so the event is popular. The level of scale detail is very high, and since these models must fly extremely well to place, they are built very light.
- Jack McGillivray flew his well-known S.E.5 biplane to a first-place finish, with a score of 159.5.
- Rich Miller flew his Currie Wot biplane for a score of 151.0, to nab second place. Rich's ability to fly models, play the harmonica, dance a jig, and tell clean jokes adds nice color to the contests.
A trio of new events this year was aimed at the fun-flyers.
Fun and Speed Events
- Race to the Roof: The object was to take off from the floor and climb to the top of the building as fast as possible. This was harder than it sounded; many attempts failed to get all the way to the top. Plenty of flights did get there, though, and John Whittle won with a time of 7.6 seconds (947 feet per minute!).
- Round the Pole: Tony Italiano won the speed event with a time of 3.61 seconds.
- Straight Line Speed: This event drew a large crowd of spectators, who came to watch the models race across the measured distance and crash into the plastic drop-cloth finish line. This turned out to be less like racing and more like target practice. Everybody loved it! First place went to a very fast Jack McGillivray, with a time of 2.68 seconds.
Organization and New Events
This was a very good year for change. Chuck Slusarczyk added several new events. He also took on the awesome responsibility of acting as Contest Director, with the help of the usual diligent Nats crew of Dave Thompson, Abram VanDover, Natalie Meyer, and other unsung heroes. With the new events, these people had to keep up with a total of 36 different categories held by the USIC, the FAC, and the AMA. They made it look easy, but it was not.
We missed some special people this year. Bernard Hunt, the innovative and experienced competitor from England, was not in attendance because of scheduling conflicts. Holly Vonasek and John Koptonak were absent, as was David Aronstein and "Mr. Indoor" himself — Bud Tenny. Bud was out with preparations for a medical procedure that will have been completed by the time you read this; we can look forward to him attending next year.
There were also some lost souls who found their way back into the fold. Roy White, the man who got me started in indoor, returned as a spectator. Stan Chilton was back, and so was Gene Joshu. Gene came back with a vengeance by winning the new F1L event, just five seconds ahead of John Kagan. Welcome back, guys!
Although site records were set and there was plenty of very serious contest flying, this year's Nats had the air of a fun-fly. There was a great deal of sport- and test-flying, and there was always something interesting to watch. The new events and spectacular variety of models, along with the super people, made this one of the best Nats I have attended.
If you missed it this year, it is not too early to make plans for the next USIC/AMA Nats in Johnson City. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
