Helicopter
Craig Bradley
12400 Burlingame Dr., Dewitt, MI 48820
WELCOME TO THE 2003 Radio Control Helicopter Nationals (Nats) contest coverage. As I have done in all of my past reports, I’ll leave out the statistics (those are someplace else in this issue). I’ll cover some of the highlights, and this year I’m going to add a twist: for the first time in my years of working at the Nats (10, but who keeps track?), I finally took everyone’s suggestions and entered Class I. I’ll pass along a few notes and thoughts about my first Nats as a competitor.
Wow! Talk about rain. In all the years I’ve been event director for the Helicopter portion of the Nats, I don’t ever remember having this much. It rained every day we were there, and not a small amount — from Friday, July 4, till Monday, July 7 (the competition was July 5–9), there was approximately 12 inches of rainfall. We were doing the backstroke!
It is hard to describe the feeling you get when you pull into the front drive at AMA Headquarters and have to watch where you are driving because fish are swimming across the road. That’s right — fish!
Fortunately we didn’t miss a round of flying, so I guess our record of never being rained out is still intact, technically. Without all of the volunteers’ hard work, we couldn’t have pulled it off. They worked between the raindrops and did whatever needed to be done to ensure every contestant got to fly every round.
The total pilot count was 49, which was up from last year. The biggest news was the number of entrants in Class I. Normally we get five or six—maybe seven if we’re lucky. Not this year; 16 pilots registered for Class I. (I sure picked a tough year to fly in my first Nats.)
- Class I: 16 pilots
- Class II: 9 pilots
- Class III: 9 pilots
- FAI F3C: 15 pilots
- Scale: 5 pilots
That included one Junior competitor (15 years or younger) and four Seniors (16–19 years old). At least one Junior and/or Senior entered each class, including Scale.
Class I
The Class I pilots came from across the country. The largest contingent was from Alabama, and they can really fly. Bruce Eddy led this all-star cast when he finished in first place, and Ron Cummins came in a not-too-distant second. Jeff Fassbinder traveled from California and placed third, and John Russell, also from Alabama, rounded out the top four. Robin Jackson, up from North Carolina, was the only female pilot this year, and she finished fifth.
It’s interesting that three of the top five pilots were not originally going to enter this year. Steve Kaluf and I had gone down to fly in a Nashville, Tennessee, contest, and we invited them to come up to the Nats and fly. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea on our part. Seriously, as pilots/contestants, these people probably did more to help my contest flying in the few days they were at the Nats than I could have accomplished in a whole summer of practice. Even though I was competing against them, they took the time to show me ways I could improve my flying. I guess that’s part of what the Nats is all about. Thanks to everyone for your help. I’ll keep practicing, and, as Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back.”
Class II
Rolando Perez came back this year from Florida to conquer Class II, finishing in first place. Class II included a couple of pilots who moved up from Class I last year. Danny Szabo of Nevada finished second. Tony Wade came up from Alabama with his dad Don, an F3C contestant, to finish in third place. Dan Willis of Mississippi, who was a recruit from the Nashville contest, rounded out the top four places.
These Class II pilots got the "opportunity" to judge those of us who competed in Class I. After they finished judging a round, they would often give those of us who flew a few suggestions on how to improve our flying. All of their input was greatly appreciated. Thanks to them for their help.
Class III
Ben Minor of Virginia took top honors in Class III this year, finishing with a perfect score of 6,000. Those of you who fly FAI need to watch out next year; Ben is on his way. Dennis Purduski of Mississippi finished in second place. I believe he is also moving to FAI next season.
Kentuckian Doug Trent and Ohioan Tom Erb came in third and fourth respectively. Senior competitor John Zankl of Indiana moved up from Class II this year to finish fifth.
These pilots helped out in the judging chairs when it was their turn, not only for Class II but for Class I when it was necessary. You guys are great!
FAI F3C
FAI F3C underwent some changes this year. This year's champion is Scott Gray of Canada, with a perfect score of 3,000. Curtis Youngblood of Texas finished close behind in second. The 2003 US FAI F3C team — Wayne Mann of North Carolina, Len Sabato of Illinois, and Dwight Shilling of Illinois — finished in third, fourth, and fifth. Senior Alan Szabo Jr. moved up from Class III this year to finish sixth.
Noticeably absent this year were the contestants from the United Kingdom: Mark Tilbury and Mark Christy. Come on back next year, guys.
Scale
IRCHA (International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association) President Ron Kummer directed the Scale portion of the Nats again this year. The quantity of pilots may not have been there, but the quality certainly was.
For the second year in a row, Peter Wales brought his Aérospatiale Lama from Florida to take first place. Tim Dawson made the long trip from California with his Airwolf model to take second place. Third place went to Alan Szabo Jr. flying a Bell 222. Bob Harris brought a beautiful model of a Dauphin from Virginia and won the static portion of the contest; however, he had some problems with the model and elected not to fly.
Paul Strobel was signed up to attend, but I heard that he crashed his Scale model the week before the contest. I hope you get it fixed, Paul. See you next year.
We still need more contestants in this class. With all of the beautiful helicopters out there, it’s a real shame we can’t get more of them entered in the Nats.
Acknowledgments and Thanks
Again I let the people who really make the contest work get away without thanking them properly. Thank you for giving so graciously of your time so others were able to compete and enjoy flying.
My two assistant event directors — Kevin Cordell and David Harkey — helped keep things rolling. Kevin pulled some extra duty this year, serving as an FAI judge and covering Class I so I could fly in it. FAI judges Carey Shurley, Mike Fortune, and Kevin Cordell put in long hours and did a great job of scoring. Carey came all the way up from Florida just to judge.
Tom Johnson and Sean Bradley were the flightline directors again this year. They kept the flow of pilots moving. Tom offered to help last year, and he did such a great job that I asked him to come back this year. Don and Naomi Griffin covered the radio impound; the Nats wouldn’t be the Nats without them. Thank you both for all you do.
In charge of scoring was Dan Monroe, whose program (CD Pro) continues to improve with each contest. This year he added a radio-impound section to the program, making it even more versatile. The preceding are just some of the people who made the Helicopter Nats happen. All I had to do was keep an eye on things and take the credit for doing a good job.
Last, I need to thank the competitors and spectators. They all stepped up to help when necessary to make sure the contest went smoothly. It couldn't have taken place without everyone's help.
The Nats continue to be more than competition and flying; it's a chance to spend time with good friends at the field and after hours. It also gives us an opportunity to make new friends.
If you haven't competed at the Nats, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. If for some reason you have dropped out of Nats competition, come back and give it another effort. You don't know what you're missing.
As the person who had the dubious honor of being the first pilot to fly in Class I and the last pilot to fly in the contest (if I knew everyone was watching, I would have flown better!), it has been a real privilege to fly with all of you. I learned a lot about how to compete and how to set up my machine to fly better. All of the help I received from the competitors was greatly appreciated. Let's come back next year and do it again!
That's all I have for this year. I'm sure I missed someone or something; if so, I truly apologize. I'll try again next year.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
