hours are inactive except for practice
flying. Part of the problem is that the
events do not necessarily end at the
same time. It’s common to see one
event end at 2 p.m. while another one
runs until 7 p.m., so converting the field
to open flying is not as easy as it seems.
It has become easier for those who
run the Nats simply to leave the field
closed to anyone except the Nats
competitors. They are allowed to
practice into the evening on the site
they flew on that day. This has proven
to be safe because those competitors are
flying on frequencies that are assigned
to that particular event and site. There
is little likelihood of them creating a
problem with other events which may
still be in progress.
Frequency control on a particular
venue is fairly easy and can be selfpolicing
because the competitors are
aware of the frequency assignments.
Consider the circumstances of an AMA
member who comes to the Nats as a
spectator or simply shows up and wants
to fly, not realizing the Nats is in
progress. Most would accept the fact
that they could not fly during the
competition, but why can’t they fly in
the evening?
It sounds simple: let them fly
wherever the frequency they are using
is located for the Nats event, but how
do we ensure that they know where that
is? What if the site to which their
frequency is assigned has a competition
course set up on it? This would make
the site inappropriate—or even
unsafe—for sport flying.
What do you do about unavoidable
THE NATS is over in Muncie,
Indiana, and it was a great year. Preentry
was down slightly. We surmise
this might be because gas prices were
near a peak high at approximately the
deadline for pre-entry. Late entries
seemed to balance the loss, so the entry
level was relatively normal.
I attended a number of events
including a couple of new ones such as
Cross Country Soaring with big Scale
Sailplanes. Windy days plagued much
of the contest including this event, but
the people persevered and everyone
had a great time.
As the Nats grows in size and
length, a problem keeps cropping up,
which is not as easy to solve as one
might think. Having the National
Flying Site closed to all flying except
for the particular Nats event scheduled
creates some animosity among those
AMA members who would like to use
their national site for some sport
flying.
During the actual competition,
closing the site would seem to be an
acceptable practice, but what if the
scheduled event is CL and someone
wants to fly RC? Realistically, the
problem is focused on RC flying, and
only occasionally is there a problem for
FF or CL.
Generally, the Nats events use
assigned frequencies in order to allow
multiple events to take place
simultaneously. The original
frequency-assignment scheme we
established divided the available
frequencies into three groups, but those
groups have not been kept “pure”
throughout the years. As a result, the
frequency distribution varies daily
during the Nats as events begin and
end.
During the Nats, events generally
run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the evening
Dave Brown AMA president
President’s Perspective
November 2004 5
“What do you do
about unavoidable
incompatibility between
types of models?”
incompatibility between types of
models? Can’t you just see the chaos if
a modeler tried to set up to fly his histart
glider in the middle of the Pylon
course while the Pylon competitors
were practicing?
The problem isn’t going to be easy
to solve, and may have to be resolved
in steps. What we tried to do this year
was make up frequency boards on
which a modeler reserved his frequency
by inserting his AMA card for each
venue at the flying site. (For those who
may not realize it, we have four RC
locations at the Muncie field.)
This may be better than closing the
site to all sport flying, but it is not the
best long-term solution. It requires
daily effort to make up the frequency
boards in concert with the frequency
mix of the day, and it does not resolve
the issue of incompatible model types
or facility configuration. If the flier
who wanted to fly his or her hi-start
glider would be flying it up at the 600-
x 600-foot grass site, but his or her
frequency was assigned to the Pylon
site—you can see the problem.
The challenge is to make the site
available to the maximum number of
members while maintaining the
operations of the Nats and any other
competitive events on the site. It is
obvious that ultimately an integrated,
automated frequency-control system is
needed, but that will take time to
develop.
In the meantime, we must do as
much as possible to see that a member
who travels hundreds of miles to the
Muncie site has the opportunity to fly
at the field if he or she wants to. Until
an integrated system is developed, this
will involve much work. Some
members may be unable to sport fly
some types of models on certain days,
but we owe it to the members to do as
much as we can to make the site
available to them whenever it is
possible.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/11
Page Numbers: 5