1986 Nats: RC Helicopters
THIS YEAR'S National Contest Helicopter event was held July 28 through 30 in Lake Charles, LA, and the most notable memory is of the heat. With temperatures exceeding the century mark and humidity coming close, it's amazing that any of us managed to concentrate on running or flying in a competition at all! Frank Dykes, this year's event director, was confronted with all the usual problems as well as a few new ones, but he and his able-bodied crew of volunteers coped beautifully, and the competition came off on schedule. Frank's first problem was to find a suitable site. It would appear that the Nats organizers were unaware just how much room an RC Helicopter can eat up while doing aerobatics. The original site, Burton Coliseum, was unusable.
AMA Nats: RC Helicopters
THIS YEAR'S AMA National RC Helicopter Championship event was held July 13-15 in Lincoln, NE. While the competition had relatively small numbers, 39 total entries, it proved to be large in talent. This included all three members of the U.S. 1987 World Champs team who were just back from competing in Switzerland. Dwayne Stevens, the event director, was well organized and had enough manpower to run a good contest. Unlike some years in the past, the flying field was excellent. There was a nice grass cover, it was centrally located, and there was plenty of room to spread out. I'm not sure how much control Dwayne and his troops had over the weather, but even Mother Nature decided to cooperate. The temperature was moderate, and mostly the wind was light. There was just a little rain on Tuesday, however.
