Hatching the '92 Nats
"WHY BOTHER?" some of you might say. "Out of roughly 160,000 members, only about 1,000 register to compete at the Nats. And that is less than three-fourths of one percent!" As a sort of devil's advocate, your reporter posed that very question to members of the top echelon of our Academy. Here is the gist of what they replied: AMA President Don Lowe: "Competition is the very spice of every human activity. In some manner, all of us are competing-maybe even against ourselves! Competition is also the test bed of hobby products and is the major source of innovation, development, and improvement. Engines, airfoils, airframes, and certainly radio control technology get a boost from that striving for excellence by the must-win champions. It's like the end result of research. "Take the astronauts. Millions benefit from the efforts of those few up there in the Space Shuttle! There are so many reasons why we must perpetuate the Nats. We could compare it to a reactor core of the entire hobby sport. The Olympics-the World Series-the Superbowl-Wimbledon. For the huge benefit to all of us, let there always be a Nats! We could even describe it as the epitome of the love of flying!"
The '91 National Aeromodeling Championships: A Leisurely Look
What! More on the '91 National Aeromodeling Championships? Sometimes we can get a more intimate view of the fun-and heartbreaks!-of this high-stress model meet when we're able to take a more leisurely look. DATELINE: The Mid-American Air Center, July 1991. A huge former U.S. Army air base is reemerging as a joint municipal airport for the neighboring cities of Lawrenceville, Illisnois and Vincennes, Indiana. On this base, for the second year running, AMA conducted its National Aeromodeling Championships.
"Does Safety Really Come First?"
"ERRANT model airplane crashes into schoolyard killing one and injuring another." Boy, wouldn't the media grab that one and splash it all over the continent-and possibly beyond! No, it did not happen, thank God. But the morbid fascination of the populace is with disaster and bloody grue sells newspapers, magazines, TV viewer ratings, and is fodder for politicians seeking empathy of the voters. Such mayhem spawns the growth of a bureaucracy with "experts" who know less about the problems than do the perpetrators. In my days "back at the mill" there were accidents-some very serious or even fatal.
'91 All American Nationals: RC Scale
THE BIGGER, the better. It is undeniable that large model airplanes that look like full-size airplanes have the most eye appeal, both on the ground and in the air. Thus the Nationals RC Scale contest is always a crowd favorite. The proof is the frequent and generous applause from the spectators, who reward talent just as they would in a live theatre, concert hall, or skating rink. Smooth landings, especially after some in-flight problem or air show-like maneuvers, bring down the house. The "house," in our case, was the superheated, lawn chair-dotted spectator line paralleling a runway segment at the Mid-American Air Center near Lawrenceville, Illinois.
'91 National Rally
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB is a piece of real estate as big as a good-sized county. Orientation for a first-time visitor is a bit complex without map and compass, so even though the base's security guards were most courteous and helpful, negotiating the maze from gate to a runway took some doing. When my Boy Scout intuition finally led me to the right area, I was surprised to observe some RC activity already in progress.
