I985 NATS: CL Aerobatics
THIS YEAR'S Nats at Westover turned out to be one of the most interesting ever, as Mother Nature threw everything she had at us. The temperature went from the low 50s to the mid-90s, it was very dry, it rained, and the wind ranged from absolute dead calm to 20-25 knots. Jim Casale managed to overcome all of this to become this year's clear cut Precision Aerobatics winner. The site, itself, was as good as we remembered it to be. Hopefully, it will become "semi-permanent" in the future whenever an East Coast Nats is considered. If the conditions were a big story, perhaps an even bigger story would be how the fliers overcame them, as this turned out to be the year of the Supertigre .60 and heavy-duty control systems. Six out of the top seven fliers ran ST .60s (one built by Greenaway, one by Walker, and four by Meador, including Jim Casale's winner).
1986 Nats: CL Aerobatics
IF WIND AND RAIN were a major part of the story of last year's Nats at Westover, then the heat and humidity in Lake Charles has to be this year's. The temperature-humidity index (similar to the wind chill factor, but obviously in the other direction) officially reached the 120º range in the shade and unofficially much higher on the thick concrete runways. Ted Fancher overcame the heat and a horde of hard-charging competitors to become the unquestioned 1986 CL Precision Aerobatics champion. Ted managed to do it all against an ever-rising tide of Supertigre .60-powered ships with perhaps the world's strongest and best-running ST .46 in his 600 sq. in. Citation.
