Radio Control Aerobatics
IT WAS GOOD to be back! After a two-year hiatus, my wife Joan and I again made the trek to Muncie for the '99 RC Aerobatics Nationals July 18-23. There were a few problems, but as always, it was a trip worth taking. The F3A National Champion (and thus, the RC Aerobatics Category Champion) is Sean McMurtry of Oklahoma City OK. In Masters, the National Champion is Joey Hayes of Reidsville NC. Peter Collinson of Pinehurst NC is the Advanced Champion, and Dean Wilson of Greensboro NC captured the Intermediate crown. The '99 Nats was principally a production of the National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA), with aid, comfort, and much-valued assistance from AMA staff. AMA Technical Director Steve Kaluf ran the show from the AMA side, with able assistance from AMA RC Category Manager Al Williamson. NSRCA's Bob Noll served as RC Aerobatics Event Director for the second year, and NSRCA Secretary/Treasurer Maureen Dunphy filled the Contest Manager slot.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
PHOTOGRAPHS are an important part of this column, as they are of most columns in this magazine. I shoot a good many of the ones you see on these pages myself, simply because too few suitable photos arrive in the average month from other sources. As all Model Aviation writers (and almost all writers at the other magazines in the field) are expected to provide the visual content for their own columns (three to six photos each month), many of my colleagues employ a similar strategy. This can lead to a common problem I call "localitis," where most of the photos seem to be from the writer's region of the country. Naturally, when an outbreak of this deadly (dull) journalistic inflammation occurs, readers from other regions find it irritating, and if the problem persists long enough, almost everyone, including the writer and his long-suffering editor, finds it boring.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
ONE OF THE BENEFITS of this job is that nothing in your modeling experience is wasted. The occasional triumph can be shared, and the trials and troubles recycled. It's like bleeding in public so that everybody else remembers to buy Band-Aids. A lesson learned (or re-learned, in this case) can be a lesson shared. If you smell a small tale in the offing, you're right. But first, I think we'll start with the lesson. "Straight and light" has been a righteous litany with Pattern pilots and builders for many years now, with good reason. Straight, light airplanes simply fly better. The straighter an airplane is, the easier it is to trim. The lighter it is, the better the power-to-weight ratio, which means more vertical and better acceleration.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
I'M A COMPULSIVE reader. Where model aircraft are concerned, my vice finds its fullest expression. I read everything-Stunt stuff, free flight, Indoor, big birds, Pylon, Electrics, Combat, Soaring, even helicopters. I confess that I even read directions, which all real men discard instantly. I even read the editorials, and the letters to the editor. Which brings me to the first item floating in this month's stew. Ever since Managing Editor Jim Haught's column on the subject in the October '94 MA, letters having been periodically appearing regarding competitors and competition aeromodeling, sport fliers and sport flying, and all of their supposed attitudes towards our hobby/sport and each other, the blessings that competition affords, the curses it bestows, and the cost in blighted souls it exacts.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
BILL CUNNINGHAM, Dave von Linsowe, and Chip Hyde won the right to represent the United States at the 1995 F3A World Championships in Japan. The F3A Team Selection Finals (Masters Tournament) was held at Millington Naval Air Station near Memphis, Tennessee June 23-25. Thirty-two FAI fliers competed for the three US team positions. Bill Cunningham won his first major contest, edging out Dave von Linsowe by a narrow margin. Chip Hyde captured the third team position and Chris Lakin became the US team alternate flier.
