RC Aerobatics
LED by Ivan Kristensen, Canadians took first, third, and fifth in the FAI event. It could easily have been four Canadians in the top 10, but Dave Patrick became ill after qualifying 11th and could not continue. Maybe it's time to seal the U.S./Canadian border? Let's look at the level of participation in RC Aerobatics at the 1990 Nats: A total of 212 contestants competed in Pattern at the Nats. They were distributed among the classes as follows: ( Sportsman-47 ( Advanced-38 ( Expert Turnaround-25 ( Master-18 ( FAI-84
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
Natsphobia has struck, and as this column is being written it's only two weeks before I leave for the Nats. The next issue will be Model Aviation 's annual Nats issue, and this time there will be a change in how the Nats RC Pattern coverage will be handled. Usually either I cover the whole thing or a replacement columnist handles it all. However, in recent years the burden of handling the entire category has become greater for me, due to my multifaceted role as a judge, competitor, and columnist. This year I will judge the first three days' competition (Sportsman and Expert Turnaround) and compete in the Master class during the next three days (Advanced, Master, and FAI). Attempting to get information on the competition, take pictures, and get the competitors' matrix data is very difficult while acting as a judge. So this year Paul Verger will report on all aspects of the Sportsman/Expert Turnaround competition while I'm judging. You may remember that Paul did the reports on last year's Nats and the World Championships. I'll cover the Advanced/Master/FAI competition. We'll both try to get as many photos as we can so there'll be lots of good ones for the MA staff to pick from. Look for the Verger/Van Putte Nats Pattern report in the November issue (shall we call it the Van Putte/Verger Merger?).
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
This has been a trying time for me, but fortunately we usually learn from our experiences. Very briefly, I did a "Farmer Brown" with my Nats airplane (that means I planted it). For the first time in many years I dumb-thumbed an airplane into the ground. The engine died with the airplane low and inverted during a square horizontal eight at a contest in Lafayette, LA. I tried to quarter-roll quickly and pull hard to get it back to the landing area. Unfortunately I didn't roll the airplane (I don't know why), and when I did the hard pull the ground rose up and smote the airplane. What do I do now for a Nats airplane? I managed to pick up a framed up-Atlanta on the way back from the contest and started to work on it Monday night two weeks ago. The test flight was yesterday. That's 15 days from start to flight! I don't know how long it takes most people to build a Pattern airplane, but six to eight weeks is normal for me when I work on it diligently.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
AN UPDATE on the "toad." You may remember that, in the April issue, I wrote about Paul Verger's attempts to "detoad" an unsatisfactory airplane by using all the magic of a Futaba 1024. Paul didn't end up with a prince-he had a toad on life support. Well, Paul called to report a breakthrough. It seems that when Nat Penton (deQuincy, LA) heard about the struggle to detoad the airplane, he called to offer his services. Paul Verger has popularized Nat's reputation as a high priest of voodoo aerodynamics in his column in the K-Factor. (Remember? That's the newsletter of the NSRCA.) Anyway, Nat figured that this problem was right up his alley. He listened to the symptoms and said he'd get back with the detoading team of Paul, Mike Hayden, and Jim Fife.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
MICKEY WALKER (Smyrna, Georgia) had no idea of the monster he might create. To recap, Mickey wrote to me last May that he was forming a new Pattern group called the Senior Pattern Association. It would be open to Pattern fliers 45 and older and contests would be held using airplanes designed before December 31, 1969. I included an excerpt of the letter he wrote to me as part of my column in the August issue of MA After the column was published, Mickey wrote again to report that the response he received was overwhelming. Apparently a lot of people are intrigued with the idea. The first contest will be held near Atlanta, Georgia on October 12th and 13th, and I've heard about several former world class Pattern fliers who plan to attend. The contest should be dripping with nostalgia.
