Radio Control: Soaring
LATE NEWS FLASH: There's a new Masters contest in our future. Word has just arrived about a new limited-entry Soaring contest designed to determine who is the "Best of the Best." The AMA Nats is a fun contest, but with open entry and its sheer size, it's really more like old-home week than an all-out competition to determine a national champion. The Pattern and Scale fliers have annual Masters contests-why shouldn't Soaring? Many Sailplaners think this is a concept whose time has arrived. I hope you agree! That's the preface, these are the details: The National Soaring Society (NSS) under president Pete Carr, and the Thousand Oaks Soaring Society (TOSS), Miles Moran, president, have teamed up to put on the First Annual Soaring Masters, also known as the World Thermal Championships, March 25-26, 1989 at the TOSS club field in Chatsworth, CA. Chatsworth, as the crow flies, is about 30 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport.
Radio Control: Soaring
DAN PRUSS was Model Aviation's contributing editor for Soaring when the magazine was founded back in 1975. Those who knew Dan in the '70s and early '80s remember his many contributions to RC soaring. Dan CDed the SOAR Nats and was Team Manager of the first three U.S. F3B Teams. Dan died of cancer in 1986, and I've been minding the column since then. The job has been marvelously rewarding in many ways, especially in giving me the opportunity to make friends with so many great sailplaners here and around the world. I have enjoyed this immensely, but time marches on and I feel it's time to pass the baton. This will be my last column, but I love to build and fly gliders, so I'll contribute kit reviews and such to the column from time to time.
Radio Control: Soaring
Official logo of the U. S. FAI RC Soaring team. Pins, patches, and decals bearing the logo are being sold to raise funds to augment the support of the team's effort at the Soaring World Championships in France this coming August. Want to order? Address is in Byron's column this month. 1989 U.S. F3B TEAM: The plane on the '89 team logo looks suspiciously like Rich Spicer's Synergy III. I wonder who designed it (the logo), eh Rich? Seth Dawson has decided to also fly a Synergy III at the World Championships in France this August. He flew a modified Comet to win the team trials last September. Larry Jolly said he is working on a new plane, but we haven't seen it yet.
Radio Control: Soaring
ATRCS radio news: The August 1988 column described the ATRCS (pronounced "A-Tracks") microprocessor conversion to the Airtronics Module 7SP transmitter. Last month Asher Carmichael told us how pleased he was with his ATRCS set. Gene Englegau and Tom Mroz of Control Systems Laboratories developed ATRCS, which stands for Advanced Technology Radio Control System, to give us all the exotic mixing features of the European radios-but at a more reasonable price. Six contestants at the F3B team-selection finals used Airtronics Module/ATRCS radios, and they all were emphatic about how happy they were with them (I mean, six in addition to Gene, who was a finalist!). (See the F3B finals report elsewhere in this issue.) Gene, being a topnotch Sailplaner, designed in all the features you'll likely ever need for flying Gliders-including flying-wing types.
Radio Control: Soaring
NATIONAL Soaring Skills Symposium, May 28-29, 1988. Mark that on your calendar. The Eastern Iowa Soaring Society is sponsoring this unique Soaring get-together for the second year. The idea behind it is to have experts in various specialties (such as thermaling, Slope flying, F3B, Electrics, winches, building, etc.) pass along their knowledge. There will be flying seminars and displays relating to flying Sailplanes and Electrics. The demonstrations will not be "formal," in that experienced instructors will be available all day for questions and demonstrations.
