Radio Control: Soaring
ON MAY 29-30 at Waco, TX, the last of 28 FAI quarter-final contests was held. Since the first week in May, 136 contestants competed and, of that number, 103 qualified. The rules stated that one could fly in two quarter-finals for one entry fee, thereby getting two attempts to earn a slot in the semi-finals. Fifty-seven fliers took advantage of this and, by the time you read this, those 103 quarter-finalists will be reduced to 36 by virtue of the semi-finals that will have been held simultaneously at Fort Wayne, IN; Fort Worth, TX; Spokane, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Elmira, NY; and Tullahoma, TN. That phase of the eliminations was held over the July 4th weekend and the 36 finalists would be announced at the RC Soaring Nationals banquet on July 21.
Radio Control: Soaring
LSF/2000! In less than two years the League of Silent Flight roster has grown by 1000 members, and LSF/2000 went to Hans Dangelmeier of Switzerland. Even though this growth rate was predicted a couple of years ago, it is a remarkable increase. With 1500 in the aspirant files, the next thousand could just possibly take only half as long. LSF Shortlines: Apparently some of the older PDVs (Performance Document Vouchers) are still out and a tinge of misunderstanding remains as to the method of launching for the precision spot landings. Section 9 should read, "...All precision spot-landing flights must commence with a launch meeting the specifications for towline lengths and methods outlined in Section 7..." Please note that "rise off the ground" has been, and should be, deleted.
Nats Radio Control: Soaring
WIND, rain, and cold! That's the way Walt Good described the weather for the soaring event at the A.M.A. Nationals. As a matter of fact the week should have been renamed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Wind, Rain, and Cold. Held at the Springfield municipal airport, an excellent site, the events included two-minute precision, ten-minute duration, and, as an unofficial event, Scale. On Thursday the 20-to 30-mph wind met the 79 entrants head on. And, if the wind wasn't enough of a challenge, the visibility-or lack of it-was. Using two lines of 300 meters many modelers and timers had a difficult time of determining just when lines were released from their models.
7th Soaring Nationals
THE RACE will be talked about for years! Most have praised the event while others are still wondering why they allowed themselves such an endurance test. Conceived last winter as an event to: 1) add a new dimension to the R/C Soaring Nationals, 2) provide a task for club/team competition, and 3) tie in with the 1976 Bicentennial theme; the race accomplished all that and more. The basic rules were simple: one team per AMA club. The object: to fly a cross-country course of 76 kilometers (47.2 miles) with the same ship. Land as many times as necessary but provide your own launch equipment. The lowest total elapsed time would determine the winner.
1976 LSF Tournament
In one of the most tightly fought sailplane contests ever held, Don Edberg outscored Neil Nolte 4852 to 4851 in the seventh annual LSF Tournament. The highest attainable score was 5000 points and only 177 points separated the 15th place finisher from the first! Earlier this year the annual North-South meet-a California affair-revolutionized thermal competition with a man-on-man concept (see Model Aviation, July 1976). Impressed with this idea, tournament contest director Kirby Parker decided to use this basic concept for the 1976 LSF contest.
