NATS
The 2016 Nats celebrated 90 years of competition, and ran from June 24 through August 4. The Outdoor Nats events were held at the International Aeromodeling Center (IAC) at AMA Headquarters in Muncie, Indiana. The Indoor Nats took place at the Rantoul National Aviation Center in Rantoul, Illinois.
Although the Nats is certainly a competition, it is also a gathering of an extended aeromodeling family that provides attendees the opportunity to share and to learn more about the disciplines in which they choose to participate.
In what follows, presented in the order in which the events took place, our 2016 NatsNews authors share their thoughts and insight into this special anniversary year of the Nats.
—Jay Smith
jays@modelaircraft.org
RC Scale (Stan Alexander)
Change is the word I think about when describing this year’s Nats. A new flying site at AMA’s IAC, a new set of awards, new event director, camping quite near the flying site, and great weather all weekend are only a few of the things that come to mind.
John Boyko volunteered to be this year’s RC Scale Nats event director with the edict to facilitate change, which he did with the help of many of the NASA officers and a small army of volunteers and judges.
AMA outdid itself with the flying site. The grass was rolled, cut to ¼ inch, vacuumed, then cut and rolled again. The runway was approximately 800 x 75 feet with runoffs at both ends and to the outside of the takeoff and landing area. Nobody had problems with taking off or landing on the grass, including jets, World War I and II models, or civil aircraft.
There were seven classes to enter this year, including Fun Scale Novice and Expert, Sportsman Scale, Expert Scale, Team Scale, Open Scale, and Designer Scale. As in nearly all Scale competition now, Fun Scale Expert is the most popular class. A Scale National Champion was added for both RC and Control Line (CL) this year.
Static judging was held on Friday, June 24, with four rounds of flying competition on Saturday and Sunday. At the Saturday night banquet, the “best of” awards were presented, as voted by the contestants.
Hal Parenti won Designer Scale again this year. He promises to have a new, larger turbine-powered Ryan Fireball next year. Expert Scale saw a few added entries, with Mike Barbee and his 110-pound T-34B winning. Team Scale saw another of Mike’s entries finish first with Frank Noll flying Mike’s Flying Models Wildcat in British Navy colors.
Open Scale started to pick up participants, with Will Berninger flying his T-34C to a first-place finish. Fun Scale Expert had 21 entries this year, and Terry Nitsch won with his Bob Violett Models MiG-15.
In Sportsman Scale, it was great to see Mike Wartman take first place with a highly modified Top Flite P-47 that he built. In Fun Scale Novice, first-time Nats competitor Johnny Hunt, from Texas, took first place with another P-47.
It was a great time at this year’s Nats, with friends, good weather, and a renewed program that speaks for everyone in AMA and NASA. Join us next year!
CL Scale (Fred Cronenwett)
The 2016 CL Scale Nats had great weather this year. The CL event, also organized by NASA, took place June 23-26 instead of in July as is customary. In ½A Scale, static scores came in anywhere from 50 to 76 points, with Richard Schneider earning the top static award and taking first place. Roger Wildman and Allen Goff each flew a Brewster Buffalo built from the same plans. Roger took second and Allen placed third.
David Betz attended his first Nats, flying a scratch-built Pawnee that took fifth place. David also won the raffle prize of a ½A kit and engine.
Fun Scale can be very competitive. Only a possible 10 static points can be awarded, so the difference in static points, ranging from 5.75 to a perfect 10, made a difference. Mike McHenry flew his P-39 with two flights that scored 94.5 points and higher to take first place. There was only a four-point difference between first and third. Joe Gilbert flew
