2023 AMA SOARING NATS ROUNDUP
By Gordon Buckland | gordon@gatorf3h.com
THE AMA SOARING NATS saw a new schedule this year that provided more than a full week of “soaring with friends” at the International Aeromodelling Center in Muncie, Indiana, the Soaring mecca of the world. The weather did not disappoint, with some of the best thermal conditions we have experienced in Muncie in years.
The great conditions saw some awesome League of Silent Flight (LSF) Soaring Achievement Program Goal and Return Task flights on the first day, with Ed Dumas never giving up before triumphantly completing his 10 km for Level V.
You know you are getting old when you drive more than 900 miles to discover that you left your box of F3 Rudder Elevator Spoiler (F3RES) models back in Florida! I was there, but I missed the contest. F3RES was the first contest discipline flown at Site 4 and it was enjoyed by all.
Because F3RES is a “team” event, it adds that extra bit of fun to Soaring because each pilot can enjoy their favorite helper for the duration of the contest. It was won over two days by Craig Greening, who flew a Peter Goldsmith Designs Opal, with Contest Director (CD) Jon Garber in second place flying his self-designed TigRES, and Gavin Trussell in third place with his Medina.
Unlimited started on Sunday, July 16, with an extremely hazy sky that limited visibility for many pilots. The front passed and the wind was gentle through mid-afternoon. Having great eyesight was a big advantage in the haze, but the thermal conditions were relatively easy to start until, as always, the afternoon Muncie madness set in and many corn retrievals began.
The second day of Unlimited was more of the same, and fast decisions were important because the lift quickly traveled downwind. This year was apparently my year because I made many sorties deep over the corn and never landed out, as did many of my competitors. It was a great tussle between Dave Bradley and Mike Lachowski.
I finally kept my nose in front of Josh Glaab right up to the last flight. Minimizing mistakes finally allowed me to take the honor of first place in Unlimited, with Josh in second, and Dave in third. For me, this was a dream come true because I have been in second place here before and it really pays to keep on trying.
The Altitude Limited Electric Sailplane (ALES) event was conducted throughout two of the calmest, most glorious, thermal days I have ever experienced in Muncie, and this resulted in very close scores right up until the end, with Josh taking out F5J team pilot Jim McCarthy for the win by just one point throughout 14 rounds. Third place went to Ed.
The F3K pilots flew on Site 4 and enjoyed the unusually balmy Muncie weather, with early fog changing quickly to predictable thermal conditions, which made for a hard-fought contest. In the end, the USA F3K Team pilots, Oleg Golividov and Joe Daugherty, fought it out right up to the last round, with Joe in first place by .6 points, Oleg in second place, and Frank Dumas in third place. It was a good workout for the US team pilots a month ahead of this year’s world championship.
As a result of a lot of ground-hugging clouds until 10 a.m., F5J started late on Thursday. Lift was soft to start, but by round two, the typical Muncie conditions prevailed, with a steady 10 mph southerly wind kicking in, requiring pilots to make sure that they were buying their ride as they quickly drifted downwind.
Joe put on a thermaling clinic way deep over the corn in round three. The entire group was on the ground early except for Joe and Josh. Conditions were quite difficult until 3 p.m., and it was round four/group
two before we actually flew a round where all of the pilots in the group maxed.
Day two had many tough flights in the typical Muncie lift/sink, with many notable pilots landing out, including Joe, who scored five grannies in a row before landing out to zero the final round and finishing in second to a consistent Jon. Reid Roberts was third.
Trifecta started on Saturday with perfect thermal conditions. Slight downwind launches were costly on launch height for some, but most pilots found nice air in each class. Trifecta is a really fun format of three classes: Nostalgia (NOS), RES, and Two-Meter. Plenty of old-school aircraft were dusted off for the annual event. Aside from some beautiful 50-plus-year-old models being carefully taped up, there were also some more modern versions of these nostalgic craft with much stronger spars and less twisty wings, making for some quite spectacular launches!
Mike Lachowski was simply the best when it came to exploiting the conditions. He gave us all a Soaring clinic with a clean sweep in all three classes. He took first place with a beautifully executed Mirage in Nostalgia, first place with an AVA Pro
in RES, and first place with an old Aegea in Two-Meter. Josh flew to second place in NOS with a very stiff Maestro Mk III, and Craig took third place, expertly piloting a PGD Foxbat. Josh also placed second in RES with his AVA Pro, and third was Gavin. In second place for Two-Meter was Mike Bergerson, with Jon in third.
Special mention goes to Jon because he stepped up as the CD for multiple classes and worked his butt off while flying in them as well. The complete, detailed scores for each discipline can be found on the GliderScore.com website, and F3K scores can be viewed on F3XVault.com.
I give great credit to the team of hard-working LSF volunteers who organized and smoothly ran a memorable Nats, in particular the core folks who did the hard work so that we could have fun. Thank you Jody Miller, Jim, Wally Adaszcik, and Ed for making this Glider Camp such a success.
For me, the spirit of Soaring is captured perfectly with the Trifecta classes being all string-launched. It is what I look forward to the most with my journey to the Nats.
Go downwind and soar.
SOURCES:
GliderScore.com
www.gliderscore.com
F3XEvents.com
www.f3xevents.com
F3XVault.com
www.f3xvault.com
AMA Nats 2023
https://nats.modelaircraft.org
