RC SOARING
MIKE BERGERSON’S SUMMER VACATION
By Gordon Buckland | gordon@gatonf3b.com
IF YOU HAVEN’T MET Mike Bergerson, you have missed meeting a guy with an enormous passion for our Soaring hobby. Mike took the time to pen a great tale about his AMA Nats experience. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
It all started many years ago over Sunday morning coffee. I was content just sipping it, thinking Soaring, and enjoying my wonderful Maine home and our view of the pond.
I was only getting bits and pieces of my wife’s morning monologue. I thought I’d heard a mention of “blue zones” and something about moving. Did she say Minnesota? I fell away from my daydream like the cold air on the backside of a thermal. No way we’re moving—and not to Minnesota! It’s really cold there! I fought hard through soliloquies on longevity through community, activity, and healthy living ... blue zones.
To make this long story shorter, she made me a great deal and I caved. I get to semiretire! I get the entire finished walkout basement of our new townhouse. I can focus on my design work and get my little model kit business going while remodeling the townhome. A new sailplane! I’m not passing up an opportunity to get another competition sailplane. Whoever said you can’t have too many airplanes was spot on!
I loaded the biggest U-Haul truck with a car trailer, drove 1,690 miles, hired two guys to unload, fly back, and repeat! Now I’m gonna need that vacation! The 100th AMA Nats—two weeks of Glider Camp. She can’t say no! I moved her 1,690 miles ... twice!
I registered for F3 Rudder-Elevator-Spoiler (RES), Unlimited, Altitude Limited Electric Sailplanes (ALES), F5J, and the Trifecta. The drive there was uneventful and enjoyable if you’re into corn—lots of corn! There was corn from Minnesota to Indiana.
I rolled into Muncie, Indiana, on Monday just after 2 p.m. The entire AMA complex is surrounded by corn! I set up camp, went to registration, and grabbed my pilot’s kit. There was lots of swag! A mug for cold beverages and a new hat!
It was time to go hang out with a few friends who showed up early as well. The competition would begin in two days. We set up hi-starts and flew our lightweight Two-Meter sailplanes to the edge of their abilities—or was it our abilities? Some say, “It’s all about the pilot,” but I can vouch that a really good airplane doesn’t hurt your chances!
F3RES is a team Thermal Duration (TD) competition. Three guys work together to fly, time, and shag a specialized hi-start. The airplanes must be wooden. You’re allowed a carbon-fiber spar and tailboom. Pilots have a 9-minute window to make a 6-minute flight and precision landing.
You can land and relaunch as many times as you like within the 9 minutes, but your last flight is the one that counts. Launch at the buzzer and land before the buzzer or your landing points are forfeited. It’s a hoot to watch shaggers go over and under the lines, working to get the ring back to the pilot to relaunch. It’s strategy and camaraderie with back-to-basics flying of a rudder and elevator crunchie!
Our team did well, with Ryan Woebkenberg finishing in fourth. We attribute that to our excellent coaching! Line up 10 winches for classic TD! Most pilots, having gone electric, relegated their winched sailplanes to the back corner of the shop until the Nats! There were Aspires, Explorers, Maxas, Supras, and an elegant Egida. I flew my Supra, a full-pedal “gladiator.” Regardless, the lions got me, but the fun and smiles were out of control—just ask Gordon Buckland! He smoked the competition for a big win! They say the air in Muncie is very different—it definitely isn’t normal!
ALES was a fun competition that took place in excellent weather, although haze from the Canadian wildfires made it difficult to see your airplane lower on the horizon. Josh Glaab, one of our USA F3J team pilots, won his first electric event flying a borrowed Volo. He was very excited about that! I finished 18th with approximately 94% of the top score. I definitely left a few minutes and landing points off the board. I’ve got to be more consistent!
Many world-class pilots flew F5J. Great strategies coupled with super-low launches made for incredible lessons in low-level thermaling! Jon Garber won this one again, flying his Ultima 2! There’s that consistency!
Now for the Trifecta! This is my favorite event, with F3RES coming in a close second. You compete with three different classes of sailplanes: RES, Two-Meter, and Nostalgia. In RES, I flew my AVA; in Two-Meter, my Sprite; and in Nostalgia, my trusty, old Oly 650. Flying four 10-minute rounds in each class, I was doing well in all of them right up until round four—go figure. I hadn’t had a pop-off all weekend. I double-popped with the AVA from a bad battery connection, but I got it back on the ground in one piece. Well, RES was done.
I grabbed the Oly 650. It was a dream flier all weekend, shaming the Sailaires and Vikings! I improved its performance by shimming the wing’s trailing edge up 1/16-inch to set the incidence perfectly. In hindsight, I should have glued that shim in.
My third-round landing was a dorker and, unknown to me, the shim had popped out. Needless to say, my launches went too steep and I popped off not once but twice. Nostalgia was done and I was down to the last round of my Nats vacation.
Always my go-to for sailplanes, Two-Meter is one of my passions. I’d been doing well getting my times and had only missed my round one landing. In round four, I launched my Sprite really hard, full pedal, deep into the bucket and zoomed the best launch I’d had all weekend. I got into trouble early and lost a lot of altitude with 5 minutes left in the round. My timer,
Philip, had this cassette tape streamer set up over his RV for the entire competition and it signaled lift famously! I grabbed it and specked back out. I needed a good landing and I might actually do well!
Sprites land hot and you have to be focused on the landing tape. It’s got to be 75 points or better. On the downwind, I asked Philip to get way back—it was moving! I slowed it down with half flaps and turned base at 20 seconds. I turned on the final approach and went to full flaps, listening to Philip count down. Three, two, one, push! When the dust cleared, it was 10:00:83! I won the round, but was it good enough for a trophy? The acrylic trophies started with fifth place and were really nice with the 100th anniversary of the first Nats logo. I waited patiently as the trophies were handed out.
Mike Lackowski was first in RES with his AVA and also in Nostalgia flying a Mirage. Jon, our dedicated contest director, began listing Two-Meter from 10th place. I waited patiently. Fifth place went to Jim Martin. This was his third fifth-place trophy—talk about consistency! Fourth went to Randy Everly; he won it last year. Jon grabbed third place. Now I was really excited. Could it be?
Nah, not today. I placed second—a mere 73 points off of first (I wish I had gotten that first-round landing!). Mike won Two-Meter with his old Drela-designed Aegea, sweeping the Trifecta! Whoa, wait a second ... I got second place in Two-Meter at the Nats! Queue the Muppets! Yay!
USA F5J Tour Results
A huge shoutout to Jeff DuVall, who won the 2023 USA F5J Tour. He worked hard to prevail over Gavin Trussell in second place, with Steven Wilcox in third. Get onboard and fly the F5J Tour in 2024.
Team USA F3J Raffle
It’s Soaring Super Raffle time again. Visit the Team USA F3J website for your tickets in the giant raffle and help the gold-medal-winning USA F3J team win again in Norway in 2024.
Go downwind and soar.
SOURCES:
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Team USA F3J
www.teamusaf3j.com
F5J Contesting—USA
www.f5j-usa.com
Nats 2023
RCGroups
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?4236927
