WHY TRAVEL
LONG
DISTANCES
TO FLY IN A
CONTEST?
By Gordon Buckland | gordon@gatorf3b.com
THERE IS MUCH TO BE GAINED from attending Soaring contests. For some, it is the challenge of the competition and the yearn to improve their skills. For others, it’s the joy of spending time with likeminded individuals and making new friends. A lot of extra fun can be had by attending contests far from the familiarity of your home flying field.
My personal bucket list event was on the West Coast: The legendary Central Valley RC (CVRC) Soaring club’s CVRC Fall Soaring Festival, which was held in Visalia, California, on October 4-5. Having personally enjoyed the Southwest Classic F5J in Arizona and the desert F3J/F5J contests in Nevada, at the time of this writing, I was looking forward to making new friends in California.
On the East Coast, there are also many annual contests that have long histories, such as the AMA Nats, held in July in Muncie, Indiana; the Orlando Buzzards’ November Tangerine event in Florida; and the MidSouth Soaring Championship in May at Triple Tree Aerodrome in South Carolina.
It was during this year’s MidSouth Soaring Championship that I decided to ask some of the pilots about what brought them there from so far away. I hope you enjoy their viewpoints and that the answers encourage you to travel and fly with friends.
Gordon Buckland: How far did you travel to come to Triple Tree?
Wally Adaszcik: I drove 17 hours to get here from Nashua, New Hampshire.
Frank Dumas III: Durham, North Carolina, is three hours and 20 minutes from here.
Gavin Trussell: Nine hours and 40 minutes from Lewis Center, Ohio.
John Armstrong: From Phoenix, Arizona, I flew to Atlanta, and then drove 3-1/2 hours.
Jim Monaco: From Broomfield, Colorado, it’s several thousand miles by airplane.
Randy Everly: I took two days, driving 12 hours from Memphis, Tennessee.
John Lovins: Denver, via Chicago by air, was a long way.
Wayne Wimbish: Saint Louis, Missouri, was 703 miles with two days of driving.
Steve Blake: It took eight hours from Cocoa Beach, Florida.
GB: How often do you travel this far to a Soaring contest?
WA: I usually just go to the Nats, but the Knoxville, Tennessee, guys shamed me into coming.
FD: Three or four times a year.
GT: Almost every time. There are not many contests near me.
JA: Every couple of months.
JM: A couple of times a year.
RE: Not often—just this one.
JL: A few times.
WW: I’ve done 500 miles to Knoxville, but this is the longest distance.
SB: Once per year, to this event.
GB: What makes RC Soaring so attractive to you?
WA: It keeps my flying skills up because I am also a full-scale pilot.
FD: It’s better than flying by myself, and you see things that you wouldn’t see on your own.
GT: Seeing my friends.
JA: This flying site and the friendships.
JM: The people—seeing my friends. I am in the middle of the pack, but I always have fun.
RE: Hanging out with friends.
JL: I chased my father’s Free Flight airplanes as a kid and thought RC would be a lot better because I could bring it back.
WW: The joy and challenge of extending the flight with thermals.
SB: The people.
GB: What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a Soaring contest?
WA: I had a midair with Jack Womack one year and he cut [my sailplane] in half. The next year, we midaired again and I cut [his sailplane] in half and flew out of it. It was awesome!
FD: Listening to some of the stories you hear from people, such as Gavin Trussel.
JA: I flew to a contest in Ohio once and had Gavin pick me up in Cleveland, which is three hours to his north—when, apparently, the contest was to his south. I’m clearly not good at geography!
JM: I went to an F3J team selection in Florida once and lost all three of my airplanes during the contest.
JL: The camaraderie from hanging out with friends.
WW: In my first F5J contest, I went to launch—and nothing. I had selected the wrong model!
GB: What do you like most about the MidSouth Soaring Challenge at Triple Tree Aerodrome?
WA: It’s the camaraderie and a chance to meet the people. The airport is fantastic, and the facilities are just superb.
FD: It’s the best setup that I have ever been to. I love the tree line.
GT: It’s a beautiful place to camp, stay, and hang out with friends.
JA: The temperature, the environment, and the color green.
JM: It’s a beautiful place, and the trees are amazing.
Those who have attended the MidSouth at Triple Tree often rave about the joys of the Saturday night barbecue.
The Soaring experience at Triple Tree Aerodrome is second-to-none, with gorgeous soft grass, a brilliant pit area, and first-class camping facilities.
RE: It’s a gorgeous facility—showers!
JL: The scenery is wonderful.
WW: The grass is immaculate. It’s a very cool place.
SB: It’s an awesome area.
GB: What is your favorite event to attend?
WA: Nats and, specifically, Cross Country Nats.
FD: It was The Bruce. Now it’s the MidSouth at Triple Tree.
GT: Triple Tree.
JA: Triple Tree.
JM: Nats.
RE: Nats.
JL: Nats.
WW: Nats.
SB: Triple Tree.
GB: What model do you fly in F5J?
WA: A hand-me-up Volo.
FD: The Vixen when its windy and a Volo.
GT: An Ultima 2.
JA: An Ultima 2.
JM: A Berkut and a Volo when it’s windy.
RE: A Sense.
JL: A Volo and a 2PK.
WW: A BerkutS and a Q4.
SB: An Ultima 2.
There you have it. The consensus is that spending time with friends is what makes traveling to contests worth it, and the MidSouth Soaring Championship at Triple Tree Aerodrome is the epitome of Soaring goodness. (It’s the Nats South.)
2025 AMA RC Soaring Nats
Meanwhile, the 2025 RC Soaring Nats and Glider Camp have come and gone with a new schedule that saw many happy pilots congregate in July at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.
The new schedule started with Cross Country, and then two days of Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) and F3K, and two days of F5J with F3L midweek, which culminated into three days of the new quadfecta format for winch-launching: Unlimited, Rudder-Elevator-Spoiler (RES), Two-Meter, and Nostalgia.
There was a lot of discussion about the winch schedule. I personally believe that we should completely drop RES going forward at the Nats and just fly one day each of Unlimited, Two-Meter, and Nostalgia rather than mixing them up. Let me know what you think.
Full online scores for the Nats can be found on the GliderScore website, listed in “Sources.”
By the way, as the back-to-back Nats winner of F3L, I have now completed the hat-trick of Level V wins that I needed for my third League of Silent Flight (LSF) Level V. This is one real benefit of traveling to contests that are sufficient for pilots to complete LSF tasks, in an era where there are fewer and fewer contests with pilot numbers!
Jeff Carr
It is with great sadness that I must announce the recent passing of Jeff Carr, who was instrumental in the huge success of the MidSouth Soaring Championship by nurturing the relationship with the owners of Triple Tree Aerodrome. Jeff had been valiantly fighting a battle with cancer for the last few years. Supported by his wife, Brenda, he was incredibly passionate about Soaring and aviation in general.
Jeff will be forever remembered as the kind of man we all aspire to be, and we are indebted to him for making the MidSouth one of the best Soaring contests in the country.
Fly downwind and soar!
SOURCES:
GliderScore
www.gliderscore.com
Central Valley RC
www.cvrcsoaring.wordpress.com
Triple Tree Aerodrome
www.tta.aero
2025 AMA RC Soaring Nats
https://nats.modelaircraft.org/discipline/
radio-control-soaring
