The 2024 Scale R/C Nats – Day 4, Sunday

Jul 15, 2024

Reported by Gerry Garing

A great time was had by all at the banquet held at The Clubhouse Muncie last evening. There was plenty of catching up and war stories shared among both radio control and control line NATS participants. Plenty of great food was served buffet style and plenty of time was provided to enjoy it! The program for the Saturday evening banquet traditionally includes the formal announcement of the latest inductees to the AMA Hall of Fame. Looking over the names of those already in the Hall of Fame you soon realize what an honor it is to be inducted. This year’s inductees include Jerry Bates, Pete Bauer, and George Rose. You can read more about their lifelong accomplishments and contributions to the hobby on the AMA website. Finally, is the drawing for the UMS 160cc Radial engine and ignition. Proceeds from the raffle are used to support the FAI Team representing the USA in the control line and radio control scale. The lucky winner is Mickey Breunig from Versailles, KY. Congratulations! Another NASA raffle is used to support regional and championship contests throughout the year. Those winners will be drawn during the 2024 Scale Classic in September. Visit nasascale.org to purchase tickets or learn more.

Another nice morning, however, the breeze is picking up by 9:00 just in time for the start of Round 4. The plan this morning is to complete round 4 in the morning followed by the awards ceremony. Round 4 began at 9:00 AM and finished by 11:30. The breeze was stiffer this morning than the slower and lighter aircraft. At this point of the contest, pilots are more interested in the scores of others trying to calculate what they need to fly to beat out the others—always wondered about that because only fly as well as needed. Does this mean you’ll only fly as well as needed? Or, if I can’t place better, no sense me flying?

Pilots were waiting in nervous anticipation as the scores were held secret until time for awards. The 2024 NATS Summary final score sheets will appear in the summary report later this week.

High Static Scores
Sports Scale Expert: Dale Arvin – Fokker D.VII
Sports Scale Sportsman: Brian Peterson- Kraft Super Fly
Designer: Keith Numbers-RA FE-8
Team: Brian Taylor- Spacewalker
Open: Dave Marenberg- Fokker D.VII

Contest Results:

523 Open Scale
1. Will Bernenger- T34C
2. Jeffrey Pike- Savage Cruiser
3. Jeff Thomas- F 86

520 Pro Am Sportsman
1. Helmut Schmitter – RV 4
2. Jack Satterfield- MXS
3. John Pasquale- PT-19

520 Pro Am Pro D1
1. Steve Petrotto- FX-3 Cub
2. Mike Barbee- Stearman
3. Art Shelton- Sopwith Pup

520 Pro Am Pro Div 2
1. Dan Landis- L39
2. Mike Wolvin- F9F Cougar
3. Steve Petrotto – MB 339

511 Sport Sportsman
1. Randy Adams-Nieuport 17
2. Brian Taylor – Nieuport 28
3. Brian Peterson- Kraft Super Fli

512 Expert Sportsman
1. Dale Arvin- Fokker D.VII
2. Ron Pound – Stuka
3. Jack Buckley- Mini Max

515 Designer Scale
1. Keith Numbers- RA FE-8

522 Team Scale
1. Berringer/Barbee-T34B
2. Wolvin McDevitt-FG1 Corsair
3. Schurick/Eagle – SE5A

Group pic of High Static winners. L to R. Tom (accepting Brian Peterson, missing is Brian Taylor.

T-34 of Will Berenger retracting gear on climb out.

Mike Wolvin’s F9F Cougar on takeoff roll.

Brian Taylor’s Spacewalker landing.

Helmut Schmitter RV-4 touching down.

Steve Pettroto FX-3 Cub on fly-by.

Corsair pit crew planning strategy for today’s first flight.

John Boyko presenting the Bob Lirette award to Cole Bryant. This award recognizes effort above and beyond. Cole did an excellent job as line boss all weekend.
In addition, he was there to help anytime a job needed to be done.

2024 Scale NATS award winners!

The 2024 Scale R/C Nats – Day 3, Saturday

Jul 13, 2024

Reported by Gerry Garing

Today starts off with a serious feel to it. What does that mean? Thursday was a registration, practice, and if applicable, static judging. Yesterday morning was more registration, practice, and static judging, if applicable. John Boyko held another brief meeting and pilots were off to fuel up, get in line, and be ready to start round 2 flying at 9:00 AM sharp.

The sky was bright, and any wind was very light and right down the runway. The beauty of watching scale competitions is the variety of airplanes and flight routines. Unlike some other events where each pilot flies the same set of maneuvers, the scale pilot chooses a routine consistent with the airplane. A WWI airplane could be flying chandelles, and wingovers, an aerobatic airplane an airshow display, or a warbird flying military maneuvers. This year’s NATS is no exception with 1900’s Curtis Pusher and Royal aircraft F.E.-8 at one end of aviation history to turbine-powered L39 and Grumman Cougar.

Seems like the current trend at the local flying field is one plane in the air at a time. Newcomers to larger contests are often surprised to learn that there are multiple aircraft in the air at the same time. This contest has 4 flight lines running simultaneously, for example. While a midair collision is rare, it can happen, as was the case this morning. A lightweight model ultralight collided with a giant-scale Corsair. Fortunately, it was a glancing collision and both aircraft landed with relatively minor damage.

Some pilots approach the scorekeeper almost as soon as the plane is landed and stops. It is standard procedure that scores for the round are not posted until the round is completed and the scores tabulated. The results are then displayed, and pilots get a chance to see how they did. Imagine a feeding frenzy at a seaside dock and! Competition is brisk as evidenced by the shuffling of positions between rounds 1, 2, and 3. Refer to the score sheets in the photos.

Saturday night is the traditional contest banquet held this year at the Club House in downtown Muncie. Aside from the comradery, awards are given to the high static scores in each class. This year, the highlight of the evening may well be the drawing for the UMS 160 cc radial engine. Check back with tomorrow’s report to learn the winners.

Tomorrow is the last day of the contest and the competition remains stiff!!

District 2 VP Randy Adams and his caller Ron Mienheartt discuss strategy for round 1.

Pitts S2B was flown by Jerry Nugent.

1/3 scale Sopwith Pup flown by Art Shelton. This is from a German kit imported by Vogelsang Aeroscale.

Carbon Cub flown by Rory Hartman entered in Pro-Am Sportsman.  A great example of an ARF that is perfect for getting started into R/C Scale.

A large airplane, the Hangar 9 FX-3 Carbon Cub is DLE 170 powered. Flown by Steve Petrotto. The plane is recovered in the Red Bull scheme in Monokote.

CARF models Spitfire co-owned by Mike Wolvin and Jim McDevitt. A 3-cylinder inline ROTO 130 CC engine supplies the power.

Scores from Saturday

The 2024 Scale R/C Nats – Day 2, Friday

Jul 12, 2024

Reported by Gerry Garing

Once again, we were greeted to a great morning at the field albeit the grass was still quite wet from yesterday’s storm, however, nothing delayed John Boyko’s 8:30 pilot meeting. The registration area was kept busy with those yet to register. In the meantime, static judging was under way handling the remaining half of the planes from yesterday. We had about an hour before round 1 was set to begin at 1:30.

This year’s NATS is using 4 flight lines. There are considerations which complicate what appears to be an easy task. For example, it is important that all pilots in one class are judged by the same sets of judges for consistency. The second consideration is some pilots are flying in two different classes. Therefore, their flights must be staggered to prevent flying at the same time. Only a few minutes were required to sort out the bugs.

Seems like a never-ending conversation is a need to attract new scale fliers, particularly young ones. 16-year-old Jack Satterfield, and his mother Linda, showed up this morning to compete in his first scale contest. Jack has been flying aerobatics and 3D maneuvers with his Extreme Flight 64” WS MXS.

He spent yesterday visiting the aeromodelling center to see the various events. At the end of the day, it was the RC Scale event that captured his interest. He went home to learn more through YouTube videos and returned today to register. John Boyko spent time explaining the appropriate class for him and what he would need to do during a flight. Others were eager to lend him advice after which he immediately flew a practice flight to put words into action.

When asked what attracted him to scale, I was surprised to hear him say the challenge. He said flying scale is not easy because it requires precision and discipline. His goal for this winter is to build a Kawasaki K-61 Tony kit for next year. How refreshing to see the interest in building!!

Before round 1, the 8 flight judges assembled to critique and discuss a demonstration flight by Will Berninger and his T-34. The goal is to bring agreement and consistency among judges. Round 1 began about 15 minutes later and wrapped up at 4:30 PM. Once all the scores were in and tabulated, pilots were given their static and 1st round flight scores. See the photos for the scores.

Just like yesterday, brief but heavy rain moved in at the end of the day not long after round 1 was concluded. Mike Barbee once again treated guests to a Friday evening pizza party. While the idea is to kick back and socialize, things get very quiet once the food arrives! It’s off for some much-needed rest until we are back at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Contest Director John Boyko’s 8:30 AM Pilot meeting.

Tim Dickey, assisted by Jack Buckley, assembled the Romania-bound FAI F4C Waco, Cabin.

Larry Folk’s 1/3 Scale Cub lined up on final approach.

Royal Aircraft F.E.8 was designed, built, and flown by Keith Numbers breaking ground.

Which is rarer? Full-scale Curtis Pusher or a model Curtis Pusher? This model built by Larry Barr flies as good as it looks.

Jeff Pike’s B-24 was built from a Jack Stafford kit. Engine problems kept this good-looking model grounded for round 1. Let’s hope it gets sorted out for round 2.

Scores from Friday