'81 AMA Texas Nats: RC Helicopters
Luther Akemon
Arrival and first impressions
On my way to Seguin for the Nats, I envisioned a contest with at least a hundred fliers from all over the U.S. When I arrived and checked in at headquarters, I was told that the turnout wasn't as good as hoped for. I headed for the flying site to set up camp and was greeted by only one contestant tuning his machine for the next morning's flying: Bruce Buchanan of Minnesota, with his scale Kavan Jet Ranger. It was to be the only scale entry of the meet.
I was feeling a little let down by this time. My spirits were lifted by Tommy Williams, who was also camping on the field. We talked choppers far into the night.
The next morning, I began to see that my fears of an uneventful meet were unfounded. Contestants and spectators started arriving at 6:30 a.m. The first event of the day was unpleasant: Bruce Buchanan lost a rotor blade during a test flight of that lovely Jet Ranger, and the machine shook itself apart. Fortunately, Bruce was ready to fly in Expert with his Heliboy.
Come on, people — where are all of those beautiful scale ships I hear about? Some of you could have done very well if you had brought them to the Nats. Plan on it next year!
When registration got underway, my early disappointment gave way to real excitement. I got a chance to meet and talk to some of the top helicopter fliers in the country, people I'd only read about before. Don't believe what you hear about the top competitors being snobbish. I learned more about helicopters in those two days than I have in a year. They are all great people.
My hat is off to CD Dwayne Stephens and his team of judges. The event ran smoothly and maintained a level of real excitement long after the first round was over.
The entries
The .60-powered machines dominated the field of contestants by sheer numbers. There were more Horizons flying than any other ship in its class. These Hubert Bitner designs were also the only flybarless machines entered. The Schluter Heliboy was the next most popular machine, followed by the .25-powered Cricket, the Kalt Baron 50, and the GMP Competitor.
I was surprised to see the little Cricket entered in two categories, Expert and Intermediate. I must say that I didn't think they had much of a chance until I saw Bob Gorham fly his in Intermediate and Bill Curtis fly his in Expert. In spite of wind gusting to over 10 mph, those little Crickets sure did a great job. Both were straight-out-of-the-box kits with no special additions.
Greg Howard flew his Schluter SX-81 in Junior Novice. I'm going to warn all you top fliers to be on the lookout for Greg. He's 14 years old, the youngest competitor there. If he keeps flying as well as he did, he's going to be one of the best very soon.
The only person who crashed during the first day's flying was yours truly. No one warned me about Texas sunsets. I was happily flying my SX-81 when it got dark—real fast! I lost sight of my ship and put it into the ground deliberately to prevent an accident.
Saturday
The last day of flying got rolling at exactly 8:00 a.m. This time, due to a wind shift, the contestants were flying in a different direction; they also flew in reverse sequence.
The competition was intense! It was a fight for first place in each category. As the day wore on and the temperature climbed to around 100°F, the flying became more precise. The wind started kicking up again—bad news for the Crickets, I thought. Wrong again; they handled the breeze just as well as their heavier counterparts. Bill Curtis flew an excellent flight with his Cricket in Expert. After he landed and called "flight completed," he noticed something peculiar about his receiver antenna. Close inspection revealed that it had gotten wrapped around the main rotor shaft and swashplate. In spite of this punishment, his Airtronics XL radio worked flawlessly. It sure speaks well for the reliability of RC equipment in general, and Airtronics in particular.
Bill, you may remember, was the man responsible for the .60 conversion for the Du-Bro Shark way back when. He was also one of the designers of the flybarless head for the Kavan Jet Ranger. Because of a skiing accident three years ago, he hadn't touched a helicopter until last April. You sure couldn't tell it from his flying! Welcome back, Bill; we missed you. By the way, Bill's Cricket placed fourth.
The manufacturers
While the contest flying was underway, I wandered around some of the different displays that the manufacturers had set up on the field.
- Walt Schoonard had a wide assortment of Schluter machines. Especially interesting were an SX-81 set up for inverted flight and the new Mini Boy. It was the first chance I'd had to get a close look at the Mini Boy. Walt says that two versions are available: fixed pitch or collective. The collective version comes with flybar weights and an autorotation clutch. I got a chance to see it fly and was impressed with the smoothness. Walt says that the Mini Boy is planned to replace the Hellibaby, but Hellibaby parts are still in stock and will be available for as long as there is demand for them.
- John Gorham had a real eye-catching assortment of machines: the Competitor, the Aerospatiale, the Huey Cobra, and of course the ubiquitous Cricket. Most impressive was a 1/5-scale Lama. All of the Gorham models were beautiful. The Competitor not only looks great but flies as well as it looks.
- I also took a look at the Kalt Baron 50 which Mike Mas flew to first place. It was a well-deserved win for a beautiful machine. I noticed that the Baron had a Helibaby head instead of the stock version; Mike assures me that there's nothing wrong with the head that comes with the kit.
- I finally got over to Hubert Bitner's side of the field. He is one of the designers of the Horizon 60. I really fell in love with this machine. I was a bit concerned about flying a flybarless design, but my fears vanished after watching a few flights. The Horizon is a very tough machine. I watched one beginner run into a typical bit of beginner's trouble: the machine started to head for him, and he put it into the ground. He hit pretty hard, but the Horizon shrugged it off with only a bent pitch arm and a little runway rash on the rotor blades.
The last rounds and results
It seems that Larry Jolly had to scratch the last few flights because of radio problems. Bob Gorham had finished his last flight in Intermediate. Mike Mas had completed his flight and was sure that he had come in second.
Hubert Bitner made the last flight of the event. The excitement and tension were running high. He completed his flight and was heading back to the pits when the judges informed him that he was three seconds over the time limit. With the fate of the last flight in the hands of the judges, Hubert and Mike awaited the final results. When the dust settled:
- Expert
- Mike Mas
- Hubert Bitner
- Intermediate
- Robert Gorham
- Jay Williams
- Novice Open
- Jay Trowbridge
- Junior Novice
- Greg Howard
Bill Curtis finished fourth in Expert with his Cricket.
Conclusion
All in all, it was a terrific meet in spite of the low turnout. The small number of crashes as compared to previous years is really encouraging. If you don't come next year, you'll be missing a great time!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
