AMA Nats 1983: RC Helicopters
Horace Hagen
This report is given from a Nats Event Director's point of view.
About two years earlier, the Monmouth Model Airplane Club and I volunteered to run the RC Helicopter event at the first AMA Nationals to be held on the East Coast in 13 years. This offer was based on the assumption that the 1982 Nats would be held at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. When, in 1982, it was announced that the 1983 Nats would be held at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, we were a little reluctant to volunteer.
At the start of 1983, I spoke with AMA HQ to determine if the FAI competition category could be added to the Nats. They informed me that it could only be offered as an unofficial event because it was too late to include it on the Nats entry form. After I told them that was acceptable to me, they asked if I would be willing to run it. I couldn't very well refuse, since it was my suggestion in the first place. At first I volunteered to run only the FAI event, but upon reflection I decided to run all five RC Helicopter events at the Nats.
I had several motives for running the FAI event. The main one was to get the best pilots together and select the best three to represent our country in a World Helicopter Championships. Another motive was to encourage contestants who have flown the FAI maneuvers overseas to come to our Nats and show us the FAI maneuvers in their best light. Another reason for holding this event at the Nats, rather than somewhere else, was that the same pilots who fly our Expert category would most likely want to try their hand at the FAI maneuvers. In addition, as the U.S.A. representative on the FAI RC Helicopter F3C Subcommittee, I wanted to gain more experience with the FAI category in order to be able to contribute more to that subcommittee.
Pre-registration and Entries
During the latter part of May, the pre-registration process got under way as the first contestants mailed in their forms. I was a little disappointed at this time because we had only two entries in each of the four official categories. It was also at this time that I learned the number of trophies awarded in each event is based on the number of pre-registrants in that event:
- With nine or fewer entries, the number of trophies equals three.
- With 10 to 19 entries, the number jumps to five.
- For each additional 10 entries, a trophy is added (i.e., 20–29 entries = six trophies, etc.).
I called members of the AMA RC Helicopter Advisory Committee (of which I am presently chairman), encouraging them to inform their circles of friends to pass this information along — with the hope that we would have at least 10 entries in each of the four official competition classes by the pre-registration deadline of July 1, 1983.
By the pre-registration deadline we had more than 10 entries in all classes except Scale and FAI. The total was 50 — about 10 more than I expected and most encouraging. We also had one entry from Japan, which encouraged me to expect more entries from overseas.
Preliminary Activity at the Nats
After transmitter processing, contestants proceeded to the event processing table where we checked that the frequency given on the pre-registration form was indeed the one that would be used during competition. We also provided a contestant number, which was placed on the contestant's transmitter and model to allow easy identification at the flying site. We performed safety inspections on some of the models.
During this time we registered 14 late entries — which really gave us something to think about. At the close of the processing interval (5:00 p.m.), we had 71 entries in the AMA events and 10 in the FAI category. Needless to say, the Nats team (assistant CD Dick Robbins, Jim Harmer and myself) expected a long evening organizing the three flight lines to be used during the contest.
Late that evening, after a quick bite to eat, we made last-minute checks of our equipment and found, to our dismay, that our stopwatches and calculators had no batteries. A desperate search was made and we managed to find the special type used in stopwatches. We also did not have enough score sheets rounded up. We were very fortunate to have AMA RC Category Director Betty Stream help us solve equipment problems. Mike Freeman, AMA's volunteer computer guru, came through very late Sunday night and ran off several hundred labels used on the score sheets.
Contest Day 1
I arrived at the RC Helicopter flying site about 6:00 a.m. Monday morning and erected the crowd control line. Contestants were requested to park their vehicles behind the rope in order to maximize space available in the area in front of the crowd line. The flying field side used canopies. An AMA mobile home served as event headquarters. Frequency impound was set up in front of the AMA mobile home; the canopy was furnished by AMA HQ. The official AMA schedule called for the event to get started at 7:00 a.m.; we fully intended to stick to it.
Due to several problems, we did not get started until 9:45 a.m. We had to process four additional late entries which increased the total number of entries to 85. These late entries disrupted the already-established flying order. (Note: Next year, the late-entry deadline will be the same for RC Helicopters as for the other RC events!) At 9:00 a.m. the contest entry was officially closed, and we did count three no-shows, which gave us a total entry of 82. The total number of contestants registered was 66, and 19 of these flew in two events.
Three complete flying courses were laid out in tandem (i.e., in a row) parallel to the crowd line, as shown in the AMA rule book. The separation between courses was about 200 ft. for safety reasons, resulting in a total field length of approximately 1,300 ft. The distance from the course baseline to the crowd line was 150 ft., giving a flying field width of about 450 ft. We were fortunate to have the very large grass field made available by the Smith & Wesson Company.
Since we had only 10 entries in the FAI category, we planned to use Flight Line 3 as a dual site for FAI and AMA events. The FAI course was set up first, and the FAI entries were given priority. When they were finished, we changed Flight Line 3 over to the AMA configuration. At this time we had three full AMA courses, and the 72 AMA entries were processed through ready lines based on available RC frequency.
We were anxious to see the flying style and the types of FAI maneuvers selected by Mr. Yoshiaki Nagatsuka of Japan during this first round. I was most impressed by the smoothness and a superb axial roll. The judges must have been similarly impressed, as they awarded him about 200 points over the next best pilot. The real surprise came when he flew in our AMA Expert class and got the highest score there as well.
The first round took quite a while to complete, but that is normal, based on our experience at the East Coast RC Helicopter Championships which we have run for the past seven years. The delay that cannot be eliminated is the time necessary to complete the static judging of the Scale entries, and with 11 entries that was an almost impossible task.
Round 1 ended at about 3:00 p.m. We called a pilots' meeting, where we recommended that a second round be flown and asked for a show of hands of those who agreed. It was an almost unanimous decision to continue. We reminded the contestants that they must be ready when called in order to get the second round in before nightfall. A second round of Scale was not flown on Monday, which helped in completing the maneuver portion of the second round in about four-and-a-half hours. The first day closed at 7:30 p.m., and we breathed a sigh of relief because we had satisfied one basic contest requirement of two complete rounds. (This meant that even if we got rained out the second day, we could still determine the winners.)
Contest Day 2
The contest got an earlier start on the second day at 8:30 a.m. The judges were reassigned to the various flight lines and indicated they were ready for another day in the hot sun. For those who have never spent a whole day sitting in one place staring at model aircraft flying through the sun, let me say that these people deserve an awful lot of credit; theirs is a very tedious and demanding task, and without them a contest cannot function.
All five competition categories were flown in Round 3. The judges were rotated again for this round, which gave most contestants the opportunity to fly in front of a different set of judges for each round. Compared to the previous day, the flying got off to a good start, and the contest seemed to settle into its own rhythm. The scores posted on the scoreboard also seemed to improve with each round, indicating that the contestants were getting rid of the contest butterflies. The third round ended about 1:00 p.m., and we again had a pilots' meeting to decide if we should/could get another round in before sunset. The show of hands again indicated to go for it.
At the start of the contest, I had requested that we run only two rounds of Scale because of the rather large number of entries. I thought the Scale contestants would be happy with two rounds. I was wrong — the Scale contestants wanted three rounds of flying to give them a throw-away round as well. Since the contest was running normally at this point, no one objected.
During Round 4 we were threatened by a thunderstorm which loomed to the southwest of the flying field. I prepared to cancel the fourth round at a moment's notice and kept a careful watch on the storm. I finally relied on the Pioneer Valley RC Club members to tell me what to expect; they told me the storm would in all likelihood travel down the Connecticut River, which is exactly what it did.
An interesting event occurred during Round 4 when our guest from Japan was eased out of first place in Expert by Bob Graham. In the FAI class, he eased Tom Dalusio out of first place, which is the outcome one would have predicted based on the relative experience of each.
The award ceremony started at about 6:00 p.m. Twenty-three contestants received awards in the form of plaques. The first-place winners also received a quartz clock donated by the Timex Corporation with a little help from our friend Ed Lazo (Ed was one of the major driving forces in getting the Nats back to the East Coast).
We had a very special guest present during the award ceremony: the father of RC Helicopters, Mr. Dieter Schlueter of West Germany. Dieter and I met back in 1970 right after he set the world record for Duration and Closed Course Distance with his Huey Cobra.
Summary and Observations
In summary, the quality of flying has improved dramatically in the last few years. This is in no small part due to the high quality of the machines available today. We witnessed over 300 flights with only one crash and two mishaps. In all of the competition categories — and especially in the FAI category — we saw some fantastic flying and a dramatic improvement in scores with each round.
If participation for future Nats is as high as it was here, we should consider running a separate contest for the FAI category (perhaps a team selection similar to the present Masters for Pattern) at a site that is closer to the hub of RC Helicopter activity.
At the start of the competition I asked some of the judges to keep track of the actual flight time used in each class. It turned out that several pilots ran very close to the time limit, and a few actually exceeded the flight time and consequently lost the last maneuver(s) of the flight. These data will be analyzed to determine if any changes in maximum flight times, as contained in the AMA rule book, are warranted.
No competition of this magnitude can succeed without the help of many people. Permit me to give credit where it is due by listing the contest officials and their responsibilities.
The 1983 RC Helicopter event at the Nats achieved several firsts:
- 71 entries (total).
- The new frequencies were used.
- Three flight lines (3 AMA courses) were used.
- Five categories (4 AMA plus FAI) were offered.
- A foreign contestant competed in FAI.
Contest Officials (alphabetical within categories)
- Flight line judges: Dave Babineau, Paul Conner, John Frappier, Ron Gamelli, Jim Harmer, Ron Haynes, Walter Knaus, Bob Landry, Joel Lang
- Scale static judges: John Burleson, John Fenuccio, Del Major
- Flight line coordinators: Greg Baranay, George Delisle, Rey Lavallee, Bob Otto, Bill Williamson
- Frequency coordinators: Skip Bryant, Dick Robbins
- Transmitter impound: Charlie Meserve, Rose Sutton
- Scorekeepers: Patti Burleson, John Fenuccio, Henry Goedkoop, Barbara Landry, Keith Webb
- Contest Director: Horace Hagen
- Assistant Contest Director: Dick Robbins
The contest winners are listed in the "Competition Newsletter." A complete listing of the scores is available by mail. Please send a SASE to:
15 Parkway Place Red Bank, NJ 07701
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
