AMA Nats: General
Byline
John Worth
Overview
Returning the Nats to Lincoln, Neb., for the third time was generally a very successful experience. National Championships always require compromises, and Lincoln 1987 had some, but far fewer than many other Nats. Overall it was a generally happy Nats with many more positive aspects than negative.
Headquarters and Central Facilities
The non-competition center was a large red-and-white circus-type tent that served as Nats headquarters. Under the big top were:
- Hobby Shop
- Souvenir Stand
- Registration and Information
- Bulletin boards and schedules
- T-shirt and contestant photo concessions
Around the tent on three sides were office trailers for Trophies, Tabulation, Public Relations, and Administration. The setup created a hangar-like atmosphere and placed headquarters on the field near most events, allowing people under the tent to look out and see many events being flown simultaneously.
The big AMA equipment trailer (like a traveling circus carrier) stored a vast variety of Nationals gear between events, including tents, protective fences, water coolers, fans, rope, barricades, electrical wiring, sailplane winches, pylons, signs, paint, lumber, hardware, tools, pipe, judges' chairs, umbrellas, netting, fence posts, sandbags, etc. After the Nats the trailer returned to Reston, VA, to be readied for the 1988 Nationals in Virginia Beach.
Big boards under the tent displayed event locations, schedules, scores, and miscellaneous Nats news. The information area, staffed mainly by Eva Biddle (AMA District 3 Associate Vice President), provided handout schedules, event details, hotel and sightseeing information, and large maps to simplify locating activities.
Sites and Facilities
Sites were generally excellent for most events:
- RC Pattern, Pylon, and Scale: many acres of concrete at Lincoln Airport
- RC Helicopters: a nice park
- RC Soaring: a sod farm
- Control Line: a huge concrete apron and a large grass Combat area nearby
- Indoor: a smaller site that performed well, with new records and a comparatively large entry
Free Flight had a very hilly site, making chasing and retrieval difficult, but it was reasonably close to other events and nearly free of corn (a typical Free Flight problem crop).
Weather
Weather ranged from great (cool at the beginning) to tolerable (hot and windy during the last several days). Only a short burst of rain on one day dampened activity, not enough to shut down events.
Free Flight
Free Flight contestants initially threatened mutiny over the site conditions, and it looked like disaster for that category. Cooler heads prevailed, flying began under reasonable conditions (light wind, cool air), and chases were possible with cars or bikes despite the hills. After the shaky start, Free Flight events proceeded as scheduled through the heat and wind that developed later. Many participants judged the 1987 Free Flight site better than Lake Charles the previous year or Lincoln in past years because it was large and accessible.
Control Line and Special Incidents
Control Line Combat had two notable special events:
- An unintentional fireworks-like display when a Combat model came loose after a midair collision. The flyaway model draped its metal control wires across electrical power lines near the Combat site. Sparks and minor explosions ran along nearby lines for several minutes. Nobody was hurt, but power was out in the Nats headquarters and surrounding business areas for several hours. AMA later paid several thousand dollars in compensation to affected businesses.
- A flyoff between Voyager designer Burt Rutan (guest of honor) and Hazel Sig-Hester. Burt recalled his own Nats days (1959–1960) as a trophy-winning contestant.
Guests, Nights, and Banquet
Burt Rutan was a special guest at the Wednesday-night banquet and visited many event sites. He participated in:
- Nostalgia Night: an informal session featuring famous modelers (including Frank Tiush) talking about past incidents.
- The AMA Banquet: a revived custom where all Nats participants could congregate.
Two Hall of Fame presentations were made at the banquet: Frank Cummings and John Pond. Burt Rutan recounted details of the December 1986 round-the-world Voyager flight, challenged modelers to new design and performance achievements, and said he expected to return to modeling.
Indoor Competition
The Indoor site, although not very large, was fine and saw a good turnout. Several new records were established and the healthy entry helped ensure Indoor would be retained in future Nats schedules, averting concerns about deletion due to high site rental costs.
Registration, Frequency Control, and Souvenirs
Contestant and official registration was eased by a new check-in schedule that spread registration over the Nats week instead of concentrating it at the beginning. A less rigid late-entry policy made late entries easier, though advance entry remained cheaper.
The AMA Souvenir Stand did brisk business, producing income to help offset costs. Volunteers handled sales; Nats pins, patches, decals, and 1987 Nats hats (which sold out within the first few days) were popular.
Frequency control for RC events was intensive because many contestants use two transmitters. This year saw fewer interference problems than at recent Nats, credit to the volunteers who ran frequency control.
Typical Nats costs are about $100,000; entry fees cover less than half the budget. Income from the Hobby Shop and Souvenir Stand helped offset expenses for porta-johns, tables and chairs, site rental, electrical power, telephones, fuel for generators, tent and trailer rental, and other necessities.
Volunteers and Local Support
Local clubs, especially the Lincoln Sky Knights, provided extensive support. They unloaded the big AMA trailer, set up equipment, served as event officials, handled housekeeping chores, and helped pack and clean after the Nats. In all, about 300 volunteers served during the championships. Because many volunteers were experienced from past Nationals, jobs were done quicker and better than before. Lincoln earned praise for having the most consistent and best local volunteer support of any recent Nats site.
Results and Follow-up
More than 70 competitions were held; details are covered by individual reports in this issue of Model Aviation. Complete results (including placings beyond top winners) were available from AMA HQ. Those who subscribed to the daily Nats News by paying $6 were sent the complete Nats results listing all contestants in each event. A few complete sets of the Nats News series may still have been available from AMA HQ for $6 at the time of publication.
This was the 61st National Model Airplane Championships. The next Nationals were scheduled for July 1988 near Virginia Beach, just south of Norfolk, VA; more details were to follow in subsequent issues.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
