AMA Nats: RC Soaring

AMA Nats: RC Soaring

Byron Blakeslee

Overview / Big Story

Nats Soaring 1988 produced plenty of interest, but the big story was Brian Agnew. He won all three classes and swept the three special awards — an unprecedented clean sweep in Nats Soaring history. In the 13 years since the first Nats Soaring event in 1975, no pilot had ever won two classes, let alone three.

By winning all three classes Brian automatically earned:

• the Hi Johnson Award (highest score in any one class),
• the Lee Renaud Award (highest combined score in all three classes),
• the Dan Pruss Team Award (ultimately).

Brian is a recent Florida State grad from Fort Myers. His prior Nats record includes a Two-Meter win at Lincoln last year, second place at Lake Charles the year before, and the 1978 Junior Standard title at Lake Charles. He completed LSF Level V last December — clearly an experienced and accomplished competitor.

Site problems and relocation

• The original site selected last fall was a large farm about 10 miles south of Fentress Naval Station (the main Nats flying site). Because of drought-driven commodity prices, the farmer planted soybeans on the field and withdrew it from use.
• The AMA was unable to secure an alternate large field; as a result, Free Flight events (except Scale and Indoor) were cancelled — an unprecedented action.
• The Tidewater Full-Size Soaring Society offered their Garner gliderport for model sailplanes. The Tidewater Model Soaring Society (TMSS) agreed to host, printed maps, arranged food service and port-a-potties, and handled other logistics.
• Less than a week before the Nats began, an industrial-park field near the Chesapeake Holiday Inn was considered but rejected because it was hard/rough, too close to the RC helicopter site, too small for full-length winch lines, and adjacent to busy I-64 — a recipe for disaster if a model went astray. So the contest remained at Garner.

Field layout and operations

• The Garner gliderport was a single 150-ft-wide grass strip, with tall corn on the west side and a beanfield on the east.
• Four winches were installed tightly together; four 46-ft diameter landing circles were cut diagonally across the runway behind the winches.
• Winch lines were stretched to the full 300 meters for the first time in several years.
• TMSS volunteers did an excellent job running winches and retrievers. Pilots generally showed skill in keeping models out of the corn and beans.
• The 150-yard walk to and from the flight line (to retrieve frequency pins and transmitters) was a significant time factor.

Weather and flying

• Weather matched the predictions: hot (occasional 90°+ days) and humid.
• Mornings were misty and often the hardest time to find lift; Tuesday flying was delayed until about 9:00 a.m. because test flights were disappearing into low fog.
• Lift, when present, tended to be big, gentle rising bubbles. Buzzards provided useful thermal indicators.
• There were also periods when no one could find lift and seven-minute maxes were unattainable — the luck-of-the-draw nature of soaring.
• A severe thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon knocked out a Standard-class round in progress and ultimately limited Standard to just four rounds.

Entries and contest format

• Entry counts (approximate):
• Unlimited: 107 Open, 4 Junior, 4 Senior
• Standard: 101 Open, 4 Junior, 4 Senior
• Two-Meter: 85 Open, 4 Junior, 4 Senior
• Estimated total fliers on site: about 130 (many pilots enter two or three classes).
• Scale had 12 very nice entries — a sign that Scale interest is increasing.
• The contest was run in a relaxed manner — more like a large fun-fly than a relentless push. To reduce fatigue, Herk Stokely (Event Director) and assistant CD Pete Carr paced the flying conservatively.
• Notable operational changes:
• Flights were run one class at a time (no mixing of classes).
• Timers were required per day rather than per contestant for the entire contest.
• There was no formal model processing; contestants were trusted to know class rules (e.g., Two-Meter wingspan 78-3/4 in., Standard 100 in.).
• Task: seven-minute Precision Duration with a 100-point "spot" landing bonus.
• Flight time earns up to 420 points; an "in" landing makes a maximum 520 points per flight.
• Each class was organized into 12 flight groups of about 8–10 fliers.

Scale — Tuesday

Scale was run first on Tuesday and probably had the largest-ever Nats Scale entry to date. Highlights:

• 1st — Ed Whyte: quarter-scale original-design Schweizer TG-3A (red/white/blue). Ed will donate the ship to the AMA museum.
• 2nd — Don Goughnour: quarter-scale Pratt-Read LNE-1 (bright yellow Navy trainer).
• 3rd — Roland Kern: quarter-scale ASK-18 (Roland is a visitor from Germany and manufacturer of the Rokkie line of kits).
• 4th — Terry Edmonds: quarter-scale ASW-20 (Glasflügel kit), finished to a very high standard.

Other fine entries included Tony Arnoux and Bernie Coleman flying Rokkie SB-10s.

Competition highlights and pilots to watch

• The field featured many top fliers: Brian Agnew, Paul Carlson, Tom Neilson, Tom Brightbill, Dave Johnson, Woody Blanchard, Terry Edmonds, Tom Tock, Troy Laswick and others.
• Observed common strengths of the best pilots: willingness to range far from the field seeking lift and the skill to work weak air while others "stooged" close in.

Two-Meter

• Brian Agnew produced stellar flying — including a tense fourth flight when he found himself without other planes for reference and had to eke out a seven-minute max by persistent searching. His perfect flights secured victory.
• Closest competition included Terry Edmonds and Tom Tock; Tom Tock and Paul Carlson also had strong showings. Paul Carlson's last Two-Meter flight was a win-or-bust attempt downwind that didn’t come off.

Unlimited

• Brian Agnew was perfect through three rounds. He flew a Larry Jolly Model Products Meteor in Unlimited — a 128-in span polyhedral ship with a fiberglass fuselage and Eppler 205 airfoil. The Meteor has prior Nats wins (Larry Jolly in 1982, John Brown in 1983).
• Other top Unlimited pilots: Tom Tock, Paul Carlson, Terry Edmonds, Dave Johnson, Troy Laswick, Tom Brightbill, Woody Blanchard.
• Brian's final flight in Unlimited was off by two seconds, giving a slim opening, but no one overcame him. Terry Edmonds finished one point behind; Dave Johnson was four points back.

Standard

• Standard was hampered by the Wednesday thunderstorm; only four rounds were completed. Several good fliers were disadvantaged by the limited number of rounds.

Juniors and Seniors

• More Junior and Senior entries than in recent years created a lively contest-within-a-contest.
• Juniors (age up to 15) formed a close-knit group: Blayne Chastain, Robbie Edson, Brett Young, Robert Kodey, and Luis Munguia (Mexico) were among those competing and enjoying the week.

Awards and scoring notes

• Dan Pruss Memorial Team Award: scoring oddities produced confusion at the banquet. Initially the plaques were presented to the Portland team (Tom Neilson, Dave Johnson, Tom Brightbill) based on an interpretation of the SOAR club tie-break/counting method (sum of highest placing ordinals wins). The Florida State team (Brian Agnew, John Agnew, Lee Montgomery) actually had the correct low score when properly considered. The Portland team recognized the mistake and handed their plaques over to Brian, John, and Lee — a fine example of sportsmanship.
• A separate scoring correction: Tom Brightbill caught an error in his Two-Meter block; he was wrongly credited with a spot landing on his last flight. He informed the scorers; the 100-point reduction moved him from a tie for fourth to eleventh.
• Lee Renaud Memorial Award (highest total points across all three classes): Brian dropped only three points out of a possible 6,240. Second place was a tie between Terry Edmonds and Woody Blanchard at 6,128 points. Other notable totals: Don Harris 5,941; Jack Cash 5,736.
• NSS plaques (new this year) honored the highest-placing NSS member in each class: Woody won for Two-Meter; Terry won for the other two classes.

Equipment and kits

• The Meteor used by Brian is proving to be an excellent competition ship. Larry Jolly reported he is producing kits (price around $139) and plans to offer a LUMP ad in the magazine for orders.
• Larry also announced upcoming models: the Cheetah (a straight-wing Pantera) and the Winsome — a 129-in span aileron-and-flap design with a slip-on nose cone fiberglass fuselage, T-tail, three-piece wing, Eppler 374 airfoil and a swept leading edge.
• Bob Scully's new Ultima kit has a layout similar to the Winsome. Bob intended to fly his Ultima at the Nats but stayed home to keep up with kit orders.

Unofficial F3B event

• An unofficial F3B contest was held Saturday near the Chesapeake Holiday Inn.
• Entry was small (13 fliers). The winch lines at that field were only 200 meters, so a full-spec F3B event could not be run.
• The AMA donated three Nats plaques; because F3B was new to many entrants, it took most of the day to run two rounds.

Final notes and outlook

• Soaring at the 1988 Nats was run in a friendly, less-pressured style that emphasized enjoyment as much as competition — appropriate given the difficult site changes and the heat.
• Brian Agnew’s sweep (classes plus special awards) was the standout accomplishment of the week and a remarkable personal achievement.
• Rumored sites for the next Nats included Tacoma, Des Moines, and Dayton (no official announcement at the time).

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.