Competition Newsletter
1985 Nats Set; Planning Begins
Doug Pratt AMA Special Projects Director
The 1985 National Model Airplane Championships promises to be a fantastic event. The Nats returns to Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Westover was an outstanding site for the 1983 Nats and the 1984 World Control Line Championships — the facilities and flying fields are excellent, the people are friendly, and even the New England weather looks promising.
A few new features have been added for 1985:
- The Nats will be a day longer than in previous years. Official dates: Saturday, July 27 through Sunday, August 4, 1985 — a full eight days of flying.
- The schedule will be finalized in February, but it is possible that RC, CL and outdoor FF events will begin flying Sunday along with Indoor. RC Scale, RC Aerobatics, and FAI Pylon will probably get an extra day of flying.
- RC Helicopters are expected to have their own site, avoiding conflicts with other RC events.
Important dates and highlights:
- Saturday, July 27: Registration begins. The Air Force will open the Nats that day with an air show featuring the Thunderbirds.
- Later in the week: AMA member Ken Flaglor will arrive in his full-scale replica Gee Bee Model Y. This airplane has won trophies at Oshkosh and other full-scale meets; Ken has kindly offered to fly it to Chicopee, the home of the original Gee Bee airplanes of the 1930s.
The National Convention will again feature manufacturers' exhibits, special unofficial contests, special interest group seminars, and a static show. The Nats hobby shop will be in full swing. Headquarters and convention activities will all take place on Westover Air Force Base, making it a central location convenient to most flying sites.
Hotel space is expected to be scarce in the Springfield/Chicopee area on the Nats opening weekend due to another convention. We strongly recommend making reservations as soon as possible. It may be necessary to find hotel space in surrounding cities for the first weekend of the Nats. AMA plans to find dormitory space for Nats contestants.
Try these hotels for reservations:
- Quality Inn, Chicopee: (413) 592-7725
- Howard Johnson, Chicopee: (413) 592-7722
- Holiday Inn, Springfield: (413) 781-0900
- Best Western, Chicopee: (413) 592-6117
- Ramada Inn, Chicopee: (413) 592-9101
- Susee Chalet, Chicopee: (413) 592-5141
- Sheraton West, West Springfield: (413) 781-8750
Or try hotels in these nearby cities: Agawam, Belchertown, Easthampton, East Longmeadow, Enfield (CT), South Hadley (MA), Suffield (CT), or Wilbraham.
Don't miss the 1985 Nats — it promises to be one of the best yet!
FAI RC Speed Record
AMA has submitted a possible record claim for the FAI Class 53 RC Airplane Piston Motor Speed (Closed Circuit). The attempt was made November 26, 1984, at Rockville, MD. Maynard Hill's performance was 241.81 kph (150.3 mph).
The closed course used for this class must be a square defined by four prominently colored pylons set 200 meters apart. The model completes a lap; the speed calculation is based on a course length of 800 meters (2,624.8 feet). Since a model cannot fly the exact length of the course, it undoubtedly travels farther, so Maynard's model was probably flying considerably faster than 150 mph — an estimate might be about 165 mph. We’ll try to have a photo of the plane next month.
’84 Nats Results Correction — Masters RC Pattern
Bob Crump of Oregon City, OR, noticed his name was missing from the RC Masters Pattern results published in the December 1984 issue and contacted AMA HQ. An investigation uncovered an embarrassing set of errors in the computer-generated listing for that event.
Scoring and recording at the Nats involve two separate activities:
- Field operation: timers and judges fill out flight cards, signed by the contestant and officials. Tabulators enter the flight-card data onto master event score cards. Some event directors use portable computers to compile final placings on-site and award trophies based on those field-generated listings.
- HQ tabulation: for multi-day events, after daily results are turned in, AMA HQ enters contestants' performances into the HQ computer.
Errors can occur in either or both sets of tabulations — misread flight cards at the field or input errors at HQ. Usually the two sets are compared and differences resolved immediately, but the hectic Nats environment sometimes allows errors to slip through before the official HQ-generated listings are released. That is what happened in the RC Masters Pattern event.
Corrected Results for RC Masters Pattern
The event was allocated six trophies for the top six overall placers, plus two additional trophies: Best Senior Performance and Best Junior Performance (no juniors were entered, so only Best Senior was awarded).
The investigation found two contestants named Gross: Joseph Gross (Open) and Michael E. Gross (Senior), father and son. For some reason, the scores for these two contestants had been interchanged in the computer-generated listing. After resolving the interchange and applying the tie-breaking rules (comparing the highest "throw-away" flight scores), the corrected placements are as follows:
- Bob Crump (Oregon City, OR) correctly finished in 7th place.
- Joseph Gross finishes in 8th place.
- Michael E. Gross (Senior) was awarded Best Senior Performance; his overall placing after corrections was 18th.
All subsequent contestants on the official listing retain the same order but their place designations increase by one (e.g., the flier listed as 10th would be 11th, etc.).
The December 1984 printed results should be considered in error for the RC Masters Pattern event; the corrected placings above reflect the outcome after the HQ review and tie-breaking procedures.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
